If all is well during pregnancy, the food need not necessarily be changed (providing the patient is a normally healthy woman) until the fourth month before delivery. If complications arise, special diets must be given, which will be directed by the physician in charge. If albumin is present in the urine, cut off red meats and sweets. If vomiting occurs and is annoying, give orange juice, sterilized milk and lime water early in the morning and without other food. If the patient becomes pale and ansemic, give a diet rich in eggs, milk, cream and butter, red meats and fruits. If the appetite is physically perverted and there comes a mental desire for all sorts of indigestible foods, especially those that are inaccessible, it is purely the outcome of a hysterical mind and should not be humored. Much harm can be done, both to the mother and child, if such appetites are gratified. The desire for pickles or vinegar can usually be overcome by giving orange juice an hour before breakfast.

Breakfast should be light and composed of fruits, eggs and well-buttered bread. Give plenty of water between meals. The heavy meal is best at noon, and it should consist of such foods as milk soups, broiled, boiled or baked beef, mutton, chicken or fish, with a baked potato mashed with cream, or boiled rice with a little butter, or stewed macaroni with a little Parmesan cheese, and such green vegetables as lettuce, cress, carefully-stewed carrots, turnips, celery, fresh green peas, okra, new sweet corn, and fruits.

Suppers should consist of such light dishes as milk toast, cream soup, baked apple and cream, with toast, or a well-cooked cereal and milk or chocolate, or cocoa and toast.

If constipation occurs give three steamed figs before retiring, or two ounces of peanut brittle, or an ounce of raw peanuts, which must be thoroughly masticated, and a glass of water the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.

The fourth month before delivery the diet should be composed largely of carefully-cooked light meats, green vegetables and fruits. Cut off slowly all starches and sugars, and take only half the amount of liquids. Green vegetable salads are advisable. Asparagus, cress, lettuce, string beans and celery, may be served with French dressing. Broiled white-fleshed fish may be used twice a week, boiled mutton three times a week, broiled chicken twice a week. Beef may be used now and then, but not often.

Do not follow fads; they are frequently dangerous, both to the mother and the child.

May Eat For The First Five Months

Breakfast cereals

Milk and milk foods

Cream

Whole wheat bread

Corn bread

Baked potato

Carefully-boiled potato

Boiled rice

Stewed macaroni, with a little

Parmesan cheese Carefully-cooked string beans Peas Okra

Nut foods Fruit gelose Summer squash Cucumbers

Puree of potato

Lentils

Old peas

Beans

Cream soups

White-fleshed fish

Mutton

Lamb

Chicken

Sweetbreads

Light puddings

Custards

Fruits, both raw and stewed

Light desserts

Sponge cake

Angel's food

Sunshine cake

Avoid

Meat soups Rich sauces Sea foods, with the exception of white-fleshed fish Highly-seasoned complicated meat dishes Entrees Cakes Pies

Puddings

Preserves

Candies

Pickles

Mayonnaise salads

Alcoholic and malt liquors

Hot breads

Cinnamon bun

Tea

May Eat After The Fifth Month

Boiled mutton • Chicken White-fleshed fish Sweetbreads

An occasional chopped meat cake Lamb chops

Fruits, raw and stewed, without sugar

Lettuce, cress, endive, carefully-cooked string beans, all in salads

Eggs

Milk

Gluten bread

Gluten biscuits

In this list meals must be arranged with a meat and a green vegetable, or eggs and a green vegetable; eggs give nourishment, and vegetables give bulk sufficient to satisfy appetite. Bread must be used sparingly, but at all times the appetite must be satisfied.