SHOCKING MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN SENT TO HEALTH CAMP

Evening Star, Issue 26137, 26 June 1947, Page 10

SHOCKING MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN SENT TO HEALTH CAMP

AUCKLAND, June 25

The worst eases of malnutrition ever received at the Campbell’s Bay health camp are among .'ll children now in residence. Five are graded C 3, including three who have been allowed to reach a pitiful state of undernourishment. These and others are shockingly underweight, and their limbs are reminiscent of pictures of European children wasted by famine. They are gradually overcoming an initial nervousness and timidity. “ These eases are damning indictments of some modern parents,” said the camp superintendent, the llev. A. Everil Orr. “ Back of care, lack of training, and lack of parental control, interest, and love are shamefully evident in certain instances.” Two of the worst cases in the camp are over-grown boys suffering from acute malnutrition. Both are from middle-class families, and their condition, according to the matron, Airs A. Orr, is almost solely due to lack of parental attention and supervision of diet. One child of eight told the matron that her mother let her buy what she liked for her dinner and tea". A child at an earlier camp said its parents gave each bf three children 2s (xl when they came home from school, with instructions not to show themselves until dark. Some of the children were as much as 321 b underweight on admission to the camp