DESSERTS.

Can I give any desserts to young children?  Mistakes are very often made here.  Junket, plain rice pudding without raisins, plain custard, and not more than once a week, a small amount of ice cream are all that can be allowed up to six or seven years.

What are prohibited?  Pies, tarts, and pastry of every kind and jams, syrups, and preserved fruits; nut candy and dried fruits.

Can I give a little?  No, for it develops a taste for this sort of food, and then the plainer food is taken with less relish.  The little is soon likely to become a great deal.

A child has an instinctive desire for sweets, why not satisfy it?  A child’s fondness for sweets is not a normal instinct.  A free indulgence in desserts and sweets by young children produces more digestive disorders than any other causes.  It is a growing tendency and hard to control as the child grows older.  The only safe rule is to give none in early childhood.

FRUITS.

Are fruits an important or essential part of children’s diet?  Very important, and they should be begun young.  They have a splendid effect upon the bowels.  They should be carefully selected, especially in large cities.  A greater latitude can be all owed in the country where fruit is fresh.

What fruit can I safely give to children up to five years?  Generally only cooked fruits and fresh fruit juices.

What kind of fruit juices can I use?  That from fresh, sweet oranges is best.  The fresh juice of grape fruit, peaches, strawberries, and raspberries may also be used.

What stewed fruits may I use?  Stewed and baked apples, prunes, pears, peaches and apricots.

What raw fruits should be avoided?  The pulp of oranges or grape fruit, also cherries, berries, bananas and pineapple.

What care should be exercised in regard to the use of fruits?  In hot weather they should be used with greater care, and in children who are easily attacked with intestinal indigestion.

What symptoms suggest that I should avoid fruits?  Looseness of the bowels or a tendency thereto, with discharge of mucus, or frequent attacks of colic (abdominal pain) or stomach-ache.

At what meals should fruits be used?  If the fruit juice is given upon an empty stomach early in the morning, it works more actively upon the bowels, than when given later.

[602 Mothers’ remedies]

Is it wise to give cream or milk with sour fruits?  No, it is not wise, it is best to give it at midday when no milk is taken as a dessert.  The quantity should always be moderate.

Can I give anything besides water and milk to drink?  Cocoa, if made very weak, almost all milk is often useful as a hot drink.  Tea, coffee, wine, beer and cider are all prohibited under puberty.  Lemonade and soda water should not be given until the tenth year at least.