The Young Mother (1836)

AUTHOR: Alcott, William Andrus

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

Amongst a plethora of health-related advice for the raising of children, and his mantra that there “is nothing more important in diet than simplicity” (152), Alcott advises specifically against feeding animal broth to young children, as it is not only “unnecessary,” but “injurious” (140). In general, Alcott promotes “the use of a larger proportion of vegetable food – bread, plain puddings, rice, potatoes, turnips, beets, apples, pears, &c., and milk” (161). Alcott maintains that animal food increases the demand for drink (e.g., 199, 202), and that water “is indeed the only appropriate drink” (164). He repeatedly emphasizes that “improper food and drink” are the most likely cause for “infantile ill health” (204). As elsewhere in his writings, Alcott discusses the advantages and disadvantages of individual items of food, from apples to nuts, from meats to potatoes, and from bread to eggs, to name but a few. He also gives detailed advice on what to prepare when, and what is best for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He is particularly fond of unleavened wholegrain bread (Graham bread).

In a remarkable passage that draws an analogy between human and animal slavery, Alcott rejects horseback riding on moral grounds. "Young children, in riding on horseback, are rather apt to acquire, rapidly, the habit of domineering over animals. It seems almost needless to say how easy the transition is, in such cases, should opportunity offer, from tyranny over the brute slave, to tyranny over the human being. There are slave-holders in the family and in the school, as well as elsewhere. It is the SPIRIT of a person which makes him either tyrant or slave-holder. And let us beware how we foster this spirit in the children whom God has given us" (231-232).

Alcott promotes dress reform for children (47-94). Children's clothes “should be so free and loose that they may use their little limbs, their necks and their bodies, as much as they please; and in every desired direction” (50). In general, he advocates loose forms and materials like flannel that enable proper ventilation and argues specifically against tight lacing. “The great point in regard to food or dress,” Alcott writes, “is to begin right, and, observing what nature requires,— studying at the same time the testimony of others — endeavor to keep within the bounds she has assigned” (68). For Alcott, this means clothes favorable to movement and ventilation, and a vegetable diet.