Whether the child be fed at the breast or with the bottle, the period from the tenth to the fifteenth month is usually one of transition. For the breast-fed baby it is often more critical than for the artificially fed, as the former has now to become accustomed to cow's milk and to a different method of feeding at the same time, unless it has been on mixed feeding or has learned to take water from a bottle. By the ninth month, bottle-fed infants may have cereals added to the milk in the form of thoroughly cooked gruel. By the beginning of the first year, there may be added to the diet strained cereals in the form of jelly, stale bread, zwieback or toast, soft-cooked egg (especially the yolk), and thin cream. Throughout the growing period, every child should get at least one quart of milk a day. Milk supplies the elements of growth liberally and in readily available forms. Orange juice or prune pulp should be given daily. By the twentieth month, systematic training in chewing should begin. In the latter part of the second year, well-cooked, strained or finely-mashed, easily-digested vegetables are added to the diet, and any mild fruit, cooked (or fresh if in perfect condition) and free from indigestible residues, may be given in moderate quantities. If a distaste for milk arises, the variety of other foods should be cut down and every effort made to lead the child back to it. Too much other food, especially if highly flavored, is frequently the cause of this dislike.

Meat is undesirable for young children, and should not be given before the fourth year, and preferably not till the eighth or ninth year, as sufficient protein is obtainable from milk and eggs. Sweet fruits, as prunes and dates, are preferable to pure sugar, as they contain valuable ash constituents and are less likely to destroy the taste for other proper food.

Tea, coffee, beer, and even cocoa except occasionally and very weak, should be prohibited. The child should no more expect to eat the same food as an adult than to dress like one. But his diet should be limited in quality rather than quantity, as he requires much more in proportion than an adult on account of his requirements for growth and his great activity. Up to five years of age, about eighty calories per kilogram seems to be desirable.

A well-known dispensary sends out printed instructions for the people of its neighborhood, prohibiting all eating between meals, and forbidding all pastry, coffee, tea, alcoholics and carbonated drinks, in the case of children of any age.

Those under seven years of age are allowed no preserved meats or fish, no hot bread, griddle cake, or nuts, no corn, cucumbers or egg plant.

For those under four years no stews, tomatoes, bananas, or any fruit in hot weather.

Children up to the age of eighteen months are to be limited entirely to milk, meat broths, orange juice and cooked and strained cereals; with, in exceptional cases, zwieback, biscuit and soft-cooked eggs.

Such education means much for the development of hardy men and women. Undernutrition is not due alone to poverty; much of it comes from ignorance.