OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14056, 13 November 1909, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

By Hygoia. Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health ol \\ omen and Children. .MASTICATION. The following letters on the above subject have been received recently:— Biter writes: — ... , , , ,- As a parent I, like hundreds ol others, am much indebted and grateful to "Hygcia" for tho useful information contained in '"Our Babies column. The articles on mastication are particularly instructive. Might I ask •'Hygeia" to supplement the instruction by giving next Thursday a list of articles of diet which will provide mastication ? "With adults who concentrate their minds and are determined to masticate it is less difficult to find materials for mastication, but what is there that can bo given to children that will force them to masticate whether they wish or no ? I have been puzzling over the problem with little success so far. Wellington writes: — I should bo extremely obliged if you will post to tho above address any of your literature on the feeding of children. My child is three years old, and has so far been fed on "slops," as the doctors call soft foods and milk. AVe want to know your opinion upon tho feeding of children of this age, and 1 will gladly pay for literature, etc., upon receipt of same. Island Bay writes:— I have read with much interest the article on mastication in Saturday night's Post. For some time I have had the same ideas about so much

soft food being given to children, hut I iind it hard to think of a diet for my boy of l'U mouths—that is, a diet, that demands a fair amount of mastiction. The problem how to provide the modern human being witu food that will ensure full mastication is a very difficult one. The crux of the difficulty lies, as "liiter" says, in bringing a child to masticate properly who

has not been trained to do so from the beginning, and who has not reached the ago when the will can be invoked to bring about the chewing of food when it is not of a character which necessitates mastication prior to swallowing. If we fail to satisfy a baby's natural desire for something hard to masticate at tho time when this instinct first asserts itself —say, at about six or seven months of age, when a bone may be given to munch at, followed by hard food a few months later—the instinct tends to die out, and there is great difficulty in re-establishing it; but is must be re-established if wo wish our children to have strong, serviceable jaws and teeth, and if wo wish them to escape tho modern tendency to adenoids, swollen tonsils, and the chain of other evils which, follow on "pap" feeding. If tho habit of merely swallowing food has been formed, not only is tho instinct to chew lost, but if a;i effort is made to masticate properly the jaws soon become weary, and retnso to do their work completely. In adults tho habit of proper mastication can bo developed by gradually and persistently using the jaws and teeth. If this js done tUe task becomes less irksome day by day, and soon passes into a natural, unconscious, routine habit, no longer needing to be actuated by tho win. However, for a long timo vigilance must not be relaxed, because of tho tendency to fall back again into laziness ana tlie swallowing ol liaitfhewed food. Ahe great aid in this matter is to take at, each meal a fair proportion ot food that can scarcely bo swallowed witliout a considerable amount ol

(.-heiving and insalivation. It is true that by tho exercise or a strung ivili one can lurcc one's self to chuiv a meal ot soft, mushy food, but the task is much easier and the results are much better in regard to the proper jtouring out of digestive juices if a fair proportion ot the food is more or less ury, and of such a texture as to offer sutneicnt resistance to tho jaws and teeth, 'fins is specially the case in early childhood. If all the food given is jnoro or less soft and moist a baby cannoi be trained to chew thoroughly, and tho glands cannot be induced to fully insalivate such fowl. On the other hand if the jaws are properly exercised from the start by giving bones to gnaw or munch at prior to the eruption of teeth, and if the first solid food allowed is such as requires munching—crusts, dry toast, rusks, etc. —the masticating reflex or instinct will be developed. Then even when some soft food is given in addition this also will be more or less chewed instead of being merely gulped down as a Ixdus. The best way to set about teaching a young child to eat efficiently is to invoke th'e imitative or mimicking faculty which is so strong in early childhood. The-parents should make the mastication of food interesting by setting the example themselves, and turning the process into a kind of game. In the case of a young baby to whom speech is just beginning to appeal the words " biteybite". illustrated by the action soon induce atvtivn mimicrv: while :i some-

what older child may be interested by comparing thhe action of tJie mouth and jaws in eating to the grinding of corn between mill-stones. *• Is the little grist-mill in good order?" at once evokes a. show of white teeth. TUufe, impelled by a keen desire to prove that in one thing atj least it can keep pace with its elders, there follows on the part of the child an active demonstration that the '* grist-mill" is all right. By just such means are young animals _taught the simple and" necessary habits by the mother —witness the education of a kitten in cleanliness (from the washing of its face to the burying of excrement), or in the catching of mice and birds. Seton Thompson and Long have shown us that all the socalled instincts are more or less fortified or fostered in similar ways, and it is strange indeed that the human mother should usually he so negligent as she is in regard to the training of her offspring in simple habits which are of such importance throughout the battle of life. Instead of lagging behind, our human reason should carry us further than, the in-

Ktinct of the beasts in the hygienic training of offspring. With the advance of understanding and imagination there should be no difficulty in thoroughly interesting a five-year-old child in what is needed for preserving his health, providing only that the parents aro willing to take as much personal trouble with their offspring as a mother cat does with her kitten. By means of morn printed advice id is almost impossible to convey exactly how to go about such matters, but persons of reasonable intelligence gifted with ordinary powers of storytelling should have no difficulty in gradually enlisting the child's hearty co-operation in the establishment of healthy habits if- they will provide themselves, for instance, with Coleman's admirable little •' Health Primer " published by Macmillan. The following extract is a fair .sample of its trarhia-z: There is no part of the body that) is useless. Every part has its duty to perform. Suppose your father

•-•avo von 3. knife, and .you laid it on a slioif and did not use it. Suppose tou did not even keep t.-lic dust am 'rust off. Do .you not think it would b.«. right for Jiim to take the kuilc awav and give it to your brother, who would make good use ot it and keep it rlean and brightl- 1 . The hair is given us to protect tic liead from cold and to keep oti t.Jie hot rav.s of tho sun. Somo boys wear fur cups so thick that their hauls useless. Some men even secni to think the hair is of no use. I hey wear hats everywhere. 'lhe.y wear hats that aro as hard as wood and fit so tight that neither air nor tresb blood can get to the scalp. these people are not thankful lor their hair, but. act as if they think it is ot no use whatever. So the hair on the part of the head covered by the hat is taken away frpom them. Some children will not cat anything hard. They do not like hard crusts of bread or tough bread made without Jard. You would almost think they had false teeth, and were afraid of breaking them, by eating anything hard and tough. Gums would do as well as teeth for the food they eat. They do not use their teeth, so the teeth decay, and are taken awav from them.