N.Z. SCHOOL CHILD

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 126, 23 February 1944, Page 3

N.Z. SCHOOL CHILD

Lamentably Low Health Standard Reported

The average standard of health of the New Zealand school child was lamentably low and the outstanding causes of this, from the findings of the Health Department, were “dietary deficiencies and mistakes, dental caries, insufficient sleep, too much radio and restlessness, and poor ventilation of bedrooms,” says an article in a recent issue of the School Dental Service Gazette, discussing the incidence of rickets in New Zealand children. Rickets was a deficiency disease common in children lacking vitamin D. lu New Zealand it was difficult to postulate the specific cause-of the bony deformities occurring in children as being vitamin D deficiency, the article said. Subnormal nutrition was said to be twice as common in small country schools as in town schools. Children living on Great Barrier Island under natural conditions and with a high percentage of sea foods and fish in the diet presented a much higher standard of nutrition and dental health than children on the mainland. . To what extent was vitamin D deficiency responsible for the common faults in the physique of the New Zealand child, pigeon chest, lateral depression of the ribs, bow legs, “knock” knees, flat feet, drooping posture, poor tooth formation and dental caries? Unfortunately it was impossible to get unanimity of opinion up to the present time, even among tesearch workers. Child welfare clinics for kindergarten and pre-school- age groups were being developed and though results so far revealed a high incidence of defect, no statistics as to the incidence of rickets were yet available. However, it was obvious that major and revolutionary changes in the every«av hygiene and in the dietetic and postulate habits of children were necessary to eliminate these preventable defects iu New Zealand, defects which might be directly caused by vitamin D deficiency or by other dietetic faults, or very possibly combination of both. Ignorance and apathy on the part of parents,* toegthcr with the high cost and scarcity of the protective foods, specially in inland coutidistricts, were in the main fespousible for that primary cause of disease, both dental and general, in New Zealand children, namely, the high incidence of subnormal nutrition.