HEALTH CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1937, Page 20

HEALTH CAMPS

THE COUNTRY CHILD

BENEFITS STRESSED

The benefits of health camp treatment to country children as well as children from the towns and cities is shown in the reports on school hygiene which are made to the Director-General of Health by the officers of the Division of School Hygiene.

"Country children generally, especially from good farming districts, attain a-satisfactory standard of growth and health," wrote Dr. A. G. Paterson, Director of School Hygiene, in a report to the Department. "It has always been noted by school medical officers, however, that though their nutrition as a whole, compares favourably .wi|h that of city children, marked Vnalnutrition may occur in remote country districts. It is a popular fiction that the country child is necessarily possessed of superior advantages. Among * the struggling population of the backblocks houses are often poor and cramped, with sanitation non-existent. In dairying districts children may be employed early and late out of doors. Food may be monotonous, hastily prepared, and badly cooked; it is often, deficient in vitamins and in body-building constituents."

It was in cases such as these, stated an official of the Health Department during the course of an interview, that the health camps could play a wonderful part in the health services/ of the Dominion, and in recent years large numbers of country children had benefited mentally and physically from a period in a health camp, while at the same time their fathers and mothers had obtained some relaxation from parental cares. CONCRETE EXAMPLES. Throughout the period the health camps have been in existence, detailed information has been kept of the progress of each admission —one country child at the Otaki Camp, for example, put on 71b in weight in a fortnight. Another took thirteen weeks to gain Alb, and then for no apparent reason put on 41b in a month. It-was unfortunate that in order to make room for others he had to be discharged just at this point. Another four months under the same regime was apparently necessary, but unfortunately the facilities were not available. For the Auckland Camp, which would have been held this month at Motuihi but for the infantile paralysis epidemic, 232 boys and 173 girls would have gone into camp from districts putside the city area, and this fact illustrated, the desire of the controlling bodies to give every child below normal health, whether it lived in town or country, an opportunity to recuperate. In a review of- the Southland Children's Health Camp Association's activities, the following sentences appeared" in a report furnished by Dr. Abbott:— "One child who gained most was a country boy of 13 years, who suffers very badly from asthma, and misses a good deal of schooling. on: that account. While in camp he had no attacks of asthma, and gained 81b in weight and Jin in height. The girl who gained most was also a country, girl of the same age; she gained in weight by 6£lb. The girls put on more weight on the average than did the boys,- while country boys averaged 3.61b against 3.21b gaino for city boys." In commenting on the big proportion of country children in ' the Southland Camp, Mrs, Stanley Brown, the Camp Commandant, stated:—"This number from country districts, where fresh air and sunlight are there for the having, makes one wonder whether we need be so concerned when sunshine is lacking, and should we not concentrate upon the thought that perhaps the things of most benefit to these undernourished children are regulated rest and diet." , .

The medical officers of the Health Department are welcoming the proposal to'1 establish permanent, health camps because it,will give scope for. adequate treatment to children under the best conditions. These camps will make it possible for the stay of certain children to, be prolonged until their physical and mental condition has been fully restored and they have gained powers of resistence which will stand to them, in the future.