When caring for a sick child it is important to keep them hydrated and well-nourished. Often a child will eat little while complaining that nothing tastes good. An article on serving food to sick children in the January, 1925 issue of American Cookery began:
The sick child that loved his “land of the counterpane” in Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem by that name must have had a resourceful nurse or mother to prepare interesting food for him, or he would have been just as irritable as any other youngster, recovering from the measles or grippe.
My first reaction to the sentence was not about food for a sick child. Instead, I started digging deeply into my brain trying to remember what “counterpane” and “grippe” meant. They’re words I’m familiar with, but that I don’t think that I’ve heard since I was a child. “Counterpane” is another word for bedspread. I did an online search and found Stevenson’s lovely poem: The Land of the Counterpane. “Grippe” is an old-fashioned word for flu.
The article continues with suggestions for making food more appealing to sick children:
- The appearance of the tray has much to do with tempting the convalescent child. For instance, by folding a tent out of white wrapping paper, and standing it over the dishes, commonplace foods become delicacies of interest, particularly if a tin soldier stands near the tent to “guard your health.”
- A little girl would, likewise, eat her food with more gusto if her tray were covered with a box that could be used for a doll house after dinner.
- One little girl, who was too ill to go to a picnic she had planned attending, enjoyed her supper that night just because her mother thought to bring it to her in a picnic basket.
- Children who have eaten toasted sandwiches in the sandwich shops will be delighted with three-deckers stuck together with toothpicks, and will eat them, even when the sandwich filling is composed of oft-despised scrambled eggs or stewed prunes.
- Graham crackers are good, as well as nutritious, when served with milk. Try putting a few drops of hot syrup on the graham crackers, and standing an animal cracker on each one. It will be lots of fun to eat the circus parade along with the milk.
- One child even learned to like grapefruit when his mother put the juice in a bottle, and let him pretend it was medicine.
- To encourage the finicky child to eat up all the food on his tray, a meal ticket may be issued and every time the food is all eaten the ticket is punched. When a certain number of “meals” have been punched the child may be given a small reward.
American Cookery (January, 1925)
Great ideas Sheryl!!
It’s nice to hear that you liked this post. Brings back memories of both when I was sick as a child, and when my children were ill.
That article was very well thought out.
I laughed at the concept of a child eating in bed. The reason? I cannot abide eating anything in bed! Even a chocolate cookie would not tempt me in bed.
I can actually remember my mother bringing a tray with food up to my bedroom a few times when I was ill. I never did that with my kids. Similarly to you, I don’t think that I wanted them eating in bed.
My children might like to have been pampered, but I don’t remember feeding them in bed. I just know that I cannot take a bite of anything while in bed. That could be bad if I’m ever bedridden!
Sent this to my daughter-in-law and son…grandchild slightly sick…
Hope your grandchild is feeling better very, very soon.
There are a lot of sweet and loving suggestions, here, and I enjoyed it very much. Fun, too, that your photo includes a tray, Sheryl.
It’s nice to hear that you liked the photo – though I must admit that when I posted it that I was frustrated that the tray wasn’t authentic for a hundred years ago. Trays back then wouldn’t have contained plastic. They would have been metal (probably painted metal).
I think little boys would like the doll house idea too!
I agree!
What fun suggestions for a sick child.
Some of the author’s ideas were really creative.
The words counterpane and grippe were used often around my home growing up. I had very picky girls and even meals when they were not sick were difficult.
Counterpane and grippe were also often used around my home when I was growing up. I’m not sure why I quit using them once I became an adult. I guess it was because no one else used them – and then I almost forgot them until I saw them in the old magazine article.
I live in a different part of the country and had to learn many new words and phases. Now I have to go redd up the house.
I also should go redd up my house. 🙂
Interesting.
It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post.
You’re welcome.
Thanks for looking up the meanings. I’d heard of grippe but didn’t know it was flu, but I never heard of counterpane. I like that Land of Counterpane. Thanks for the link, I enjoyed the poem.
I like the suggestions, for the most part, they would be quite helpful.
It’s such a sweet poem.
The one thing I remember about being sick in bed or on the couch was a very basic potato soup and crackers….
My mother often made cinnamon toast for me when I was sick – and I carried on that tradition. I would make cinnamon toast for my children when they were ill.