HEALTHY CHILDREN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 165, 13 June 1936, Page 11

HEALTHY CHILDREN

MEDICAL OFFICER’S LECTURE. TO CITIZENS’ LUNCH CLUB. In an address to members of the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lunch Club yesterday Dr. Elizabeth Gunn, medical officer lo the AVanganui Education Board, took as her subject “Healthy Boys and Girls” and dealt with the upbringing of a child, giving indications of matters which should receive encouragement and others which should be minimised. 'J be chair was taken bv Mr J. Murray. Most babies were born healthy and they received special care in feeding, clothing and attention, but there were very many parents who did not recognise that the two to five-year-old children should be watched and cared for just as much, Dr. Gunn said. Bv watching the child could such matters as malnutrition and tho development of disease be checked, so that it grew up perfectly healthy. It was said that the food a child had to-day determined, to a considerable extent, tho kind of man he would be in the future. AVe had not been a nation living on orange juice and lettuce leaves; the British people required a healthy, mixed, wellbalanced diet. Milk, eggs, meat, cereals and other grains, vegetables and fruit provided all that was required. Milk was the best food of all and all children should have a pint to a pint and a half each day as well as their ordinary food. Dr. Gunn said she was delighted that there was, at last, one class in one school in the Palmerston North district where each child had half a pint of milk each morning at 10.30 from a herd which had been shown by test as being free from tuberculosis. The milk scheme formerly proposed had been dropped because it had been impossible to arrange the milk supply satisfactorily; Adequate exercise was very important for the child, proceeded Dr. Gunn, who said that participation in games and sport should be encouraged. Making too much of a child’s ills should be guarded against, and parents should not talk about a child’s illnesses in front of it. Parents should regard it as essential not to talk about disa.bilitics a child might have, but rather to encourage participation in open-air games with other children in order to give it tho happy and healthful life it should have. The rules of health were simple and easy to follow, said the speaker, whatever one’s circumstances might be. As much fresh air as possible should be obtained, clothes should he light and day clothes discarded at night; breathing should be deep, the posture in sitting and standing should be one of erectness, bathing should lie frequent and out-of-door exercise should be generous in its amount. Children should be kept away from infections diseases; it was quite wrong to say that they might as well get the measles and get it over.” AVorrying was as had for a child as it was for adults, faults to be guarded against included too little sleep (owing to remaining up late), the development of marked dislikes in regard .to food, nervous strain, eye strain, unhappy home conditions, and being placed in too high a class. These all

contributed toward retarding physical development; also, “fussy” parents did not help their children. SEPARATE MEALS. The speaker advocated that children should not have their meals with their parents, and said that was especially so in regal'd to the evening meal. The children ate the wrong food and joined in conversation which was not for them. The matter of sleep was stressed by the speaker, who said that many five-year-olds at school could well be at home in good surroundings where they would be quieter and would have more opportunity for rest. There had been less malnutrition in the last two or three ven.rs, and one factor in bringing that about had been that the five-year-olds had had another year at home. Five and six-year-olds, if not going to a nursery school, should have half an hour’s rest on arriving home. SIGNS OF GOOD HEALTH.

A healthy boy or girl should have a good clear skin, firm muscles, an elastic step, he of the correct height and

weight for his or her age, have a good digestion and be ready for meals, enjoy ample sleep, not he nervous and irritable and have an interest in other people and things, and not oulv in himself or herself. In that connection, it was interesting that there had been an increase in both the average height and the average weight of New Zealand children in the last 20 years. Tn support of that it was a. fact that in 1934, which had followed two or three years of depression and was a year in which was experienced a series of epidemic diseases, especially measles and influenza which seriously affected the children’s progress, their physical development had been maintained. Some 40,000 children had been weighed and measured throughout New Zealand for the conducting of the test.

Dr. Gunn concluded by relating a number of amusing episodes she had met with in the course of her duties. A vote of thanks was accorded the speaker on the motion of the chairman. Visitors present were Messrs G. Lovelock and C. Woods.