THE FEEDING OF SICK CHILDREN IN HOSPITALS.
We have seen from the foregoing that it is by no means easy to feed a single sick child at home, and we will therefore readily understand how these difficulties increase in the children's wards of General Hospitals or in Children's Ifospitals.
Baginsky has laid down the following general dietetic rules for sick and convalescing children of the different ages: I. Diet for convalescents from severe diseases and for wasting surgical affections without fever, in which we desire an overfeeding, also for chronic ailments wit limit fever where the amount of food should be about normal.
II. Diet for patients who have moderate fever and convalescents whose temperature has just dropped to normal, in these cases the func tions of the digestive tract are usually not yet quite normal.
III. Diet for fever patients, mostly liquids.
The amounts of each of these three diets have to be adapted to the different ages, as a rule, A., children of from nine to fourteen years; B., from five to nine years; C., from one and a half to four years.
A number of tests to determine how the food was digested (by Baginsky, Dronke, Sommerfeld) gave the following amounts of food elements for the different ages and diets.
'We should give as a daily average: to children from two to four years: proteid, 50 Gm., fat, 50 Gm., carbohydrates, 141) Gin., together 1250 calories; from five to eight years: proteid, SI) Gm., fat, (i5 Gin., car bohydrates, 220 Gm., together 1825 calories; from eight to twelve years: proteid, 85 Gm., fat, 80 Gm., carbohydrates, 275 Gm., together 2220 calories. These average figures will be found grouped according to the different diets in Table IS.
The high amounts for the second diet are caused by the large quan tities of milk and vegetables cooked with milk. We also must take into account that the majority of patients come from the poorer classes and therefore prefer carbohydrates.
In Table 19 we give a qualitative survey of the three diets and in Table a quantitative survey of the same as ‘vell as for the different ages and for single meals.
The diet regulations for the associated hospitals of the City of I)iisseldorf are much simpler and call for smaller quantities, as may he seen film' the following-: