temperament and environment. A frail, delicate
child with the promise of high mental development
requires a finer and softer grade of nutriment than
one of a coarse animal nature with strong, well-developed
digestive organs.
All healthy children, especially boys (as Mr Saxon will attest!), are full of mischief and restlessness, which it is the duty of a mother or a nurse to divert into right channels.[3] The display of temper is probably an indication of this not being done, though it may be due in part to the raw diet not suiting the child.
[3] This correspondent, and all mothers of difficult
children, should
study the works of Mary Everest Boole, published
by C.W. Daniel, Ltd.;
also The Children All Day Long, by E.M.
Cobham.—[EDS.]
The advice I would give would be to alter the
diet and make it
lighter.
From my point of view, Dr Montessori has not given sufficient attention to the other side of the diet question, preferring to remain more on the side of orthodoxy. Moreover, her own work has been done in Italy, where a climate prevails which does not call for so free a use of vegetables and salads as is the case in our own cooler and bleaker clime.
I suggest, as a beginning, the following diet might be tried, but it is necessarily impossible to guarantee good results unless the cause of the puffy eyes and temper have been definitely located by personal examination:—
On rising.—A raw ripe apple,
finely grated, or simply scraped out
with a silver spoon.
Breakfast at 8.—A scrambled egg on a Granose biscuit with a little finely chopped salad or finely grated; raw roots appetisingly served with a dressing of oil, lemon juice and a little honey. This to be followed by an “Ixion” or “P.R.” biscuit, with fresh butter.
Dinner at 2.—Home-made cottage cheese, or cream cheese, or a nut meat (served cold out of the tin, or, better still, home-made). Two casserole-cooked vegetables, done with a little fruit juice and lemon to retain colour. This to be followed by a baked apple with cream and a little home-made, unfired pudding made of dried fruits.
Supper at 5.—A slice of “Maltweat”
bread, and butter, and a cupful
of clear vegetable soup, or some hot water with
some lemon juice
added, and slightly sweetened with a little
honey.
GIDDINESS AND HEAD TROUBLE.
Mrs L.B.F. also writes:—I sometimes think I must make dietetic mistakes. My husband thinks I am perfectly healthy, so I do not say anything of the giddiness in the morning and after eating, a drowsiness and slight pain at the back of the head and underneath one of my ears. Also under my eyes is on some mornings quite swollen and puffed up. It is not so marked, but I am quite conscious of it. Our diet consists mostly of a salad, with bread or baked