Tempttng the Appetite Dangerous
TEMPTTNG THE APPETITE.—It being the duty of nurses to prepare foods and see that patients get them, a vicious prac¬tice not only encouraged but insisted upon by many physi¬cians has developed. This is tempting the appetite when the patient has little or no desire for food. Thousands and hun¬dreds of thousands of patients have doubtless been hurried, literally, into untimely graves and a great many more greatly retarded in their convalescence and recovery by this practice. With only a few exceptions lack of or reduced appetite indi¬cates that the body not only does not need food but cannot utilize it. To feed Under such circumstances is to add further to the enervation and toxemia—the underlying conditions re¬sponsible for the vast majority of illnesses.
It is perfectly proper to make food attractive and interest¬ing to the patient. This may be done by varying the diet as much as the circumstances and the illness will permit. The manner of cooking or otherwise preparing may be varied, also, and the foods may be served in dainty, unexpected ways. The tray, the dishes, the linen all may be, in fact should be, ar¬ranged attractively. Flowers may be added to enhance the attractiveness of the whole and even the bread may be varied in cut and character, sometimes appearing as toast and some¬times in sticks, triangles and squares instead of slices. If a certain food that cannot be injurious is persistently craved it may be given, the amount depending upon its nature and the patient’s condition. These things are all legitimate “appetite tempters,” and aids to digestion.
But the practice of giving jellies and jams and preserves, or condiments, pickles or other vinegared products or of giving tidbits between meals or some alcoholic or other beverage before meals, even in minute quantities, or various other sub¬stances having no actual food value but producing their ef¬fect upon the appetite by unnatural stimulation—all these are to be condemned. The trained and the practical nurse now¬adays are not so likely to give these things as is the family nurse—that is, some member of the family, especially the mother, through her misguided love. She is the chief culprit. Foods attractively served, with an agreeable aroma and flavor, plus honest appetite created by the body’s genuine need for food, are all the appetizers any patient needs or should have.