Children’s Health At Pre-School Age

Northern Advocate, 30 August 1938, Page 8

Children’s Health At Pre-School Age

Delegates to the New Zealand Free Kindergarten Union Conference, which j's bing held in Wellington, and others interested in kindergarten work, were addressed on Wednesday night by Dr. M. A. Champtaloup. ‘‘Through toddlerhood to life” was the subject of Dr. Champtaloup’s address, and she dealt particularly with the health aspect of this period. She said that the kindergarten, the garden of children, had been called the seed plot of future fruit, and it was here that the physical, mental and moral life of the children had its beginnings. This period of early development war of tremendous importance because the child’s immunity to. infection was poorly developed. At two years of age he was practically defenceless, for he had lost what little resistance he had started with from his mother, and had not yet built up the new defence which contact with diseases in small doses developed in the child as he grew older. Dr. Champtaloup mentioned that at the present time in Wellington preventive work was being carried out in connection with measles by treating children who had come in contact with it with serum from adults.

The toddler was particularly prone to respiratory diseases, said Dr. Champtaloup, and that was the age at which to anticipate them. One of the aspects in which the toddler was superior to older children was the matter of dental caries, and the speaker said that out of 300 children under five examined last year, one-third had perfect sets of teeth. This was, of course, not as good as it should be, but it compared very favourably with the proportion of dental disease found in older children. ,

Nutrition was also, superior in the pre-school child to the entrant child, but this might mean that it was superior in children under kindergarten care, for they had no record of preschool children who did not go to kindergartens. The importance of the physical aspect of the child was being realised more and more, and people were considering not how much of certain types of food must the individual have, but .what was needed to produce the best possible results. New Beginnings. “Life is a series of new beginnings,” Dr. Champtaloup said, and pointed out that the age at which a child was at kindergarten was the age at which its reactions to things and people began to be determined. It was an age at which habits were formed and in this environment was important. The age from two till five was the only period in the child’s life when the State did not take some interest in its health, and here Dr. Champtaloup paid a tribute to the superiority of kindergarten children to other preschool children in facing new experiences, as evidenced by their attitude to the medical examination. If this were followed to its conclusion, she said, these children should be able to meet life more easily, and it was therefore a pity that so small a proportion of pre-school children attended kindergartens. Out of 8000 preschool children, less than 2000 were at kindergarten, but there were in addition to this 4000 under the Plunket system’s “follow-up” care. The child had been compared to a plant, she said, for all its characteristics were inherent in it but its growth and development were determined by the soil, the environment and the gardener. Just as a gardener must have knowledge as well as love, so a mother must have knowledge if she alone was to rear her child during the pre-school age. Dr. Champtaloup stressed the need for the continuous supervision of the child’s health from Plunket days until the school period. It would make dealings with the infant child far easier if its records went back to the very beginning. She stressed the need for co-operation not only among the welfare organisations, but between these organisations and the home, and said the kindergarten was at an advantage, for by virtue of the age of the child it must come in contact with the.home. She spoke of a club for parents, which she herself had recently been instrumental in organising in Wellington. It was called the Health Club, and there had been an excellent response from parents. At the conclusion of Dr. Champtaloup's address, discussions in connection with medical services and the Health Club took place. A vote of thanks to the speaker was moved by Lady Sidey, a delegate from Dunedin.