DURING the early stage of life, all heating and stimulating food and drinks should be strictly forbidden. They tend more certainly to produce disease, in the really excited system during childhood, than perhaps at any other period of life. Vegetables should, in fact, constitute the principal diet of children; especially the farinaceous substances—such as bread, rice, arrow-root, potatoes, &c. To these may be added milk, soft-boiled eggs, and a very moderate allowance of plain and simply cooked animal food. Children, in general, have very excellent appetites, and a sufficiency of nourishing food is absolutely necessary—not merely to renew the waste of their systems, but also to supply materials for their daily growth.

Three, or perhaps four, light meals a day, will be found a good allowance during childhood. At one of these—the dinner, or mid-day meal—animal food may be allowed, in moderation; for the others, bread, or potatoes, and milk, various preparations of rice, or rice and milk, plain bread pudding, and custard, form a proper and wholesome diet. All salted and high-seasoned food should be forbidden. Some have objected to butter for children; although experience would appear to show that a very moderate allowance of fresh butter is by no means injurious.

Of vegetables—potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets and cauliflowers, will be found most wholesome. They should be well boiled, and the potatoes and turnips eaten without being mashed, or mixed with butter or fat gravy. Children should never be indulged in pastry, of any kind. They may, occasionally, take a little of the cooked fruit of a pie; but even this should be in moderation.

The drink of children should be simply water, milk, whey, or very weak tea, milk and sugar. All stimulating and fermenting liquors are not only unnecessary, but positively injurious, by increasing, to an improper extent, the circulation of the blood; they induce fever, indigestion, inflammation, or convulsions, to say nothing of the danger of their use during childhood—giving rise to habits of intemperance in after life.

The period of the meals should be strictly regulated, and in such a manner that the intervals between them should not be so great as to permit the children to experience, at any time, a sensation of hunger. Supper should be taken an hour or two before bed-time. Children should get their breakfasts as soon as possible after they have arisen, and have been properly combed and washed; the stomach is then empty, and the appetite keen. If food be too long withheld, the cravings become either too importunate, or the appetite fails—either of which would be injurious.

As little variety of food as possible should be set before children; since every extraordinary article becomes a new incentive to appetite. They should never be indulged with a second course; if they sit down with an appetite, they will satisfy it by eating of the first articles presented to them—hence, all the rest is superfluous, and therefore injurious. If the appetite be trifling, the less they eat at the time the better; as by taking but little, the appetite will more certainly return at the next meal. But should this instinct of nature for an observance of moderation be neglected, or attempted to be overcome by variety, repletion, with all its evils, will follow. Instead of a renewed and healthy appetite following, as would have been the case had the instinct been obeyed, it will be found diminished, and most probably attended with headache, fever, oppression, or even vomiting.

Children should not be allowed to eat frequently of bread and butter, bread and molasses, cakes, or fruit, between meals, for this will either destroy the regular appetite, or induce them to eat too much. In the first case, the stomach will be interrupted in its regular routine of function; consequently, the appetite will become either irregular or capricious. In the second case, all the evils attendant upon an over distension of the stomach must follow. They should not, therefore, be suffered to carry food in their pockets, to eat between meals, or during school hours, as this produces the injurious habit of requiring food at improper times; by which the digestion of the previous meal is interfered with—a fresh quantity of food being forced upon the stomach, before it has properly digested that which had been before received.

Children are to be restrained from any violent exercise immediately after dinner; if not kept in a state of perfect rest, they should at least be prevented from engaging in any pastime which requires considerable bodily exertion. They should also be early taught the importance of eating slowly, and chewing their food well; on this account alone, the habit of resting after a meal is of importance, as it prevents them from swallowing their food hastily, in order that they may return more quickly to their play.

In regulating the diet of children, care should be taken not to force any particular article upon them, after it is found, by a fair trial, not to agree with their stomach. The contrary practice is both cruel and injudicious; cruel, because the poor child is forced to swallow what is disagreeable to it; and injudicious, because it is liable to perpetuate a disgust which most probably would have subsided, had no forcible attempt been made to overcome it. At the same time, however, great care must be taken that permanent dislikes are not formed, at this period of life, against certain wholesome articles of food. This is often a matter of very great difficulty; a good deal of close observation and discernment being required, in order to distinguish between a wayward prejudice and an actual disgust. The former, if indulged in too long, may be converted into the latter; while the latter may often, by judicious and well adapted means, be entirely removed. Children should never be suffered to eat alone, unless the proper quantity of food be meted out to them; otherwise, they will eat too much. If a child demand more than is judged proper for it, its importunities should always be resisted with firmness, or it will certainly acquire habits of gluttony.