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Show By JEAN MERRITT Heinj Home Institute , family disputes or discussions during mealtime. He should not be admonished . or advised too much, nor should he be nagged about his table manners, but rather ra-ther encouraged, gently, to eat carefully and well. Generally he should be allowed to eat quietly without too much social conversation conver-sation from adults who are trying try-ing to divert his attention. The physical mechanics of his eating should be made as convenient con-venient as possible. His high chair should be comfortable. He should be propped up close e-nough e-nough to his tray-table, so that he will not have to reach for his food. His bib should be generously generous-ly proportioned to cover him well, and should be tied loosely enough at the neck so that it will not bind. Children's spoons should be designed de-signed to fit their tiny hands, too. The average baby spoon is apt to be heavier than a baby can hold easily, and its big rounded bowl is often too large for a baby's mouth. Try serving your baby from a tiny demitasse spoon, and see how delighted he is with something sized down to his own scale. Be careful, also, that foods FURTHER FACTS IN GOOD EATING HABITS When you begin to teach good (-'"ting hubits to your baby you will rejoice that there are prepared pre-pared strained food, now on the market, designed specially for very young babies. Infancy is the time to lay the foundation of these most important habits; and strained foods, which are introduced intro-duced during infancy are the perfect per-fect medium for this teaching. By introducing strained foods to your baby at four or five months, or as soon as your doctor advises serving them, you can get off to an early start in this training, which will be of inestimable value val-ue to your child in later life. For when children are taught the rudiments ru-diments of good eating while I they are very, very tiny, these habits will seem perfectly natural natur-al to them as they grow older. Of course, the lessons a baby can grasp must be simple. But he can learn, at a very early age, to like his food and eat with gusto to eat all the food that is put before him and relish a wide variety to eat according to a regular schedule and to manage the simple mechanics of good eating with some skill. It may take years to make a child adept at all these things, but a lot can be accomplished by promoting the development of these habits from the start. Now, one of the most important impor-tant ways to develop good eating eat-ing habits is to have peaceful mealtimes. From the start, meals should be associated in your child's mind with pleasant things. An affable, friendly mealtime is one of the surest aids to good digestion a boon for which your child will be grateful later on in life. A child should never hear, either at the family dinner table ta-ble or when he eats alone, any are not too runny and serving plates too shallow. These tiny details de-tails may seem trivial, but they are often the source of real eating eat-ing problems to our children later la-ter on. It is also well not to have too many diverting accessories on baby's table. Dishes adorned with fascinating figures and tablecloths table-cloths trimmed like fairy tales are not apt to slow up the pace of baby's eating and interfere seriously with his enthusiasm for his food. Serving a variety of foods is another important trick in training train-ing your baby to eat enthusiastically enthusiasti-cally and well. By introducing him, first, to the prepared strained strain-ed foods; then, as he grows older, serving the ready-to-use junior foods, you will have a range of twenty-six different varieties soups, cereals, vegetables, fruits, and desserts each with a distinctive distinc-tive flavor and a fine bright color col-or that will be sure to delight the eye and please the palate of your child. |