In many, if not most, Victorian homes (at least in Britain), children dined separately from adults. Generally they dined in the nursery, attended by a governess. This actually made sense if one considered the fact that the adults' dinner might be as late as 10 p.m.; the children would have dined and been put to bed long before this! This also meant that children were often served very different meals than the adults.

The Sickroom and Nursery: Jellies (Peterson's, 1856)

Sickroom & Nursery Recipes (Peterson's, 1856)

Food for Young Children (Godey's, 1860)

Health Department: Children's Food (Godey's, 1863)

Little Children: How to Feed Them (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1875)

Catering for Children's Parties, by A.G. Payne (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1880)

This article opens with an intriguing discussion of how children have changed in "recent years," and notes that today, in the question of coffee vs. tea, most children prefer to drink coffee...

Food and Medicine for Children (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

Are We Really Feeding Our Child Aright? (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1883)

Common Sense About Children's Diet (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

School Luncheons, by Phillis Browne (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

By 1887, school hours had changed so that younger children remained at school in the morning and afternoon, with no meals provided. This article describes how to prepare appropriate bag lunches for young students.

Indigestion, by "The New Doctor" (Girl's Own Paper, 1898)

A grim statistic: "The majority of deaths under a year old is due to wrong feeding." The author goes on to note, "Some people have the most extraordinary notions of the value of infants' lives; some do not consider the death of a baby as anything serious!"