Badly cooked food is tough, and covered with a hard layer on the surface, with the result that the digestive apparatus is heavily handicapped.

The three-meal-a-day rule should be adhered to strictly in the nursery. If a child has three good meals, at the hours of 8.30, 1, and 5.30 respectively, he is amply fed, and his digestive organs get into regular habits, and have sufficient time for complete digestion of each meal. The old idea that children required food about every two hours is physiologically incorrect.

Even the infant of a few months old can go three or four hours between meals, and children over two will be all the better for a four and a half hour's interval between one meal and the next. It too often happens that the children of the rich never know the zest of hunger. The best way to do away with appetite is to feed children too often.

The first thing that mothers should realise is that it is not frequent feeding that will make a child strong. His digestive organs can deal with only a certain amount of food. His stomach simply becomes disordered if it is given a second meal before the first has had time to digest. A forthcoming Home Nursing article on digestion should be read by every mother who wishes to obtain a comprehensive grasp of the subject of dietetics in the nursery.