Children old enough to go to school should have special attention paid to their diet, as diet, education and health bear very close relations one to the other. In the kindergartens, or the schools intermediate between the kindergartens and the first primary division, children usually carry their luncheon, and as they must put it out on tables before the teacher, she has supervision and care over what they eat - in fact she frequently suggests the luncheons; but where these matters are left to ignorant parents, children suffer and frequently break down before they have finished their school period. During these days the child is growing rapidly, and at the same time exercising both mind and body. These conditions call for a liberal and correct diet. Correct diets are not always those that are easily digested. We do not mean by this that indigestible foods should be given, but that it is not necessary always to give easily-digested foods. The stomach needs exercise as well as every other part of the body.

The diet for school children should contain a goodly quantity of protein in order to repair and build new tissues, and sufficient fats and carbohydrates to yield heat and energy. It must not be forgotten that the bones and teeth must also be nourished; they have not yet reached their full development. Children underfed are usually nervous, and frequently have to be forced to go to school, they have not the vigor to keep up with the class. Nine out of ten times this is due to underfeeding or incorrect feeding - one is as bad as the other.

All children are not born alike. Many come from scrofulous, gouty, rheumatic or tubercular parents, and must be fed on different food from those born of perfectly healthy parents. School children should be under the careful observation of their Domestic Science teachers.

. Children fed on bread, meat, potatoes and sweets are very apt to become constipated. Fruits and fresh green vegetables, simply cooked, with well-cooked cereals, milk and eggs, should form the diet of childhood. If the family are meat eaters, mutton, chicken and beef should be depended upon, and the meals should be divided and arranged according to the seasons. In the summer a comfortable, warm breakfast is as necessary as in the winter, and should be composed of light, well-cooked cereals and milk, with a piece of whole wheat bread, carefully buttered, or a soft-boiled egg or two, with whole wheat bread, well buttered, and fruit. In the summer use the lighter cereals, as Cream of Wheat, farina, whole wheat, rolled wheat, rolled barley and shredded wheat. In the winter, oatmeal, Wheatena, Wheatlet, hominy grits, cornmeal mush and rye mush.

If lunches are carried to school, they should consist of nut bread, well buttered, plain whole wheat bread and butter sandwiches, plain whole wheat bread with grated yolk of egg between, and fruit - apples, oranges and pears, not bananas. Bananas should be given for breakfast, and should always be well cooked.

Add to the noonday luncheon a cup custard, or jar of rice pudding, or a jar of good sweet milk or buttermilk. Do not give hard-boiled eggs, because the complete digestion of the whites takes too much time and the child does not get the full benefit; but two or three yolks that have been boiled a half hour may be grated and put between the bread and butter.

Avoid all sweets, cakes, pies, pastry and cookies. Do not put lard or sugar in the bread for either children or adults. If it can be carried, there is nothing better than a half pint of milk for the noonday luncheon or a half pint of buttermilk; when these are added to the luncheon do not use meat. Chopped white meat of chicken, chopped beef or mutton, carefully and lightly seasoned, may be used for sandwiches; and fruit should be used freely for desserts.

A child should not study immediately after eating, but should have sufficient time for digestion to begin.

Among the "backward" at school are found children illy nourished, those who are given incorrect food, and those who are allowed to remain in bed until the last minute and go to school after a hurried, badly-served breakfast. Tea, coffee and chocolate are frequently given to such children because they can drink them quickly, or because it is a cold morning. If the child is healthy he will want a substantial cereal, and will be able to keep warm without a hot drink.

Growing children need three good, nutritious meals a day, and must not nibble between meals. Children "without appetites" are those who eat at cakes and candies between meals. Constant nibbling, like constant chewing of gum, destroys the appetite, increases the flow of saliva, which interferes with stomach digestion.

Of equal importance with diet is careful bathing and plenty of fresh air and pure water. Children should sleep in well-ventilated rooms, should take a glass of water the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning, and should be carefully bathed and rubbed. Hours of eating should be regular. The digestion of a healthy child is active, and food passes from the stomach in much less time than in adults. Parents frequently forget this and keep the children waiting too long between meals.

Children who are obliged to carry cold luncheons for the noonday meal must have a warm, comfortable supper not later than six o'clock. If they come home in the middle of the afternoon (two or three o'clock) they should have a glass of milk, or a cup of good, warm cream soup, or a glass of buttermilk, or an egg and milk. Breakfast was early, luncheon light at noon, they have not had sufficient food. In fact, herein lies the danger of broken health in childhood. They frequently come home hungry, and eat candies, or cakes, which satisfy the appetite without giving sufficient nourishment. Supper should be composed of well-baked potato, or boiled potato mashed and browned, or rice, or stewed macaroni, with beef, mutton or chicken, or white-fleshed fish and either a saucer of whipped cream, or fruit tapioca, or fruit gelose, with bread and butter. Puree of beans, lentils and dried peas may take the place of meat. If children are fond of cereals, it is well to start the night meal with cereal instead of soup. Children do not require soup at the beginning of dinner. Milk, hot or cold, not iced, may be given with all non-meat meals. Children should be taught to masticate thoroughly and eat slowly, and after dinner they should have at least one hour of quiet recreation before beginning study.

The food value of almost every article depends upon the method of cooking. Children should not be given fried foods, or such complicated dishes as pies and puddings. Incorrect combinations interfere with digestion. Do not give potatoes and rice, or white and sweet potatoes at the same meal; give one or the other, and select a green succulent vegetable, suited to the combination. Green string beans are palatable, sightly and valuable as a green vegetable when cooked in salt water; when cooked with meat they are rendered indigestible. Potatoes well baked, or boiled, mashed and browned, are easily digested, an excellent food, but when fried are worse than useless. Rice carefully boiled until each grain is swollen to twice its former size, and no two grains sticking together, requires only one hour for perfect digestion; but when heavy and soggy and cooked with milk it is the worst form of starchy food; it will produce sour stomach and flatulency at once.

Every mouthful of starchy food is, during the process of digestion, converted into sugar, and with such natural sugars as we find in fruits, a child will have quite enough sugar without adding sweet foods or putting sugar on cereals, or eating candies. In cold weather a lump of cut sugar may now and then be given in the place of candy, but such things are more or less temptations and the child is quite as well off without them. Mock candy, figs and prunes make nice desserts. Cereals should be cooked the night before, allowed to stand in a double boiler and reheated in the morning.

Bread should be made from whole wheat flour, free from lard and sugar and be well baked. Whole wheat bread does not contain more muscle-making food than white bread, but it does contain mineral matter, and this is ah important element in child nutrition.

Teach your children to eat a green vegetable every day. At first select those easy of digestion - boiled cucumbers, young carrots, spinach, young green peas, tender lima beans, tips of cauliflower, stewed tender celery, hearts of lettuce, tender endive, and, if allowable, asparagus tips.

Children enjoy pleasant combinations. With broiled or boiled fish serve crisp lettuce and little potato balls; with stewed chicken, boiled rice, stewed celery or peas; with steak, cauliflower and baked potato; with mutton chops, creamed potato and peas; with a chopped broiled meat cake, mashed and browned potatoes and stewed cucumber. Desserts must be arranged according to the meat portion of the dinner. Without meat, serve cup custards, soft custards or bread puddings made from egg and milk; with meat dinners, fruit tapiocas, vegetable gelatin with fruit juice, whipped cream, slightly flavored, or fruit carefully stewed without sugar. Water should be the only beverage. Milk takes the place of meat; it is a food containing a considerable amount of solid material. Chocolate is an admirable food and may be taken in the morning with bread and butter for breakfast, but it must not be given with a heavy meal. Tea and coffee have no place in a child's dietary.

Fat ranks first as heat-producing material. In winter add cream to the milk and see that the bread is well buttered. Use olive oil, with a little lemon juice or vinegar, over uncooked green vegetables.