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Some Kitchen Kinks: Chicago
In the changeable summer climate of Chicago, care must be taken against sudden chilling. A thin, soft flannel binder, wound two or three times around the body, will do more to guard against this chilling than the ordinary full dress of frock, vest, skirts, drawers, socks, etc.
This binder should be only wide enough to cover the belly, an inch or so above the navel and a couple of inches below. It should be wound smooth and free from creases or folds, and fitted with a few stitches of soft darning cotton-not pins.
This binder and a napkin are all the dress a baby needs during the heat of the day in the house in summer.
Do Not Let the Baby Sleep in the Same Bed with any Other Person. -If there is no crib, the mother should put a couple of chairs at her bedside, with any sort of soft covering on them-not feather pillows or hot woolen stuffs-and let the baby sleep there. It will be more comfortable on a summer night than lying against the hot body of its mother, and will not be so apt to disturb or be disturbed. The backs of the chairs will keep the baby from falling, and the mother can readily reach over to care for it when necessary. 66 Do Not Drug the Baby. If after all your care the baby should fall sick, do not pour drugs of which you know nothing into a body of which you know less."
There is no mother in the city of Chicago that cannot get the best of medical treatment for her sick baby without money and without price, if she is unable to pay. Call a doctor instead of spending money for patent medicines, "soothing sirups" or WHAT THE HOME NURSE OUGHT TO KNOW 1145 " cure-alls," which will probably do your baby more harm than good.
Although this advice is more directly for babies during the first year of life, the sense of it applies quite as well to older children.
Don't overfeed them, and don't let them overfeed themselves.
Don't give them rich food-meats, gravies, pastries, cake, etc.-nor a great variety. The simpler and plainer the better-plenty of milk, wholewheat bread, oatmeal, baked potatoes, baked apples, and fresh fruit of all kinds, in season, but be sure the fruit is ripe and fresh. Roast and stews and made dishes and-pie will come soon enough and so will dyspepsia.
Keep up the daily full bath until it becomes a fixed habit.
Keep them out in the open air as much as possible the whole year round, and send them into the country whenever you can do so, but only to places where the water is pure.
If a baby or child is worth having, it is worth saving, and more than half of the babies and young children that die (in Chicago) every year could be saved by following the advice here given.
A LAST WORD TO THE READER SCATTERED through the book, in almost every chapter, are foods and drinks of which a convalescent may partake. Instead of repeating again the recipes which have been already given, one may easily refer to the index. In the chapter on beverages are cocoa, afternoon chocolate, frozen punch, lime punch, raspberry and currant punch, raspberry vinegar, egg lemonade, black-currant cup, fruit cup, currant punch, and fruit beverage.
Among soups are found a number of recipes for this light and nutritious form of food for an invalid. While a convalescent is trying to gain strength, it is possible that the doctor may order soup for him every day. Among some best suited for such a diet is consommé, tomato soups, mutton, Du Barry, veal, chicken, cream of corn, cream of celery, asparagus cream, clam, Scotch mutton broth, and oyster soups.
From the egg chapter one may choose eggs soft boiled, steamed, baked, egg nest, poached, shirred, poached in milk, eggs in ramequins, or any of the delicious omelets.
Until convalescents are well advanced, a doctor allows few vegetables, except, perhaps, a baked potato or cream asparagus. Later come such food as carrots, green peas, spinach, or some of the wheat pastes, such as macaroni or spaghetti cooked in a cream sauce.
Although for some time after an illness toast is the bread usually served on an invalid's tray, a variety of breads takes its place during convalescence. Entire-wheat bread is considered nourishing for certain diseases, gum-gluten bread is often rigidly adhered to, or a bread made of bran. Then Boston brown bread, cornmeal gems, popovers, and bakingpowder biscuits are allowed as the stomach grows stronger.
It is some time after a sickness before salads take their place as a diet, then usually the crisp green things are served with a French dressing instead of mayonnaise. Where a mayonnaise is desired, the boiled dressing, blended with an equal quantity of whipped cream, often proves quite digestible. Among these salads may be numbered chicken salad, Waldorf salad, sweetbread-and-tomato salad, and salads made from hard-boiled eggs.
When one comes to desserts, there are an endless variety of delicious things which an invalid enjoys besides the few given in this chapter. Among them may be enumerated boiled and baked custards, chocolate custard, caramel custard, soufflés, fruit whips, meringues, all sorts of junkets, blancmange, boiled rice, plain rice pudding, tapioca cream, fruit tapiocas, plain bread pudding, chocolate bread pudding, cracker pudding, and almost any of the delicate desserts made from gelatin. Sponge cake is allowed, and sometimes a plain gingerbread, while ice cream of the plainer sort, fruit sherbets, and fruit ices are allowable.