HEALTH CAMPS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 28 April 1937, Page 7

HEALTH CAMPS

KING GEORGE V NATIONAL MEMORIAL FUND COUNTRY CHILDREN i \alth camp benefits The necessity foe Health Camp treatment for country children as well as children from the towns aiul cities is emphasised in the reports on school hygiene which are made to the Director-General Of Health by the officers of the Division o f School Hygiene. “Country children generally, especially from good farming districtsa ttain a satisfactory standard of growth and health, wrote Dr. A. G. Paterson, Director of School Hygiene in a report to the Department. “It has always been noted by school medical officers, however, that though their nutrition as a whole compares favourably with that of city childrei, marked malnutrition may occur in remote country districts. It is a popular fiction that the country child is necessarily possessed of superior advantages. Among the struggling population of the backblocks, houses* are often poor arid cramped, with sanitation non-existent. In dairying districts children may be employed early and late out of doors. Food may be mpnotous, hastily prepared, and badly cooked; it if often deficient in vitamins and in body-building constituents.'’ In was in cases such as these, stated an official of the Health Department during tfie course of an interview, that the Health Camps could play a wonderful part in the health services of the Dominion, and in recent years large numbers of country children had benefited mentally and physically from a period in a Health Camp, while at the same time their fathers and mothers had obtained some relaxation from parental cares. Throughout the period the Health Camps have been in existence, detailed information has been kept of the progress of each admission. One country child at the Otaki C?mp, for example, put on 71bs in weight in a fortnight. Another took thirteen weeks to gain Hl*! and then for no apparent reason put on 41bs in a month. It was unfortunate that in order to make room for others he had to be discharged just at this point. Another four months under the same regime was apparently necessary, but unfortunately the facilities were not available.

For the Auckland camp which would have been held this month at Motuihi but for the infantile paralysis epidemic, 23i! boys and 173 girls would have gone into camp from districts outside the city area, and this fact illustrated the desire of the controlling bodies to give every child below normal health, whether it lived in town or country, ah opportunity t 0 recuperate. In a review of the Southland Children’s Health Camp Associations’ activities, the following sentences appeared in a report furnished bv Dr. Abbott: —“One child who gained most was a country boy of 13 years who suffers very badly from asthma, and misses a good deal of schooling on that account. YVhile in camp he had no attacks of asthma, and gained Bibs in weiglit apd £ inch in height. The girl whq gained most was also a country girl of tfie same age; sfie gained in weiglit by Cjlbs. The girls put on more weight on tfie average than did tfie boys, while copptry boys averaged 3.61bs against 3.2 lbs for city boys. 11l commenting op the big proportion of country children in the Southland Camp, Mrs 'Stanley Brown, the Camp Commandant Stated: “This number from country districts, where fresh air and sunlight are there for the having, makes qne wonder wfiether we need be so concerned when sunshine is lacking, and sfioqld we not concentrate upon the thought that'perhaps thg tfiings of ipost benefit to those undernourished children are regulated-rest and diet.”

T|]e mecfical officers of tfie Health Department are welcoming the proposal ; o establish permanent Ijealth Camps because it will give scope joy adequate treatment to children under the best conditions. These Camps will make it possible for the stay of certain children to fie prolonged until their physical and mental condition lias been fully restored and they have gained powers of resistence which will stand to them in the future.