WORK OF HEALTH VISITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18381, 23 April 1923, Page 12

WORK OF HEALTH VISITOR.

& King's College, London, ia at present ■ the centre of ', special - lectures for women ; aanitary inspectors : and ; health visitors. Miss Cooper ; • Hodgson, ; superintendent health visitor for the County of Durham, Staring on %\' The General Worn of a, "Health .Visitor," said that they were not working to produce a race of people who "could only exist if interviewed at an ante-natal clinic before'they were born, 'and could only survive if weighed once a week. at infant welfare clinics. > ihey were 1 trying .to teach the art of. " living amid the complications of moaera life. The opportunities, for a stupid or lazy mother to miss-feed her family 100 or 200 years ago were far fewer than they were to-day, when there . was- a baker's shop at r every street corner. She ; could no! ' then have fed her family on; bakers .bread, -or ' on bread and • jam. If people did not : make their .; own jam they had none, and there was no tinned meat. She said that she did not ; know which was the more important of the I two things every health visitor should 'teach— value -of fresh air or the importance of "dietetics, As regarded the health visitor's advice on : dietetics, she said thai she did not belong to " the red herring and oatmeal" school. ..Even in - Scotland oatmeal : porridge was _ not as popular as it used to be. While fully -realising the value of both herrings and oatmeal, she did not go about persuading ■people to economise by living on them', because she would dislike the diet herself. The health visitors should advise mothers how to make cheap dishes which were appetising. ______________