TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 January 1939, Page 4

TALKS ON HEALTH

THE DELICATE CHILD

(By a Family Doctor)

Many parents seem to find difficulty in deciding when to send a delicate child to school. 1 think we shall agree that school is a good tiling, and. if we read any modern history, we shall lie grateful for being born in an aye when education is so easy to obtain. The hours spent in school are very precious, and a child ought, not. to he deprived of them without, some very good reason. A child must not he. sent to mix. with others if there is any danger of carrying infection. A little one who coughs dangerous germs over companions should be rigidly excluded for the sake of others, quite apart from what, is best for the single child. We must, of course, protect our own children by insisting on the ex elusion from school of all cases 1 tuberculosis, ringworm, sores on the head, sore throat, and fever. advantages of school life. But what tire we to do with the chi d who is rather thin and pale, but not exactly ill? Well, until the doctor decides that the health of the child demands that he should be sent right away to the country, 1 am all in favour of the continuance of school life. After all. the schools are well ventilated, dry and clean; and what more cun be had al home? The singing, the breathing exercises, the games, and the general instructions are health-pro-moting. H would not be possible to do more if the child were kept at home, therefore send him to school. IL is only very rarely that a parent is justified in saying, “I do not wish to send Tommy to school because he is so delicate.” THE NERVOUS CHILD.

But what of the child that is nervous, sensitive, sleepless and frightened? In that case a greater responsibility rests on the parent. The father and the mother must take pains to study the little child’s growing mind, to come down to his level and try to understand the childish griefs and trials that, come to a little human of live years old. A careful explanation that, there is nothing to fear, that his terrors are unfounded, will go a long way to restoring confidence. A teacher deals with a large class; a mother can concentrate on the one individual. SCHOOL GENERALLY BEST.

You cannot take anyone, child or adult, out of the world. Here we are and here we have got to stick, mixing with all sorts of men and women, rubbing shoulders with many who are very distasteful to us. and having to get. on as best we can whether we like it or not. If you say that your boy is so sensitive and delicate that you are not going to let him go out in the cruel world, you are going to build him a. nice little nest, all lined with cotton-wool and swausdown, and never let him fly away, you are doomed to disappointment. Even if a little boy is sensitive, school is the best training for the future struggle of life;, it is a great misfortune for a grown-up man or woman to be shy; but that shyness and blushing and confusion are inevitable if childhood is spent in exclusion and loneliness.

THE CHILD WITH A STOOP. A stoop in a growing child should be carefully corrected as soon as it is noticed or it will become a habit. The head must be held up and the shoulders held back so as to allow of full expansion of the chest. The chest is really a bony box or cage containing the lungs and heart. But the cage is not made entirely of bone in a growing child: part of the skeleton is gristle. Now this gristle is soft, and can be bent into bad shapes by a stooping attitude, and as the child grows 1 the gristle disappears and gives place to hard bone which cannot be bent; it is permanently lixod. And now you see the importance of setting the bony cage in the right shape, so that it remain in that shape for ever. A bad shape may be stereotyped as well as a good one, and once the gristle has disappeared the shape can never be altered. NO ARTIFICIAL SUPPORTS.

May I also remind you that I object to all artificial supports. A strong, well-brought-up child is quite capable of holding himself in a proper attitude without, straps and leather apparatus. Jackets of any description are very rarely needed, and should only be ordered by a doctor. They are only used in advanced cases of diseases of the spine. You run a very real danger by resorting to artificial straps and stays. You prevent the muscles that, ought, to keep the figure in good trim from developing. You cannot have strong straps and strong muscles. If the straps do the work of the muscles, the muscles will waste away from disuse. Muscles are meant to be worked: they enjoy being worked. If you tell them they need not work because you will get. a strap to work for them, they begin to degenerate, just us you would if a. slave were hired to do all your work for you: you would soon be flabby. The stays that some little girls wear are an abomination. Good muscles are the best stays, and the female mind must, exercise its ingenuity in devising other methods of hanging clothes on. children titan by stays.

CAUSE OK NETTLE-RASH. Nettle-rash, or urticaria, is a complaint which always comes from something that has been eaten. In a large number of cases the offending material is fish, especially fried fish. Potted meat, tinned fish, and many other things may upset the patient in this' wav: lobster is a well-known offender. Il is curious how certain articles of diet afi’em different individuals. Food which is freely partaken by all the members of a family results in nettlerash lor only one. Experience is Hie only guide: when you have discovered that something gives you nettle rash

every time you eat it. you must look alter yourself. Once biiten. tv. -hv. 1 hud the most soothing application for nettle-rash is lead lotion: pieces of lint may be soaked m the lotion and applied to the face where flic itching and swelling arc often most apparent; warm baths into which a little so.de has been put often relieve, and sometimes bran baths are successful. .But. the great essential is to give a smart purgative-—castor oil is the best! —at once. It is most important that I the offending matter should be remov-i ed from the body without a moment’s ll rl'- lay. A -cry light diet should be the I ' rule for a day or tv.o.