OUR BABIES

Opunake Times, 16 December 1930, Page 3

OUR BABIES

THE CHILD WITH A FINICKY APPETITE. (By Hygeia). One knows that children who are finicky about their food present a very real problem to many parents. One might say that there are three golden rules in dealing with these little people --and notice that they are rules for the parents more than the children.

The first is to stop—absolutely stop —all food between meals. The second is to withdraw attention from the child and his meals. The third is to see that all other habits are good—particularly the regularity of bedtime and the amount of rest and sleep, the regularity of the bowels and character of the motions, and the amount of fresh air and outdoor exercise.

Many children definitely suffer from a late and irregular bedtime, and a consequent lack of rest and sleep. It is sad to think of toddlers being tiredyet many certainly suffer from chronic fatigue, as is shown by the marked improvement which often takes place in general condition, including appetite for meals, when longer nights and daytime should be the rule for the toddlers.

Constipation almost always causes poor appetite, and it fatal to good health generally. Children may be constipated in spite of the fact that they have a daily bowel action, and mothers should make sure that the motion are not hard, dry or small.

In a recent number of the New Zealand New Health Journal wo notice the following helpful suggestions regarding sensible treatment for the child who will not eat:—

"The best treatment for a finicky child is not to urge food on it too insistently. No healthy child will be starved or become undernourished if allowed to do without a meal. On the other hand, merely 'starving' a child into eating will not always work; but letting him go without a meal or two, combined with other wise methods, often works wonders. Stop Eating Between Meals. "First find out the cause of the child's refusal to eat sufficient or proper foods, and then eliminate these causes. Sometimes the child's lack of appetite is duo to over-fatigue; sometimes to lack of sufficient outdoor play or healthy exercise; sometimes, and most often, to nibbling and eating sweets between meals. The averago child's stomach should be given a rest between meals. Make sure that the child does not eat between meals. Make sure that there are no health or fatigue reasons for lack of appetite by removing all reasons for such. A Good Plan. "Then, if the child is still finicky at meals, the following plan will work in the big majority of cases: Pay no attention to the child's refusal to eat certain foods. Serve him rather small portions of these foods. If, after a reasonable time, he has not finished his food or even begun to eat it, take the plate away and say something like this: 'That's too bad! Dinner time is over and you haven't eaten; I guess you weren't very hungry this time. Maybe by to-night your tea will taste good to you.' Then see to it that positively he has nothing to eat until the next meal, without-however, harping on the subject. "When tea time conies give him tho healthy and wholesome foods he should have, as though there were no doubt in your wind that ho would eat them. If he does not do so, then, after a reasonable length of time go through the same procedure of matter-of-fact removal of his food as before. Be calm and not anxious, and he will see that you mean business, and success in the majority of cases will follow this plan.

"A good way to hasten the success of the plan is to serve at first those vegetables and other proper foods that he usually likes best. Sometimes it is well, while thus breaking up the finicky notions of the child, to withhold milk until he gets into the habit of eating other things. Valuable as milk is in the diet of the growing child, it is not .sufficient by itself. Give no sweets until he has cleaned his plate of the main part of the meal.

Start Babies Right. "Start to build up right eating habits in the child before he is weaned. My the time the baby is weaned from breast or bottle he should have become so acquainted with a variety of vegetable, fruit, and cereal flavours that adding new ones occasionally should not be difficult. Don't be discouraged if the baby spits out new food. This is a perfectly natural reaction, and it may not occur more than once or twice with the same new food. Parents should be very careful not to impress by example or suggestion their own dislikes of certain good and necessary foods. A mother may herself be prejudiced against spinach (which is one of the very best foods for children) or any other article of diet, and by conscious or unconscious action impress that prejudice on the child. Much Depends on Cooking. "Lastly, attracting children towards the right kind of foods by making the right kind of foods into appetising and tasty dishes is just as important as letting them go without meals when they become finicky. Foods they dislike can be given successfully by cooking them in forms the children do not recognise."