OUR BABIES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 March 1925, Page 14

OUR BABIES

(By Hygeia.)

Published under the auspices oi the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children .(Plunket Society). PUBERTY. 0 Last week we were dealing, in a general wav with the need for careful attention at the second period of life when children need to be specially safeguarded—viz., puberty. Since -that \letter was written we have received letters with regard to a particular case —a little girl between 11 and 12. For some months the child has been wayward, and has not wanted to go to school, though previously she had been very keen and decidedly clever. - A FEW NOTES FROM THE LETTERS. “I told Peggy she must look inside and.,find happiness. 1 am glad to say she has gone back to school, and is quite good. The doctors sav there is nothing wrong with her —both the phvsician arid the surgeon. •‘To-day Peggy again complained oi pains, and would not go to school. Alice drove her along in the car, but she would not go in; so she brought her back, and she was put to bed.” Next day: “Peggy is better, and lias oone to school. We are trying to make Eer go regularly. The day following: “Peggy went to school to-day. She. was averse to going, and looked pale and worn; but we induced her to stick it out in spite of the pain.” DR, TRUBY KING’S ADVICE.

In writing to the parents Sir Truby King says: — “The assumption is that there is something wrong with the child which needs serious and immediate attention. When there are repeated complaints and palpable evidences oi pains, however vague, it. cannot be too strongly insisted upon that doctors lower in the scale of professional wisdom than Sir James MacKenzie are always only too ready to say, /‘There is nothing wrong with the child,’ wherever there is nothing tangible, to be ascertained by means of their limited senses, aided by stethoscopes, test-tubes, etc. “The doctors tell you there is nothing wrong with Peggy in spite of the fact that she has repeatedly complained 1 on and- off of not feeling well or being in actual pain, and being unwilling to go to school. Of course, she might be shirking and ‘putting it on,’ but the references in your letters do not point that way —at any rate as the main reason-. Shirking would not account for the" following:—‘Peggy was averse to going to school to-day, blit we induced her to. stick it out in spite of the. pain', though she looked' pale and worn and did' riot want to go.’ Now, it is not natural or normal for a little girl of 11 or 12 years to look pale and worn, but it is perfectly natural that she should not want to. go to school when pale and worn looking. According to Sir James MacKenzie, such a child is presumably in the early or curable stage of disease, or at least of developing mental shortcomings, and if due attention were ' paid to such manifestations by physicians it would be a great thing for the - health of mankind. You should goto the only source of first-class, first-hand knowledge and wisdom in this matter. Borrow and read the first dozen or so i pages of Sir James MacKenzie’s most sensible and illuminating book. ‘The Fntaire of Medicine,’ and 1 am sure you will agree with me. The book is so Readable and interesting, and applies so much to all of us, that you should read the opening passages in any case —-and there would he no use reading any more. “Another thing I wish you would read is the article on ‘Education and the Nervous System,’ by Sir James Crichton-Brown, which is to he found in Cassell’s ‘Book of Health,’ first published about 40 years ago. I never read anything equally good on the subject, and it js as applicable to-day as it was when written. There is very little to add. Vague Troubles of Puberty. ■ “Over and over again I have seen children approaching puberty with just such vague troubles, and the invariable rule should he to take them away from school for a few months and ‘turn 4 them out "to grass, 5 under favourable conditions for normal growth, expansion, and development, and full enjoyment of the natural joie de vivre, unhampered by the artificial stimuli and restrictions "of modern civilisation. How utterly opposed the conditions and processes of our education system are to rendering justice to the requirements of the rapidly-growing body and nervous organisation of the child during one of the most critical phases of existence is shown by the fact That it was proved 20 to 30 years ago by Schmidt Monrad in Germany (and has been verified over and over again since, especially throughout the United States) that an ordinary child taken away from school will grow, expand, and put on weight as much in one month spent in. happy, open-air life on a farm or at the seaside as it will do in 12 months of school life. Further, delicate children who have to lie kept away from school for 12 months under doctor’s orders have been found, on statistical investigation, to increase on the average from 30 to 40 per cent, more in ’weight and heighfi *than the strong child does at school. “Speaking many years ago to Miss A —, the old ‘Aunt Mary,’ as her family all affectionately and admiringly called her, she said: ‘Mv life was saved by a donkey. When I was an ailing little girl and not doing well at school, they turned me onto on a farm with a donkey, and it was the best, thing ever done for me.’ She could speak with some kind of personal authority, because she was then an octogenarian ; hale, hearty and healthy, and competent and fit, both in body and in mind; Further, during a. long period of her long life she had been in charge of the hoarders in schools, both in the Homeland and in the Dominion. Conference N.Z. Medical Association. “You remember I gave an address before the New Zealand Medical Association in Auckland at the annual conference for the Dominion on this very aspect of the health and education of schoolgirls, and got a unanimous resolution passed to the effect that the State should deprecate and prevent as far as possible the exploitation of schoolgirls for the purpose-of cramming.and passing examinations, etc., and that 'the Education Department should sot its face against anything tending to affoct adversely the future permanent health and efficiency of the individual (physical, mental, and moral), and militating against the probabilities Of perfect wifehood and motherhood, if that should happen to he their lot