SICKNESS AMONG CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 298, 10 September 1921, Page 2

SICKNESS AMONG CHILDREN

TRUANT OFFICER REPORTS- A BAD QUARTER. Speaking to a,Dominion representative yesterday, the truant officer for the Wellington district (Mr. J. Laughton) said that' there was a unusual amount of sickness among children of school age at the present time. The first two quarters of the present year had been a little better than the best on record, but during the third quarter—now drawing to a close—there had been a complete break-down. Indeed, it was one of the worst quarters in his experience. One of the chief causes seemed to be an influeutu cold, which was accompanied by abnormal running of the eyes and nose, and which - knocked the children out for a \week or two. ■ ... . ' "I have noticed," he said, "that most. \ of this sickness seems to be prevalent jnitlie homes of the poorer people, where perhaps, the children are not so well nourished as they might be. At any . rate, it seems to be the puny children who knock under to these nasty colds.” Of late, the truant officer stated, he had made it _ a practice to visit the homes, oi the .children, reported as being absent j rather (han issue the usual notices. That entailed a little more trouble, but it had repaid him, for he had been able to see at first hand why it was injudicious to worry some mothers with truant notices, when they had their hands full tending to children who were sick. In one place yesterday, he found a mother ‘with her four children all laid up, and not knowing which way to turn. In another case a child had been so persistently absent that he was about to issue a summons, when lie thought he would visit the home/ There he found that a week ago the child 4iad been severely scalded down one side, and was 1 swathed in cotton wool. There were, too. cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever here and there to add to the general distress. J