A Study of the Food Habits of a Group of Five Pre-School Children

Author

Katie Sparrow, Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College

Date of Award

8-1935

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Degree Discipline

Home Economics

Abstract

It is very necessary that the most desirable food habits of the child be formed during the pre-school years for children are so utterly helpless during the first years of life that the importance of good health at this time is quite generally appreciated, and it is at this age the problem of the development of good food habits plays its most important part.

Later care and training can never take the place of painstaking and constructive body building through proper and well regulated food habits.

Every child should have established within him the fundamental, and by far the most desirable, habits of going to bed regularly each night at the same hour, eating a good breakfast each morning and eating equally as well at each meal, drinking milk at every meal and liking it; he should form the habit of liking all common vegetables and eating one generous serving daily, eating cooked cereals, especially the whole grain cereals and eating fruit of some kind each day.

It must be remembered however, that the foods mentioned above constitute only a part of the foods that should be consumed from day to day and along with those foods there should be a fairly large portion of whole wheat bread, toast, crackers, soups, especially vegetable and cream soups, eggs at least once a day in some form and simple desserts such as pure ice cream, fruit ices, simple cookies, puddings, and custards. These desserts are best for pre-school children and are likewise more advisable than richer desserts for any child during the growth period.

The importance of regularity of meal times can not be over-emphasized and no other single factor is so important for health, therefore it is of utmost importance that the meals be given at a regular hour each day.

In as much as the body acts best when it has definitely established hours for eating, when two meals are close together, and others far apart, and the hours vary hap-hazardly from day to day, no definite habits of eating and living can be built up. The child will be over hungry for one meal and not hungry for the next and the consequent ill effects on his nutrition and whole physical well being are inevitable.

Committee Chair/Advisor

E. J. Anderson

Publisher

Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College

Rights

Date of Digitization

8-3-2021

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Sparrow, K. (1935). A Study of the Food Habits of a Group of Five Pre-School Children. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/188