OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 523, 4 December 1912, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia).

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. " It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

SHOULD A CHILD HAVE JUST WHAT HE LIKES?

In spite of all the wisdom of all the ages, Dr Hutchinson, a popular American writer, has jumped to the conclusion that a child's so called "natural," desires and tendencies are unerring instincts; and therefore that he should have hia own way in all things—that he should be allowed to eat what he likes and when he likes, without restriction for meddlesome elders. Dr Hutchinson says:— "The child literally lives to eat . . . . he is a walking famine, a hunger incarnate. AH is grist that cornea to his mill, and all hours of the day ur night are alike to him. But he needs every ounce he will devour, and not one penny's worth of it wiil be wasted. His wisdom is of the ages; yours where it clashes with his is of the almanacs, of the catechisms and copy books, of the silly chatter, of the street and the kitchen Therefore let

whoever has charge of the feeding of the growing child of the kindergarten age deliberately plan and supply him with appropriate appetising and nutritious materials suitable for "piecing" between meals, viz., sandwiches, milk, cookies, bread and butter, bread and cheese, crackers (particularly sweet ones), nuts, fruit, candy." It may seem unnecessary to treat such arrant nonsense seriously, but unfortunately the modern parent is only too ready to fall in with anything that gives countenance to the overindulging and spoiling of children, and this vice is by nu means confined to parents. The same tendency manifests itself in many of our boarding schools and kindergartens, where children are given "pieces" between meals under the mistaken idea that three feedings a day are insufficient for a healthy child.

STORAGE OR FUEL. People seem to imagine that what one takes into one's stomach becomes at once available for "sustaining the body" and keeping us going. They certainly don't understand that hours and hours have to be spent, first in digesting and absorbing the food, then in getting it stowed away inside the muscle cells, etc., before it is ready to burn and use. The body is kept going and does its work with the supplies which it took in yesterday—■ indeed largely with what it stowed away last week or last month —in tiny particles of fat and animal starch deposited here and there in their thousands in every nook and corner of the system. This is why the mountaineers who perform incredible feats of sustained hard work and physical endurance, in the teeth of piercing winds and perishing cold, eat scarcely anything when trying to conquer some new mountain giant. In this connection I was very much struck with an account given me some years ago on the Tasman Glacier by the leader of the first party of human beings to look down on New Zealand from the top of Mt. Cook. In the course of a feat of thirty-six hours' duration continuous climbing and tramping, day and night, from the Tasman Glacier, over the summit of Mt. Cook, across the icefields and down the Hooker Valley, the food consumed by each man was only a few raisins and biscuits —not equal to a tenth of the material which must have been consumed in the doing of the work. They burned what had been stored in their tissues beforehand, ready for instant use as the need arose.

They would have been more than foolish if they had wasted their energies on the unnecessary task of digesting and absorbing food for burning later on, seeing that what they needed was every particle of immediately available force, to enable them to withstand the presant cold and climb and traverse the mountains. DON'T USE THE WHIP. It is quite true that the act of eating or drinking gives a temporary fillip to the circulation, and to the bodily organs in general; but we should not get into the habit ot depending on this whip and should above all things avoid whipping at wrong times. A child in whom has been formed the vice of taking pieces between meals may "feel faint" from not being given its customary biscuit-and-milk; but the very occurrence of the "feeling of faintness" is itself the evidence of faulty feeding habits, impaired digestion or defective storage, etc., and should be regarded as a warning not to continue in the wrong path, but to reform the child's daily regiment as to air, outing, food, feeding, play, recreation, exercise, rest, sleep, etc. By this means we can establish a regular vigorous, normal appetite three times a day for plain, healthy food ensuring plenty of active exercise for mouth, jaws, teeth, and salivary glands, instead of the fastidious picking at food characteristic of spoiled children. DYSPEPTIC CRAVINGS. Dr Hutchinson takeß it for granted that the meri fact of a child wanting to eat is sufficient evidence of the immediate need for food. He does not seem to realise that one of the commonest causes of desire to eat is not genuine appetite, but the abnormal craving induced by over-eating or too frequent eating, and consequent indigestion. This applies, "f course, to adults as well as to children. Nothing makes a child more capricious and a^^aa -ih Jn _ nPOT . o! .tinff- it craves

tend to become faddy and fastidious, crave for sweets or meat, won't take a sufficiency of plain, wholesome food, won't chew their food properly or take time over meals, and tend to become dyspeptic, thin, and weedy. Nothing is more striking than the improved nutrition, growth, tone, and comfort of such unfortunates when given three proper, sensible meals a day, with no "pieces" between. DESIRES NOT NEEDS.

There is no shallower notion than the idea that our "desires" are necessarily safe guides as to our "needs." For the most part desire and need coincide, in the case of wild animals living in a state of Nature, since in their case supplies tend to be relatively scanty and have to be worked or hunted for; but what farmer would dream of allowing free rein to the appetite in the casa of his domesticated animals, living on a farm where stores of garnered or prepared food are available, or even where there are lush patches of green fodder growing in cultivated paddocks? There is no class of stock living under such articfiial conditions that will not "founder" and ruin itself if given the chance; and the same applies, even more emphatically in the case of children. Of course, the more concentrated, artificial, and "far from nature" the food, the less can the child's desire or judgment be accepted. Thus many properly trained children can be trusted not to over indulge in raw, ripe apples if they form part of the daily meals, and they may not take too much sugar if allowed the natural cane to chew ; but no child ought to be given a free hand with cane sugar or sweeties. The difference is almost as the difference between grapes and brandy for adults! It is true that George Henry Lewes contended, in the middle of last century, that the fact of man "taking to anything" waa prima facie evidence that it was good for him, and applied the argument to all stimulants, including alcohol; but, of course, the same might be said in iavour of lying, cheating, or thieving, seeing that it takes us all our time to keep straight!