Etiquette and ‘Sparing the Rod’

                                               

Tempt Child Rather Than Spank Him

CHICAGO.— What can you do with the child who balks, dawdles or messes over his meals? Miss Catherine Landreth says it’s wrong to use songs, stories, pleadings, scoldings, threats, forced feedings or spankings. They merely give the child a stronger spotlight of attention, for which most children strive in one way or another. 

She should know whereof she speaks for she faces plenty of “young problems’’ in her role of assistant professor of home economics and director of the Chicago University Nursery School. She contends that teaching a child to eat, with good manners, all the food placed before him should be a matter of gradual training from the time he can first feed himself. 

3 Hints For Mamas 

She advises parents to: 

1. Check the child’s general health to see that he gets enough sleep and outdoor play. 

2. Prepare wholesome foods as attractively as possible, serve reasonably small portions at regular intervals, leave the food before the child for a while and then remove it without comment. 

3. Make a child taste—but don’t force him to eat all of food he says he dislikes. Next time, serve the food in a quantity small enough that he will recall the last taste. 

Bright Colors Help 

A youngster’s eating is greatly enhanced, she says, by giving him bright-colored table appointments which he can handle comfortably himself. He should have a spoon he can grip firmly, steep-sided dishes that keep the food in place, and a small pitcher for pouring milk. And it’s not too early to start training when the baby makes his first awkward attempts at cooperation and independence, Miss Landreth maintains. 

He can be started with a high chair but should be moved to his own low table and chair as soon as he learns to handle eating utensils, the next step is the adults’ table but not until he has thoroughly mastered manners and understands he is to leave a clean plate.— By Aurelius Kinsey, AP Feature Service Writer, 1937

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