It is proposed, under this topic, to make no reference to food for the infant, as this is to be very fully discussed in the succeeding chapter.

After the child has reached the age of one year he should begin to receive a general diet, chosen from the dietary of the family. Having been accustomed to a milk diet, almost exclusively, when it begins to have solid food the transition should not be a sudden one. Nature makes no sudden transition. All transitions are gradual. So, following the general principle of a gradual change, the parents should give the child something that will tend to develop his digestive functions. The child of one year is cutting teeth. He needs something to bite on. The child is gradually developing the power to digest starches. He needs some starch to work on. A piece of dry toast answers this double requirement probably better than anything else that could be devised. Rich whole milk may be freely given to most children during the second, third, and fourth years; in fact, one or two glasses of milk a day is altogether in place as a regular part of the dietary of any child until he enters the adolescent period. It makes, naturally, a progressively smaller and smaller part of the dietary after the first year. Cereals and fruits and eggs should make up the diet of a young growing child; while there is no objection to a small amount of meat, it should always be a small amount.

The growing child is building up tissue, muscle, brain, bone, and gland. He must, therefore, have plenty of proteins; milk, eggs, and cereals will furnish these in abundance. At this stage in his development the child is acquiring habits, as clearly indicated in the preceding chapters; the habit of properly masticating the food is a most important one to acquire. It should be acquired during early childhood; it can only be so acquired by necessity. If the mother gives the child soft mushes and semi-liquid foods, these will be swallowed without chewing, very greatly to the detriment both of the dental development and of the development of the digestive glands. Nearly all of the foods which the child uses should require chewing. He is almost certain to be hungry between meals. If he is hungry enough to gnaw at a dry crust, he will get only benefit from the "piecing" between meals. If, however, he receives two or three slices of soft bread and jam, he is almost certain, first, to swallow the food with inadequate chewing, and second, to eat more than he needs, which will overload the stomach and overtax its activities, so that at the next regular meal-time he will have no appeptite. Such a method of caring for the dietary of the child will surely result in a serious disturbance of his whole digestive function, which will handicap him throughout life. A rational day's ration for a healthy four-year-old child might be as follows:

Breakfast

A glass of whole milk.

Small portion of thoroughly cooked oatmeal with cream and sugar.

Baked apple.

Small piece of buttered toast.

Ten O'Clock Lunch

A small portion (equal to a heaping tablespoonful) of parched sweet corn, or two graham crackers. Glass of water.

One O' Clock Lunch

Cup cambric tea (hot water and cream sweetened). Bread and butter. Creamed potatoes. Fruit, stewed or fresh.

Four O'Clock Lunch

A dry crust or a piece of cold, dry toast, or a pretzel, or two graham crackers.

Supper

Glass of milk.

Soft-boiled egg.

Shredded wheat biscuit with cream.

Fruit (apple, grapes, banana, or orange).

Innumerable variations may be made in such a dietary, but all of these variations should present these general features: First, every day's menu should present several things hard to chew and dry. Second, every day's menu should be rich in proteins. Third, any lunches taken in mid forenoon or midafternoon should be very small in volume and should always be dry, requiring very slow mastication. The dryness will insure the slow mastication, and the slow mastication will, in turn, insure a small quantity, rapidly digested; such a lunch will not interfere with the supper that is to follow two or three hours later.