Feeding

“ From the moment of parting with the milk as sole nourishment, from the moment of passing on to the mixed nourishment that is peculiar to its species, the second important change in the feeding of the growing individual is accomplished. ”

“ I get away as far as possible from quantitative amounts, which may influence other persons. The appetite is the only true guide to bodily need; and if milk is tasted and swallowed only by involuntary compulsion as required by right [Pg 35] feeding, the appetite will gauge the bodily need exactly, and cut off short when enough for the moment has been taken. ”

“ For this reason it is justifiable in the feeding of man to expend upon the mere social features of the meal a sum which often is equal to or greater than that expended for the mere purpose of nutrition. ”

“ Disguise it as we may the fact remains that the feeding of a people is of first importance, seeing the feeding is the great essential to success, either social or commercial. The farmer and stock raiser gives special attention to feeding, usually more to the feeding of his animals than of his children, or of himself. ”

“ No troublesome symptoms usually result from this full feeding, and the patient may be made to eat more largely by being fed by her attendant. People who will eat very little if they feed themselves, often take a large amount when fed by another; and, as I have said before, nothing is more tiresome than for a patient flat on her back to cut up her food and to use the fork or spoon. By the plan of feeding we thus gain doubly. ”

“ Examples of bad methods of feeding are, coaxing or forcing to eat, rapid eating with insufficient mastication eating between meals, allowing a child to have his own way in selecting his food, as when he lives largely upon a single article of diet. Things to be considered under the head of improper food are, indulgence in sweets, desserts, etc., the use of imperfectly cooked foods, especially cereals and vegetables, and of raw or stale fruits. ”

“ Give me a good stomach, and the blood will follow as a matter of course.
We talk of improving the breed of cattle, of horses, sheep, &c. But how is it done? By what other principal means than by improved feeding, and taking care that nothing shall interfere with the proper digestion of the improved food. You may use every possible means of improving the breed, without improved feeding the race will degenerate. And so it is with man. Whole nations, as, for instance, the English, wear a better aspect than others, merely because they are better feeders. ”

“ They had ways been accustomed to dine daily from their childhood upward, they felt hungry at the habitual dinner-hour, and they sat down to their five courses with an unquestioning acceptance of the necessity for feeding to prevent starvation. ”

“ Reduce the quantity of each feeding and you will quickly cure it. If the milk does not overflow soon after a feeding, the baby will appear satisfied and will go to sleep, and will sleep until it is time for the next feeding. ”

“ The interval of feeding should rather be lengthened than otherwise in order to give the digestive organs an opportunity to regain the normal desire for food. Pay strict attention to the bowels. Be certain the child has a daily satisfactory movement and that he drinks frequently between meals. ”

“ Feeding of Nursing Infants.—The most important thing in connection with the feeding of infants is to always remember that nature has provided in their mother's milk, when sufficiently abundant and normal in quality, everything in the way of food and drink that they require. ”

“ As to the manifold green stuffs which, changing with the season, may be presented as salad, their name is legion; and their choice must be left to the eater's judgment, fancy, and digestion, all of which vary greatly.
The combination of dishes to form a meal now demands our consideration. The occupations of man in a civilized state, no less than the natural suggestions of his appetite, require stated and regular times for feeding. ”

“ With their overflowing supply of food also, each new mouth in the household brings no drain on their means. Children are a blessing, and the mere feeding of a young boy or girl is not considered at all. ”

“ In circumstances where there is no want of abundant nutriment, over-feeding or complicated forms of food, suitable only for older persons, produce for this infant troubles which are no less grave than those of the former. ”

“ The opening chapters are invaluable to those whose duty it is to care for the sick, and of equal importance to those who see in correct feeding the way of preventing much of the illness about us. The chapter on Infant Feeding is an authoritative guide to aid in the development of the baby, and child feeding is considered with like care. ”

“ Advantages of the Natural Feeding of Infants.—The natural method of nourishment—that is to say, suckling at the maternal breast, is the only method of infant-feeding which properly complies with natural requirements. ”

“ We find an animal like the lion feeding entirely upon the flesh of other animals, and a strong creature like the ox, eating nothing but grass and grain. We also note that one race of men includes meat in its diet, and another subsists almost entirely upon vegetable food, such as rice and beans. Yet in both cases, these diverse kinds of food accomplish the same end,—body building and the supplying of energy. ”

“ It is a further fact, known to physiologists, that the enjoyment given by a much-liked food is a nervous stimulus, which, by increasing the action of the heart and so propelling the blood with increased vigour, aids in the subsequent digestion. And these truths are in harmony with the maxims of modern cattle-feeding, which dictate a rotation of diet. ”

“ The influence of this experiment in feeding is important not merely because of the positive nourishment given to the pupils but also because of the example which it sets in proper standards of eating at home. Many families do not281 know how to feed children. The son of a truck driver who breakfasts with his father on coffee, sausage, and griddle-cakes will spend the morning trying to digest the food which is appropriate to his father’s occupation but not to the sedentary life of the scholar. ”

“ Feeding must depend on their work, but they require feeding three times a day, with more or less corn each time, according to their work. In the fast coaching days it was a saying among proprietors, that "his belly was the measure of his food;" ”

“ In domestic feeding arrangements, although usually the choice of foods is determined by the state of the markets, the preferences of the various members of the family, and the abilities of the cook, it is astonishing how closely the result will correspond in the long run to the figures here given. ”

“ The joy of eating when food comes compensates for the previous scantiness of the fare. There are deaths from insufficient alimentation; ten to one are the deaths traceable to over-feeding. There is suffering for lack of food. ”

“ But one may be a little over weight or under weight, and yet have normal body functions.
There can be no doubt, however, that the whims of the appetite often lead to unwise selection of food. A study of food composition is absolutely essential in overcoming this fault. Lack of energy or loss of flesh may be due to improper feeding. If the needs of the body and the kind and quantity of food that will supply these needs are understood by the home- keeper, she may do much in maintaining the health, happiness, and usefulness of the members of the family. ”

“ They should be provided with whatever they most crave, if it be adapted to the secretion of fat. Cutting, crushing, and grinding the food; cooking, souring, and mixing it, are each by themselves an improvement for feeding ”

“ That [411] person, then, who enjoys the best health, the keenest mentality and power of perception, the highest physical and emotional organism, is he who can select such articles of food as will supply all the constituent parts of the body most nearly in the right or natural proportions. The science of feeding, upon which this mainly depends, becomes possible only when food is taken in accordance with certain fixed, natural laws. ”

“ The main articles of diet are indifferent bread and butter, the fag ends of coarse meat, the outside leaves of green vegetables, and tea, and an occasional pennyworth of fried fish and potatoes. Children who are supplied with milk at school, or who are given breakfast and dinner, respond at once to the better feeding, and show distinct improvement in their class work. ”

“ But here, again, though there may be no special organs set apart for the preparation, absorption, and digestion of food, the process of feeding is essential to the life of all animals. Stop that process for a sufficient length of time, and they inevitably die. ”

“ This food must be served au naturel, without the predigestion which deprives it of stimulating and nourishing properties and no sort of forcible feeding or spoon feeding may be practised. Hungry minds sit down to such a diet with the charming greediness of little children; they absorb it, assimilate it and grow thereby in a manner astonishing to those accustomed to the dull profitless ruminating so often practised in schools. ”

“ Frequently the infants are placed with the older children at the ordinary tables, which are too high for them to reach up to with any comfort; it is sometimes impossible for them to eat without spilling their food. (See the description of a feeding centre, post, p. 167.) ”

“ The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one! ”

“ Three or four feedings a day are sufficient for any baby. The feedings should be arranged so that they are evenly distributed during the day, and nothing is to be given at night except water. Get a nursing bottle or two. ”

“ And it is an experience almost universally avowed, that the desire for food is keener, that the satisfaction in gratifying appetite is greater and more enjoyable, on the part of the general light feeder than with the almost exclusively flesh-feeder. For this designation is applicable to almost all those who compose the middle-class population of this country. They consume little bread and few vegetables; all the savory dishes are of flesh, with decoctions of flesh alone for soup. ”

“ A labouring man, for example, working hard each day, would require such foods as liver and bacon, steak, bullock's heart, beans, peas, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, &c.; foods, in fact, that would not be too easily digested. Hard work causes the food to be assimilated more readily. A too easily digested fare would cause a constant feeling of hunger. 11For anyone, on the contrary, leading a sedentary life, the food taken could not be too digestible. In that case, mutton, plainly cooked chicken, soles, milk puddings, and lightly boiled eggs should be the kind of viands chosen. ”

“ When they have children, there must be some help in a farmer's or tradesman's house, but until then, what call is there for a servant in a house, the master of which has to earn every mouthful that is consumed?
Eating and drinking come three times every day; they must come; and, however little we may, in the days of our health and vigor, care about choice food and about cookery, we very soon get tired of heavy or burnt bread, and of spoiled joints of meat. ”

“ Thus Nature goes on to care for us. I had two brothers and two sisters, and we all throve and grew rapidly with the nourishment of our mother’s milk alone, until we were six weeks old, when she began to supply us with other food, such as rabbits, and rats and mice, which she tore to pieces and divided amongst us in equal shares, not however so much to our satisfaction as to prevent our snarling and quarrelling with each other thus early over our meals. ”

“ In some seasons of the year the farmer takes his heartiest meal at the close of the labors of the day, and soon retires. Is this a bad custom? Our opinion is that food may be taken properly at a late hour, provided, first, that the individual has not already eaten enough for the twenty-four hours,—that he has done so being true, probably, in most cases; and provided, secondly, that he is in such a state of health that digestion will not so act upon his nerves as to disturb his sleep. ”

“ Confine a child under three years of age to a very limited bill of fare. His stomach is too delicate an organ to be tampered with. Let milk—scalded or boiled, as a rule—be the staple, mixed with farina, barley, or something of the sort. Let him munch Graham bread and light crackers freely. Remove far from him hot bread and griddle-cakes. When he has cut his carnivorous teeth, Nature says—“This creature wants meat.” And Nature’s supply is seldom in advance of the demand. ”

“ In a healthy state of the body, as soon as the blood has lost its nutritive supplies, the craving of hunger is felt, and then, if the food is suitable, and is taken in the proper manner, this sensation ceases as soon as the stomach has received enough to supply the wants of the system. But our benevolent Creator, in this as in our other duties, has connected enjoyment with the operation needful to sustain our bodies. In addition to the allaying of hunger, the gratification of the palate is secured by the immense variety of food, some articles of which are far more agreeable than others. ”

“ Take particular care of the food of an infant. If it is nourished by the mother, her own diet should be simple, nourishing, and temperate. If the child be brought up 'by hand,' the milk of a new-milch cow, mixed with one third water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, should be the only food given, until the teeth come. This is more suitable than any preparations of flour or arrowroot, the nourishment of which is too highly concentrated. Never give a child bread, cake, or meat, before the teeth appear. ”