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,

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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.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 27, 1948—PAGE 11