FOOD FOR BABY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2110, 8 February 1908, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOOD FOR BABY.

HOT WEATHER HINTS. DIET AND GENERAL TREATMENT. (Melbourne “Argus.”) “Tho baby’s diet must receivo attention in- hot weather,” insisted a leading city doctor on Saturday. ‘ln tho management of children in tho excessive heat of summer it is important to realise that with a rising temperature there is a depression in tho general digestive power, and what lias -been suitable food on moderately temperate days often becomes wholly -unsuitable. The general plan for the diet of infants in hot weather is to diminish the -amount of food at eaeli feeding, not only as regards quantity, but so far as the strength of the food is concerned. Little babies, of course, take 'food and drink together. They become thirsty instead of hungry, and they are not able to digest the ordinary bottle full of food because they are thirsty—Forgetting that a bottleful of milk becomes largely solid when taken by the baby, and requires considerable vigor and digestion. A diminished amount of food and increased quantity of water —given separately from the food —is the chief dietetic rule for the management of infants in hot weather. By an infant I mean a child under, say, 18 months.” “W-liat drink would you recommend?” was asked.

“Water,” was the reply. “It should be given frequently, and in small quantities on very hot days. The water should be boiled, and allowed to cool down ; and having been boiled, it should be protected from contamination by Hies, which, it must not be forgotten, are possible carriers of serious infection. -Milk, in particular—and all infants’ food, to a lesser degree- —are exceedingly liable- to contamination by germs, and in hot weather the germs multiply with great rapidity. “In addition to the comparatively harmless germs which cause the souring of milk there are far more dangerous disease-producing germs which quietly, and without any sign, multiply in milk once contaminated. To avoid the rapid development- of. these possibly poisonous germs in milk it is important to boil the milk the moment it is.delivered. It should then be cooled down rapidly by means of repeated applications of cold water. It should be kept as cool as possible, and covered with muslin to prevent contamination by flies. Similar precautions should be taken with all patent foods. Once prep a rI Tf .+.llPrPj

to discontinue milk as a form 01, tend during the excessive-heat ol summer, and to substitute a patent lood.” AYlmt general treatment would you suggest in hot weather? “So far as general hvgicno is concerned, 1 should say that to prevent: the approach of what is called heat stroke a child should bo frequently bathed in cold water. The infant should he sponged about the head, neck, amis boulders, and should be allowed to stay in the bath longer than usual. In fact a quarter ol an hour in the water would not be toe long. Of course the clothing rlionli be as light as possible. Then one ol the greatest advances made in the troatmunt of children in hot weather is in allowing them to sleep out nc night. Much is to he gained by keeping a child outside at night, as the moving air stimulates and refreshes in a way that is hardly possible to lie obtained inside a room. Sleeping outside also means good open air without the danger of draughts'. iSueh treatment has an extremely good effect on children. At the Children’s Hospital tho little patients arc put to sleep under verandahs and in the gardens.” Is there not a ‘prejudice against sleeping in the night air? “There is,” replied the doctor, ••but there is no justification for the popular impression that night air is deleterious. Everybody must breathe the night air, and there is absolutely no foundation for the belie! that t'liere is any obscure disadvantage in sleeping in the open air at j'jffbfOn the other hand it is decidedly advantageous, and proves beneficial even to "the most delicate child. Lho aiv in those conditions is not m the slghtost degree devitalised. In fact nothing is better for a child suflerine from tho heat than for >t to spend the early hours of the morning outside. The late Dr Snowball was very much impressed with the fact. Once, when one of lus children was ill, he made a practice of taking it. out at midnight, and sitting with the ohikl at the edge of fluT water at Brighton pier until early morning. In this case the beneficial results were marked, in America they have what arc called ‘fresh air homes’ anil floatin'? hospitals, on which children of the poorer classes are allowed to spend the night?.”

BABY LANGUAGE. Professor John Edgar, M.A., Bell Professor of Education at St. Andrew’s University, lecturing on "Imitation and Its Individuality in Children,” before the .Chilli-Study Society, said (remarks the “Daily Mail”) that it was very harmful for mothers to speak “baby language” to their young children. .The young child, in its plastic period, was ready to imitate anything it heard. It was therefore very necessary for everyone around the child to speak slowly and distinctly. A parent imitating the child in its baby talk only retarded its advance. A boy imitated many things which came in front of liim> — policemen, soldiers, sailors, all of which he promptly rejected. But if the instinct persisted there came a deeper imitation, which became prophetic, and probably decided the boy’s career. Sir James CrichtonBrownc, who presided, said he was afraid that the imitation of children arose from love and admiration; but in later life it was derisive and contemptuous. He knew a man in nil important position in a university who could instantly tell from what public, school a freshman had coino by some peculiarity of manner which he had acquired by imitation while at school. The whole question of imitation in children, as of mimicry in animals and anil birds, was a very wide one, and in his opinion needed restudying. They had heard a good deal of the power of sonic flies, which flew around flowers to imitate wasps, and so be safe from their enemies, to such an extent as to cultivate a large yellow band around their abdomens. If there was anything in that doctrine lie could not understand why they did not imitate the sting right away while they were about it.

RECIPES. Cream Jelly.—Soak half a box of gelatine, and add one cupful ot sugar and ono cupful of light wme. Cover for an hour, l'uc tlio covered bowl in a pan of hot water until the contents are -dissolved. Strain and cool (covered). Add one pint ot whipped cream beaten in, then place in a mould until wanted, iveep in a very cold place. Orange Basket (very pretty). — Mark out with a knife a basket and handle oil a nice smooth-skin orange, then cut it out, loosen the pulp, anil remove without breaking the skin. Throw the basket into cold water for one or two hours, to stiffen it. Mako a port and lemon jelly, and turn into a square mould to harden. When very -hard, cut into small dice blocks, and fill the baskets, which stand on a pretty dish, garnished with flowers. Orange Pudding.—Slice sis oranges, put them in a deep dish, sprinkle one cup of sugar over them, Make a custard of a pint of milk and the yolks of three eggs and a tablespoonful of cornflour. Boil, flavor with vanilla, cool, and pour over tho oranges. Beat the whites of the eggs with three tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, put on top of the custard -and oranges, and just brown in the oven. Set away in a very cold place until wanted. . Ham and Potatoes. —Required : Two yolks of eggs, ono ounce of butter, thin slices of cold ham, cold boiled potatoes, pepper and salt, half a pint of -mills. Beat the yolks of two eggs into a little melted butter. Cut some thin slices of cooked ham, dip them into the eggs; butter a baking dish, and lay in it a layer of cold boiled potatoes, sprinkling them with pepper and salt; then put a layer of tho pieces of ham, another of potatoes, and so on till the -dish is lull, finishing with the potatoes. Pour over this lull’ a pint of milk, or thin white sauce, stand the dish in a good hot oven till the potatoes are browned. Serve in the cooking dish.

HINTS. Save the pieces cut from table-linen and when tlio linen becomes old and requires mending, ravel the threads from the pieces which were laid away and use them to darn tlio old piece. There is always a pice to cut off when lieming new tablecloths, as a thread must iie drawn to make the cloth even before hemming. Numbering the flatirons witli chalk will be found a simple way to determine which iron was used last, when there are several on the stove. Keep a piece of chalk in a convenient place and mark the irons 1,2, J. etc., taking care afterwards to use them in rotation.

When hemming dish-towels take two small pieces of tape, and when stitching the hems on tho machine, sew the tape at the centro of each hem, putting the ends a little distance apart, and turning them with the hem. In this way you will secure a firm “hanger” for each end of tho towel. When grinding stale bread in a food-chopper tie a paper Bag oyer the mouth of the chopper, which will prevent the scattering of the crumbs. When the bag is full, empty it into a dish, and fill it again. To make a funnel for temporary use cut off one end of an evnvelope and the flap; then cut- a little piece from one of the lower corners, open the envelope, and the funnel will be ready for use.

TO RENOVATE LEATHER WORK. Chair seats and table tops gelt shabby by friction. First repair all jur S with a little seocot-ine. When dry rub over the whole surface with a flannel pad dipped in white of egg. When this is dry the leather will look almost as new. MICE. To keep mice away from pun tries and cupboards, sprinkle cayenne pepper on the shelves. In boxes and wardrobes put lumbs of camphor omnn or,..filie- clvvfclies, formice d.vshke