Children Sleep and eating patterns

SLEEP

 If your child has had a good start in life, sleep should not be a major problem. Some difficulties undoubtedly will arise at some time. If they do, don't decide your youngster is being willfully bad; try to determine and eliminate the cause of trouble. For example, at some point your child may be afraid of the dark, usually because someone, not nec- essarily you, has frightened him. A dim light, or a door left open just a bit will often help dispel the fear. Children usually go to sleep more readily if the evening meal is simple and they are not too stimulated at bedtime.

EATING

 At some time or other, most babies fail to eat as well as their mothers would wish. If the mother becomes tense and begs the child to eat, he may be balky. If she punishes him, it may make him hate meal- times. We advise mothers to place food before their children and remove it if they don't eat it, with the result that they are ready for it by the next meal. But this simple method does not always work. It may be necessary to use ingenuity and imagination to make certain a child is getting enough to eat. If a child is a poor cater, the mother should calmly try to discover the circumstances under which he cats best. Often being alone so he is not dehydrated helps, food that is easily chewed, or food that is easy to manipulate, or some foods he likes; other foods should be gradually and tactfully added. Don't worry excessively about a child's eating.

Children do not starve themselves. Studies have demonstrated that even very small children who are allowed to freely choose their foods select a reasonably well balanced diet; they do not eat ice cream and candy only. Remember that feeding problems are often problems involving some- thing other than, or in addition to, eating. It is best to discover what the other problems are and solve them, but if you can't, a general atmosphere of love and relaxation will help. Your child grows and changes, and at one time may eat (or sleep) well; at another he may not.

Most children eat less in hot weather, in teething periods, and during the second year of life. Remember this, too, about feeding: The chubby child is not necessarily the healthiest child, although there has long been a misconception that this is the case. Recently, data from animal experiments indicate that the number of fat cells may be programmed early in life and an increase in the number of such cells will make the animal permanently obese so that it is exceedingly difficult to take off and keep off weight later in life. If these data prove to be true in the human, then early childhood may be a critical period in determining whether or not an individual will be obese later in life. With this in mind, it would seem best to feed a child healthily, moderately, and definitely' not to merely make him chubby.