Baby is a hungry creature. If he is not, something is wrong. Like a horse, he will always eat. If he awakens before his feeding time, his first thought is to eat. If he awakens at night, he cries until he is fed. When he is sick and fretful, he nurses still oftener (if you let him). In his early weeks it is the only form of recreation he has. It is good for baby to be hungry, but, as with the horse, our higher intelligence must, to a certain extent, regulate his feeding times and the food itself so that his appetite will remain good. If a horse gets into the oat bin, he eats until he is sick. If baby is allowed to eat whenever he cries, he eats until he is sick, finally loosing his appetite. When an infant refuses his bottle or the breast, we know (unless he has some definite illness) that we have been feeding him too often or too much, or that some element of the food is too strong; weaken the food or lengthen the intervals until he is hungry. Nothing will ruin baby's appetite or digestion more quickly than nursing three or four times during the night, and frequently breast-fed children are allowed to lie at the breast all night.

Infants who are taken acutely ill usually stop eating at once of their own accord. They show greater wisdom than does the mother who tries to force the child to eat when his stomach is in no condition to digest food. This voluntary starvation is the very best thing at the beginning of any illness, especially where there is fever. Sick children are often thirsty, as well as restless, so they sometimes nurse or drink milk to quench their thirst when their digestion will not take care of any nourishment.

Of course, some infants are too hungry. They cry as soon as the bottle or breast is taken away, and often keep it up until the next feeding. This is because the food is insufficient, or at any rate because there is something wrong with it. Many a mother has mistaken hunger for colic.

Older children also should be hungry when it is time to eat. I think, perhaps, I have more difficulty with their appetites than I do with the babies', for we have to control both mother and child after infancy, while the baby always has to do as the mother wills. Sweets and eating between meals are the most frequent causes of lack of appetite in older children, and I am more and more firmly convinced that the minimum quantity of sweets is best for the child. Children with very poor appetites should be denied sweets altogether, for a time at least. Eating between meals is absolutely prohibited with the exception of certain fruits. Like the baby, the older child may have a poor appetite because his diet is wrong.

A hearty child has no right to be finical about his eating. He should eat whatever is put before him, and be glad to, provided it is the proper food. A certain amount of firmness on the part of the mother is all that is necessary. If he refuses the food he should eat, let him go hungry until the next meal. Why should we neglect to educate our children to eat the proper food and teach them such accomplishments as German and music?

Too much monotony in the food of course spoils the relish; the greediness with which a child will devour a different kind of bread is pathetic.

"Can a child eat too much sensible food?" is a question I sometimes hear. Occasionally I have seen children who had to have the amount of good food limited, but usually a child who eats too much in bulk has some element of the food in insufficient quantity.

Many mothers will be surprised to hear that a child may drink too much milk. Most mothers are imbued with the idea that if their children will drink milk, they are well fed.

Milk is a good food, but, after the first year, must not be given to the exclusion of other foods. Time and time again I have children brought to me who do not eat because they drink one to two quarts of milk a day. It is often necessary to take away the milk temporarily, especially during the second year, in order to get the child hungry enough to eat other things. One quart of milk a day is advisable throughout childhood, provided that other proper foods are eaten with relish.

Diet both in infants and children is a subject which I will take up by itself.

Roger H. Dennett

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