OUR BABIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 258, 29 September 1936, Page 12

OUR BABIES

(By “Hygeia.”} Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children N (Plunket Society), “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” NEW FOODS. FOR BABY BETWEEN TWELVE. AND FIFTEEN MONTHS. From 12 months onwards greater variety is necessary in the baby’s diet, and this will bo appreciated if during the previous threo months training has been carried out along the lines indicated in the two preceding articles. The question arises of exactly what new foods are suitable between 12 and 15 months. We deal with this by taking the now foods in the order in which it is usually best and easiest to introduce them. First, however, you understand that ,you continue as before to give cereal jellies, increasing the proportion of unstrained porridge bit by bit. Continue also to give twicebaked bread, crusts, crisp toast, and stale bread.

It is mostly at the mid-day meal that new foods are introduced, and baby may have either baked apple pulp or a few ounces of broth at this meal round about his birthday.

Baked apple.—To prepare, bake the apple in its skin, and press the pulp through a wire sieve, unless, of course, it happens to be absolutely fine and fluffy. Add a few grains of sugar (or honey for preference) if the apple is tart. Give only a teaspoonful at first, and gradually increase to one or two tablespoonfuls. Serve warm, with a few teaspoonfuls of top milk or thin cream. Needless to say, raw apple should be continued as described last week, or introduced if not already started.

Pruno pulp.—As an alternative to applo the pureed pulp of stewed prunes may be given, also with a little top milk or thin cream. Broth. —Vegetable milk broth or vegetable mutton broth are perhaps the most usual broths of this period. At first strain the broth clear. After a few days • add some of the pulp by pressing the vegetables cooked in the broth through a wire sieve. All sorts of vegetables, both roots and greens, should be cooked in the broth, also barley or rice. This applies whether mutton stock is used or not. Clear meat broth contains very little nourishment, but all vegetables contain mineral and other elements which are absolutely essential for health. Mutton stock is not an essential basis for broth. If to the vegetable puree an equal quantity of milk is added, a palatable and nourishing broth reseults, and makes for variety in the child”s diet. Start by giving one tablespoonful, and increasing to five or six tablespoons. Quantity of Milk.—The average baby may start this period on a mixture consisting of about 22 ounces of milk and 8 ounces of water, with addition of one tablespoonful of Karilac and three teaspoonsfuls of Plunket emulsion. During this time, provided, of course, that baby is taking an adequate and varied diet, the day’s milk mixture may be gradually simplified till baby is having cow’s milk and water only—2ooz (one pint) of cow s milk and soz water. The milk should always be properly scalded and cooled. Number of Feeds. —Four feeds R day are quite sufficient from the end i of the first year. Give baby a drink of his milk mixture on waking—6oz. to 18oz It is usually best to give breakfast from 8.30 to 9 a.m., dinner about 1 o’clock and tea about 5 p.m. but, of course, the actual times will be fixed to suit the habits of the individual household. Regularity is essential whatever the hours chosen. The early morning drink of nulk may be discontinued as soon as the child takes sufficient milk at the three meals, that is a pint. A drink of water or diluted fruit juice may be then substituted, breakfast being made the first meal of the day. Always give the milk drink at the end of tlm meal, not during the meal. Orange or other fresh fruit should be given once a day, also drinks of water between meals. Vegetables.—Baby’s taste and digestion have by now become accustomed to vegetables served in broth, and the next step is to introduce them separately. Spinach, cauliflower, carrot, and floury potatoes are the best vegetables to use at this early stage. Potatoes should be baked m their skins, and other vegetables should be cooked in as little water as possible and in the shortest time possible. Press the pulp through a sieve and serve warm with a dab of butter or a few teaspoonfuls of meat gravy. (Be sure to give the red gravy which drips from the family roast of meat while it is being carved; do not give the gravy made in the roasting pan with 1 flour, ns the flour is often insufficiently cooked.) Occasionally a little parsley sauce may be served with the J vegetables. Start with a tablespoonful of vegetable, increasing gradually I as the child grows accustomed to the 1 new taste. Milk puddings.—Well-cooked milk puddings may be given now, alone or with apple or prune pulp. Ground rice, semolina, and junket are the best. Later in this period sago may be given occasionally for a change, but avoid giving cornflour, which is . pure starch. / Eggs.—Eggs need to be introduced | cautiously, and it is not as a rule • advisable to give egg until towards the end of this period. Begin by giving a small portion of egg yolk. I Baby will thus be accustomed to the new flavour before egg becomes a regular part-of. his diet. Work up about half the yolk with stale white breadcrumbs and vegetables, given twice or three times a week at the mid-day meal. A little of the white may be added later. The digestibility of the egg largely depends on the method of cooking. Coddle or light poaching is the best. To coddle —place the egg in water which is boiling fast, and cover the pan. Immediately remove from the stove and stand aside for five to seven minutes. The white will then be slight--1 ly set.