SIMPLE SWEETS FOR CHILDREN

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 5, 2 November 1925, Page 64

SIMPLE SWEETS FOR CHILDREN

CUGAR is one of the most important food elements we have; it is classified as a fuel or energy food. It is one of the carbohydrates, starch being the other one. We all need a certain amount of sugar; this is proved by the fact that in the best food provided by nature, which is mother’s milk, the percentage of sugar is quite high. In cow’s milk we have only about half as much sugar as in mothers’ milk. For this reason when we “modify” cow’s milk to try to make it more like mother’s breast milk, we have to add some form of sugar to it to bring up the proportion.

In modifying milk for young infants, several different forms of sugar are employed. Lactose, or mlk sugar, is the sugar obtained from milk; hence it is often used to increase the sugar in cow’s milk for young infants. By taking three level tablespoonfuls of milk sugar to each twenty ounces of the milk formula we get approximately the same amount of sugar that is found in mother’s breast milk. Lactose, or milk sugar, is expensive in really good grades, and if inferior grades are used impurities are often found. In the case of many infants, milk sugar is digested better than other forms of sugar, and it is less apt to ferment; still there are many other babies who can take cane sugar just as well, and much expense is thus saved.

If cane sugar is used in milk mixtures for young infants, only two level tablespoonfuls will be needed to each twenty ounces of the formula. There are some babies who do not thrive well when either milk or can sugar is used. In such cases malt sugar may be tried. Maltose is very easily digested. It will often make a child gain well in weight, but if the child is inclined to have frequent stools, the maltose sometimes increases this tendency.

Three level tablespoonfuls of maltose to each twenty ounces of the food formula should be taken for the first few months of a baby’s life. As the baby grows older less sugar in the milk mixtures is needed, until by the time he is one year old none should be used at all. He will be taking other foods that contain enough sugar to supply all his needs at that period of life. Many mothers think that sugar is added to milk formulas for babies because this makes the food more palatable. This is not the real reason at all; it is added to supply one of the most essential elements to promote the growth of the body.

Qet the Right Balance /~\NE may ask, then, if sugar is so much needed by babies, why is it that some of the infant foods so very rich in sugar are thought to cause rickets and similar ailments ? This is because the sugar is out of all proportion to the other elements. Protein, fat, mineral salts and vitamines all play a most important role in the food of infants. Foods that contain an excess of sugar at the expense of these other elements may make a baby fat, but do not promote the growth of muscle and bone as do breast milk and correctly modified cows milk. Here again we find that too much of a good thing may prove a very bad thing. To get the right balance of all the different food elements in the feeding of young infants is the point, and it is only’ when we succeed in doing this that the child will really thrive.

Mothers should never add sugar to water or to orange juice to make a baby take these. The sugar in either the breast milk or the modified milk is plenty for the baby and an excess of sugar will sooner or later cause indigestion in some one of its forms. By the time baby is a little “runabout” he may have his needed allotment of sugar in the form of junket, soft custard and stewed fruits. Sugar on cereals may be needed in some few cases where the child is inclined to be underweight, but it is not wise to use it as a routine thing. In fruits, such as stewed apples, baked apples, apple sauce, prune pulp, stewed pears, peaches and apricots, we have a very good form of natural sugar. An occasional lady finger, or small piece of gingerbread may usually be given a child of sixteen to eighteen months. Also a little pure honey, maple syrup or homemade jam spread on a little bread as dessert at the end of a meal. Home-made vanilla ice cream and frozen junket may be allowed sometimes as a special treat. Sweets should under no circumstances be given between meals. They satisfy the appetite and often cause mucus or fermentation in the stomach of a child if given in this manner; then when regular mealtime arrives the child will not take enough of his nutritious food to really nourish him. Many vegetables contain much sugar in a very good form, beets and carrots being special instances of these. These, with the simple

sweets named above, are quite enough sugar for young children until they arrive at the age of five or six years; then they begin to go to school, and sooner or later the question of candy will come up. \Avoid the Gandy J-Cabit /''"’'ANDY is responsible for more v - >i digestive upsets than almost any other one article of diet. It is usually because when once begun a mother does not know where or when

to stop. The safest way is to allow no candy at all, but this advice is seldom followed. Hence if candy must be given, it should be an invariable rule to have it follow directly the end of a meal. Rich and highly flavoured candies should be absolutely forbidden. The safest candies are homemade molasses candy, barley-sugar candy, maple sugar, purb peppermints, pure gumdrops, and marshmallows. Sometimes a little pure milk chocolate may be allowed. Rich chocolates, with nuts and other flavours, should never be allowed. Chocolate contains considerable fat as well as sugar, and these two elements in

excess are almost sure to cause an upset. Soda water, wth its various sweet syrup flavourings, should never be allowed young children under ten years of age at least. Ice cream cones, ice cream sandwiches, and such articles, so freely bought by children, do a vast amount of harm. If children are not allowed to form the candy habit they will not miss it any more than any other bad habit to which overindulged children are accustomed. Desserts may be made more varied by the time the child is four or five years old, and these should satisfy the natural craving for sweets to some extent at least. Brown Betty, apple snow, apple whip, prune whip, bread and rice puddings with a little maple-sugar sauce and the various fruit gelatins—all contain considerable sugar in different forms, and may be made very attractive . for children. Simple sponge cakes, one-egg or cup cake, with a little pure sugar icing, may be given as an occasional treat also —never between meals, but as a dessert, after the first nourishing courses have been disposed of. Cocoa, made mostly of milk, may be used on cold mornings or evenings, sometimes by way of a change. This has a little sugar in it, and is a warm beverage for a child to take before starting off to school. It is hard as Christmas time draws near to be firm and make up one’s mind to forbid an excess of rich sweets; but if a mother handles her children in the right way they will be contented with the list of simple sweets suggested here. Do not pity them because they are not allowed a box of rich chocolates. Give them peppermints and other simple candies.