CHILD CARE Developing = food habits PARENTS WANT their chil- dren to grow up strong and healthy;. they follow recommen- dations rigidly in planning the child’s meals; and when a toddler dawdles or refuses to eat, too of- ten only psychological factors are given cohsideration while the food itself may be responsible. “we must try: to see food | from the child’s point of view,” writes Miriam Lowenberg, Ph.D., of the Rochester Child Health _ Project, a leading authority on the feeding of young children. Parents and others faced with the problems of developing good hab- its in the very young child, may find the following suggestions helpful: : Is the food too hot or too cold? The child’s mouth and throat are much more sensitive than an ad- ult’s. Lukewarm foods are wel- come and even milk and desserts are preferred at room tempera- ture, Ice cream may be the exX- ception, Is it strong flavored? sense of smell and taste are very acute and mild flavors and odors are pre- ferred. A minimum of seasoning: and sugar is best. Is it a mixture? A child likes plain foods that he can see clearly ‘and he may tend to “pick at” mixed foods. Even his favorite food may be refused if it is com- bined with sauce or another food, Is it sticky, tough, or stringy? Puddings thinned with extra milk 80 they are smooth and creamy are preferred to thicker mixture. Mashed potatoes harden as they cool—extra milk will preserve the fluffiness children like. Cooked greens are less stringy when coarsely chopped. Gooked cereal that is not too thick is'ofen pre ferred to dry. cereal, Is it in “bite sized” pieces? Cut- ting food is a Herculean task for small hands and a child may re- fuse food because he can’t man- ‘age it, Solid foods should be offer- ‘ed in bite sized pieces, Or pieces that can be picked up in the fin- gers, such as strips of toast, car- rot sticks or wedges of Taw ap- ple. : Is he allowed to enjoy his food in his own way? Toddlers like to touch and smell and get acquaint- ed with food slowly, so etiquette is out for little folk. Learning to like the food is the important point; manners can wait. Is the child tired? Eating is a hard job for little folks. A short rest. period before his regular Mealtime will put him in the right frame of mind to set about the task. ; Is he hungry?—or has he had candy, or a cookie an hour or 8° ago to take the edge off his aP- Petite? ; Is he comfortable? Chair and table should be of right height, feet squarely on the floor or foot rest; a spoon that is the right size for hand and mouth; dishes that don’t spill easily; and milk in & small squat glass that he can manage easily—it can be refilled during the meal, for tall glasses are heavy and awkward. Meal time should be a haPPy time—a child rested and ready to eat—food that he can manage and enjoy—and some help and encour- agement given by mother. There Should be no insistence on “man- ners” or “don’t spill” or “eat every bite” until he has learned to feed himself—and more important— until he has learned to like and enjoy the foods he needs for 8rowth and health, HIGHEST PRICES PAID for DIAMONDS, OLD GOLD Other Valuable Jewellery STAR LOAN CO. Ltd. EST. 1905 719 Robson St. — MAr. 2622 POSS 9S OOOEED and baby brother, The four Lanier boys, who live in a trailer with their mother are some of America’s DP’s, victims of the Vanport, Oregon, flood. Two months after the disaster, flood eva: cuees q uartered in trailers were handed a rent increase, id THIS WEEK I STARTED to make little John a winter. It’s quite a job unpicking an coat from daddy’s old one. article and remaking it, but it’s a shame to waste good material and a greater shame to spend the money now being asked for children’s clothes when they seldom last more than a season, + One mother I know recently paid $30 for a matching coat and hat for her four-year-old and the first time the coat was cleaned it shrank so badly that the child could not get it on, The shoddy quality of children’s shoes and clothing, except in the most ex- pensive ranges, is something the government’s experts don't reck- on with in preparing their cost of living index, but it’s a constant problem for most mothers. The hand-me-downs of other days now seldom last long enough to be passed “along. No wonder more and more mothers are taking to making their children’s clothes. In some communities women are getting together to form chil- dren's clothing exchanges where the still serviceable clothes their children have outgrown can be ‘Miss Cowichan’ This is Billie Bird of Duncan who, as “Miss Cowichan,” is competing with girls from three other Vancouver Ysland centers for the title of “Labor's Sweet- heart,” to be awarded at the Upper Island United Labor Pic- nic. at Nanoose Beach, Other contestants are: Doreen. ‘Arsen- ault (“Miss Alberni”) of Port Alberni; Betty Stockand (“Miss Comox”) of Cumberland; Annie Bravar (“Miss Nanaimo”) of Nanaimo. Postponed last Sun- day because of poor weather, "the picnic will be held this com- ing Sunday. ‘shall have to be both honest and exchanged for others. Usually a service fee of 25 cents for each exchange is. charged to - cover cleaning and mending costs. The mothers in our play group have been considering starting a clothing exchange, but it’ seems that we all have little girls around the same age, Nonetheless, it’s a pretty good idea and one, I ima- gine, that should be welcome in any working class community. * * * FOR PARENTS looking for a better method to acquaint their children with the “facts of life,” I recommend the Young World series published by International Publishers, New York. Seven books in this series published over the past two years have shown that the publishers know how to combine lively, attractive works on elementary science that an- swer both the needs of the par- ents and their .children. The seven books are: Climbing Our Family Tree and From Head to Foot, both by Alex Novikoff; Egg to Chick and Hidden Ani- mals, both by Millicent Selsam; How Man Discovered His Body, by Sarah Reidman; How the Auto- mobile Learned to Run, by M. Tlin; and The Story of Your Coat, by Clara Hollos. Mary Lamberton Becker, who reviews children’s books for the New York Herald Tribune, writes that the Young World series is worth watching, and, having read most of them, I agree with her. “To my mind,” she says, “these books meet the requirements set forth by the Child Study Associa- tion. To give young people the serious literature they deserve, we courageous, honest in the sense that we are willing to see children against the background of today; courageous in the sense that we are no longer contest to offer them pictures of a world filled exclusively with kindly, helpful people.” The Young World series, inci- dentally, can be obtained at the People’s Cooperative Bookstore in Vancouver.—B.G. ON THE AIR (HOT) Soft soap in opera WE ALL HAVE OUR pet peeve of the air—the radio program we rush to turn off. My vote for least likely to succeed is “Claudia—a story of modern marriage” offered housewives every morning as a supposed*antidote to dishes, dust and diapers. Marriage to most of us has many worries—planning break- fasts without bacon or eggs and suppers without meat, finding a decent place to live, meeting in- stalments or mortgage payments ... need I go on? Listen to the soul-shaking prob- lems Claudia facés. There’s the unpleasant task of dismissing her housekeeper (referred to as “the good Gertrude”), the tremendous ordeal of writing thankyou notes to friends who send her son pres- ents like silver rattles, bathing the baby for the first time when he is no less than a whole month old, or keeping cool on a hot afternoon. : Tsk, tsk, the burdens of modern marriage! But she and her husband David manage to bear up under this op- pressive existence thanks to their sense of humor. To a bystander watching them pack their car en- route to their summer home they pretend they have been evicted from their apartment. What could be funnier than an eviction? Both “Maw-Maw” and David treat Claudia with all the indul- - gence and condescention due to a loved but not too bright child, a fact of which she seems to be blissfully unaware. No doubt about who’s the head of the house in that family, The child-wife idyll went out with Dickens and most wives think it’s not worth reviving. Fif- ty-fifty in responsibility and rights is the ideal to strive for in 1948 marriages. * * * THE NONSENSE in “Claudia” is not so harmless as it might ap- pear. Entertainment is not. the sole purpose of the program. It is heavily laden with free-enterprise, American-way-of-life propaganda. “You're a lucky boy,” says Dav- id to his newborn son, “to be born a citizen in a country where a man is free to carve out his own destiny as an individual.” To this Claudia replies with patriotic fervor, “Why can’t ev- eryone all over the world live like us? Then there would be peace. But all countries aren’t like ours.” When their son is showered with expensive gifts Claudia de- murs to David, “It seems hardly fair for Bobby: to have so much when so many children have so little.” “There always have been rich and poor,” replies David, “and there's no way to balance things more evenly.” “Why doesn’t someone do some- thing about it?” “Wh 0?” “Me 137 The listener is electrified by this unexpected glimmer of a thought in Claudia’s pretty-head, but it’s cnly a decision to send the silver rattle to the Red Cross as her contribution to world justice. Let it be known that somebody is doing something about it—mil- lions of us all over the world, in the trade unions, women’s and youth organizations, independ- ence movements, workers’ parties, yes, and on the pattlefields of Is- rael, China and Greece.—BRITA MICKLEBURGH. PACIFIC 9588 EAST END TAXI UNION DRIVERS HA. 0334 Fully 24-Hour Insured Service 618 East Hastings, Vancouver FINE CUSTOM TAILORING 119 EAST Jack Cooney, Mgr. FERRY MEAT MARKET Vancouver, B.C. FREE DELIVERY Supplying Fishing Boats HASTINGS Our Specialty Nite Calls GL. 1740L We Always Sell for Less Army and Navy will never know- ingly be undersold. We will meet any competitor’s price at any time, not only ceiling price but floor price, and we will gladly refund any differ- ence. Army and Navy prices are guaranteed to be the lowest in Van- couver at all times. Army & Navy DEPARTMENT STORES Vancouver and New Westminster PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 27, 1948—PAGE 11