The Children's Supper by Mrs. Louise Hogan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 23, 1915

The Children's Supper

By Mrs. Louise Hogan

WHAT to give the children for supper may seem of trifling account, but it is really a most important matter. A child's rest at night depends largely upon what it has eaten for its supper. It is safe to follow two rules: Never give a heavy supper, and avoid, if possible, giving it later than five or half past five o'clock, at least until a child is six years old. Thus an intervening hour and a half is left before the nightly sponge bath, which is exceedingly refreshing before bedtime, especially in hot weather, and which, with a well-selected supper, induces sleep in defiance of the heat, however oppressive. I emphasize this early hour for supper because it is not unusual to find mothers who, for their own convenience, give the evening meal to their little ones as late as half past six or seven o'clock. Such mothers visit physicians regularly, and ask advice as to what should be done to make their children sleep soundly, complaining that they are restless, wakeful, and easily disturbed. A child who has had a simple and early supper, if he is in good health, will be found to protest against being disturbed, and will want to sleep. Even in the case of a little baby, it is possible and very desirable not to wake him thoroughly for his ten or eleven o'clock bottle. He can be trained to take it while he sleeps, and this encourages the habit of continuous slumber from seven to seven, which is the greatest boon that a tired mother can ask, and is of equal benefit to the child.

Sleeplessness or disturbed sleep in a child points either to a faulty regimen or is the forerunner of disease, and it invariably needs attention and correction. To the mother who is watchful of the health of her child it is one of the safest indications that something is wrong, and it should be the only warning necessary to bring about a calling of the family physician, with a view, particularly, of looking into the child's diet—the cause of so large a per cent of infant ailments.—Mrs. Louise Hogan, in Good Housekeeping for July.