1912:

Parents rejoice as, in a column for the Vancouver Sun entitled “How to Keep Well”, Dr. W.A. Evans provides a number of useful tips regarding what to feed one’s children. Evans begins by listing the most common causes of childhood malnutrition, among them: “He bolts his food,” “He gets too much emotional excitement,” “He plays too hard, too many hours, too intensely”, and “The child does not get enough food.”

“Among the list of approved foods for children 4 to 12 years of age are milk, meat broths, bouilion, milk soups, all soups, eggs, meat from fowls, all ordinary meats, all ordinary breads and cereals, macaroni, spaghetti, potatoes, rice, oysters, cheese, peas and beans, asparagus, spinach, greens, squash, pumpkin, celery, tomatoes, beets, carrots, lettuce, onions, parsnips, cocoa, puddings, tapioca, sago, blanc mange, ice cream, cooked fruit, raw ripe fruit, figs, apple sauce, grapefruit, bananas, berries, junket, and custard.”

Additionally, as Dr. Evans notes, “it is well to bear in mind the seasonal variation of growth. Children grow rapidly in the spring. They grow but little in hot weather. Let the mothers of young babies remember the latter half of that statement.”

 

IMAGE: Children playing in a yard at the corner of 18th Ave and St. Catherine’s, circa 1897. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.