Eating Between Meals Condemned

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29911, 27 August 1962, Page 2

Eating Between Meals Condemned

A great deal of dental decay in young children was the result of mothers letting them eat between meals. Professor A. M. Horsnell, of the department of dental sciences, University of Adelaide, said in Christchurch last evening. Ordinary dental or surgical treatment of very bad tooth decay in children of four or five was often largely a waste of time without attention being given to diet, he said.

Professor Horsnell is on his way home from Dunedin, where be was a guest speaker at the recent congress of the New Zealand Dental Association.

“I just can't see how mothers can let children destroy their appetite for meals by nibbling all the time between,” said Professor Horsnell. ‘‘Pretty well every mother goes to an awful lot of trouble to prepare meals for her children, yet so often a child is allowed to turn down the meal and then come back half an hour later for a biscuit or a slice of bread and jam. ‘‘A child which does most of its eating between meals is usually malnourished. Only at the three full meals is the child likely to get a selection of all the proper foodstuffs. For growth, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, salts, vitamins. and trace elements are all necessary; but if a child is allowed to stuff itself with biscuits all day it will simply not get enough of some of these essentials. "One does not heat one’s house by continually burning newspaper in the grate; yet trying to keep one’s body going by relying on carbohydrates for fuel is just about as silly. “At the London Hospital Medical College and Dental School, with which I was associated for 25 years before taking up my present appointment, we tried dietetic treatment on a group of children whose teeth were so bad that ordinary dentistry or surgery looked unlikely to succeed. We saved many of the teeth, and at the same time the general health of the children was improved—their complexions glowed, they had more zest for living. Some put on weight, others took off unhealthy fat which had been the result of overfeeding with the wrong type of food.

"When I w’ent to Adelaide, to my amazement, the situation was very similar. The same remedies were applied and the same highly satisfactory results obtained. I have not the slightest doubt that some New Zealand children ruin their appetites in the same way and suffer the same penalty, which could be avoided by the same dietetic care.’’ Mothers, Too Not only children, but some mothers, too. had the nibbling habit, and their teeth often gave evidence of its deleterious effect, said Professor Horsnell. A survey was under way In his de-

pantment to try to relate the eating habits of mothers to the dental condition of their children. When enough data had been collected, an attempt would be made to distinguish hereditary factors from direct prenatal influence and from the effect of the family environment.

There was no harm in a cup of morning or afternoon tea. either for a child or an adult, if the main meals were not affected, but morning tea was no substitute for a good breakfast.