All food intended for infants should be very thoroughly cooked. The numerous varieties of farinaceous substances—biscotine, farina, rice-flour, arrowroot, etc., however nourishing may be their properties when rightly prepared, are harsh and drastic when underdone. Unless you have a nurse whom you know for yourself to be faithful and experienced, always superintend the cooking of baby’s food. It can do no harm—it may prevent much—if you examine it every day to see that it is right as to quality and quantity. Do not aim at variety in this branch of your profession. Confine a child under three years of age to a very limited bill of fare. His stomach is too delicate an organ to be tampered with. Let milk—scalded or boiled, as a rule—be the staple, mixed with farina, barley, or something of the sort. Let him munch Graham bread and light crackers freely. Remove far from him hot bread and griddle-cakes. When he has cut his carnivorous teeth, Nature says—“This creature wants meat.” And Nature’s supply is seldom in advance of the demand. If he did not need what the teeth are designed to chew, you may be sure they would not be given him. Grant him the novel food sparingly and with discretion as to kind. Rare beef and well-boiled mutton, tender roast or boiled chicken and turkey are safe. Withhold fried meats of every description. Do not let him touch veal or pork in any shape. Mince the meat very finely to save his digestive apparatus all unnecessary work. Mealy old potatoes—never new or waxy—young onions, boiled in two waters; fresh asparagus, green peas, and dry sweet potatoes should suffice for vegetables, with, of course, rice and hominy. For dessert, once in a while, a simple custard, a taste of home-made ice-cream, rice and farina puddings, Graham hasty pudding; the inner part of a well-roasted apple, and, in their season, ripe peaches and apples, will not harm him, taken in moderation, if he be well and strong.

Pare the fruit always. The skin of an apple is as bad for him as a bit of your kid gloves would be; that of a grape more indigestible than sole-leather. Raisins—“skins and all”—are unfit for anybody to eat. Pulp and pits, they are poisonous for baby. Ditto, pickles, pastry, and preserves. Ditto, most kinds of cake and all sorts of fruit puddings.

Give him light suppers, and put him to bed early in a dark room. He will not grow better in a glare of artificial light than will your camellias and azalias.

Always see for yourself that his last waking thoughts are pleasant; that he shuts his eyes at peace with the world and in love with you; that his feet are warm, his stomach easy, and his body not overloaded with blankets and quilts; also, that the nursery is clean and freshly aired. These are better prescriptions for sound slumber than all the old wives’ fables of the excellent properties of that pernicious drug—Soothing Syrup.

Farina. ?

• 1 cup boiling water.
• 1 cup fresh milk.
• 1 large tablespoonful Hecker’s Farina, wet up with cold water.
• 2 teaspoonfuls white sugar.
• A pinch of salt.

Stir the farina into the boiling water (slightly salted) in the farina kettle (i. e., one boiler set within another, the latter filled with hot water). Boil fifteen minutes, stirring constantly until it is well-thickened. Then add the milk, stirring it in gradually, and boil fifteen minutes longer. Sweeten, and give to the child so soon as it is cool enough.

You may make enough in the morning to last all day; warming it up with a little hot milk as you want it. Keep in a cold place. Some of the finest children I have ever seen were reared upon this diet. Do not get it too sweet, and cook it well. Be sure the farina is sweet and dry.

Barley.

It sometimes happens that milk disagrees with a delicate infant so seriously that it is necessary to substitute some other article of diet for a few days. I have known barley water to be used, in such cases, with great success.

• 2 cups boiling water.
• 2 tablespoonfuls pearl barley—picked over and washed.
• A pinch of salt.
• 2 teaspoonfuls white sugar—not heaping.

Soak the barley half an hour in a very little lukewarm water, and stir, without draining, into the boiling water, salted very slightly. Simmer one hour, stirring often, and strain before sweetening.

Arrowroot. ?

• 1 cup of boiling water.
• 1 cup fresh milk.
• 2 teaspoonfuls best Bermuda arrowroot, wet with cold water.
• 1 small pinch of salt.
• 2 even teaspoonfuls white sugar, dissolved in the milk.

Stir the arrowroot paste into the salted boiling water; stir and boil five minutes or until it is clear; add the sweetened milk, and boil ten minutes, slowly, still stirring.

If the child has fever, or cannot digest milk, substitute hot water for it. It is, however, a dangerous experiment to forbid milk altogether for an infant. I should rather diminish the quantity, putting in, say, one-third or one-fourth as much as the receipt names, and filling up with boiling water.

Rice Jelly. ?

• ½ cup whole rice, well-washed and soaked two hours in a little warm water; then added, with the water, to that in the kettle.
• 3 pints cold water.
• 1 small pinch of salt, put into the water.
• Sweeten to taste with loaf sugar.

Simmer the rice half an hour; then boil it until it is a smooth paste, and the water is reduced one-half. Strain through double tarlatan, sweeten, and give to the child.

This is an admirable preparation for an infant suffering with weakness of the bowels. If there is no fever, you may put one-third part milk, boiled with the rice. Give a few spoonfuls every hour or half hour.

Milk and Bread. ?

• 1 cup boiled milk.
• 2 tablespoonfuls stale Graham bread.
• A very little sugar.

Crumble the bread into the boiled milk, sweeten, and when cool enough, feed to the child with a spoon.

Wheaten Grits. ?

• 4 tablespoonfuls grits (cracked wheat) soaked in a little cold water one hour, and then put into the kettle.
• 1 quart boiling water.
• 1 cup milk.
• A pinch of salt.

Boil the soaked grits in the quart of water one hour, stirring up often; add the milk and boil half an hour longer. Sweeten to taste, and if the child is well, pour cream over it. This is designed for children over a year old. It is slightly cathartic; especially if the milk be omitted, and is most useful in regulating the bowels. When this can be done without drugs, it is far better.

Hominy and Milk. ?

• ½ cup small hominy.
• 1 scant quart of cold water.
• Pinch of salt.

Boil one hour, stirring often. While hot, mix some soft with new milk, sweeten to taste and feed to baby with a spoon.

This is also relaxing to the bowels, and should not be given if the child is disposed to summer complaint.

Graham Hasty Pudding. ?

• 1 cup Graham flour, wet up with cold water.
• 1 large cup boiling water and same quantity of milk.
• 1 saltspoonful of salt.

Stir the wet flour into the boiling water, slightly salted. Boil fifteen minutes, stirring almost constantly. Add the milk and cook, after it has come again to a boil, ten minutes longer. Give with sugar and milk for breakfast.

Eaten with cream, nutmeg, and powdered sugar, this is a good plain dessert for grown people as well as children.

Rice Flour Hasty Pudding

Is made as above, substituting two heaping tablespoonfuls rice flour for the Graham.

Milk Porridge.

• 1 tablespoonful Indian meal } wet to a paste with cold
• 1 tablespoonful white flour } water.
• 2 cups boiling water.
• 2 cups milk.
• A good pinch of salt.

Boil the paste in the hot water twenty minutes; add the milk and cook ten minutes more, stirring often.

Eat with sugar and milk, stirred in while hot.

Mush and Milk.

• 1 cup Indian meal, wet up with cold water.
• 2 quarts cold water.
• Salt to taste.

Boil two hours; stirring often with a wooden spoon or a stick.

To be eaten hot with milk and sugar.

Condensed Milk.

This is perhaps the safest substitute for the “good milk from one cow,” which few mothers in town can procure. Keep the can in a cool place and mix according to directions.

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