Some of the more important articles of school diet require special mention; the following extract from Dr. Thompson’s Practical Dietetics may prove helpful:—­

Bread.—­“Bread, as a rule, should be made of whole meal, but must not be too coarse.  The advantage of this bread for children consists in its containing a larger proportion of salts, which they need, than is found in refined white flour, and butter should be freely served with it to supply the deficiency of fats which exist in meat.  Children need fat, but they do not digest meat fat well, as a rule, and are very apt to dislike it.  They will often take suet pudding, however, when hot mutton fat wholly disagrees with them.”

Milk.—­“Milk should be freely supplied, not only in the form of puddings and porridges, but as an occasional beverage, and children should be made to understand that when hungry, they can obtain a glass of milk, or a bowl of crackers or bread and milk, for the asking.  Chambers says, ’The best lunch that a growing young man can have is a dish of roast potatoes, well buttered and peppered, and a draft of milk.’”

Meat.—­“Meat may be given twice a day, but not oftener.  It may sometimes be advisable to give it but once a day when fish or eggs are supplied; it should, however, be given at least once daily, to rapidly growing children.”

Sweets.—­“The greater number of children have a natural craving for sweets.”

The energy developed in active childhood necessitates the consumption of a larger proportion of sugar than is required by adults.  The craving of children for confections, candy, etc., furnishes a true indication of the actual requirements of nature, and it must be admitted that a certain amount of wholesome candy not only does most children no harm, but may serve them as an excellent food.  The main difficulty with such forms of sugar, however, is that children are not furnished with a proper proportion of sugar with their meals, and the meals themselves are not so regulated as to prevent their becoming very hungry between times; consequently, if they can obtain candy, which satisfies them for the time, they are very apt to eat too much, with the result of producing more or less dyspepsia and diminishing the normal appetite.  Alcohol in every form should be absolutely excluded.  If given during early youth, it is particularly prone to develop a taste which may become uncontrollable in later years.  (Children should not indulge in tea and coffee.)

Exercise.—­As a general rule, active muscular exercise in children disturbs their digestive process far less than mental effort, when taken immediately after meals; and every adult is familiar with the romping which children can undertake straightway after dinner, often, though not always, with impunity, whereas a proportionate amount of exercise on the part of an adult might produce a severe dyspeptic attack.