INFANT FEEDING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23528, 17 June 1938, Page 10

INFANT FEEDING

CHILD MALNUTRITION PLUNKET SYSTEM NOT TO BLAME WRONG METHODS LATER (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 16. “ This is because these children do not continue along the same lines of living and feeding as when they were under the direct supervision of Plunket nurses,” said Dr M. B. M. Tweed, who until recently was medical adviser to the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, in commenting to-night on reports of the high incidence of malnutrition among primary school children in New Zealand. The Dominion Council of the British Medical Association at a recent meeting decided to approach the Minister of Health (Mr P. Fraser) and ask for an investigation to be made into child nutrition in the Dominion.

“ The Truby King methods ' are well established and give good results all over the world, but the points to which the public must keep their attention directed are illnesses and physical defects, which are so distressingly common among children after they leave the hands of the Plunket Society,” Dr Tweed said. “ When we start right, there is no reason why we should not keep right, but the fact that for some reason or other we have to raise large sums of money to repair damaged health among children shows that there is still a great deal of work to be done in the field of prevention. It is a question of national concern as to how long this need for restoring the health of children shall be continued. “Even when health has been successfully restored, what is to prevent further under-nourishment and wrong upbringing by returning children to the environment which originally produced their disability? ” Dr Tweed asked. “ Thanks to the teachings of Sir Truby King and the Plunket Society during the past 30 years, breast-feeding is far more popular among all sections of the community in New Zealand than in any other English-speaking country. Furthermore, in New Zealand, if a baby has the misfortune to be artificially fed, it is usually fed on a milk mixture modified as closely as possible to human standards.” Dr Tweed said it was due to Sir Truby King that 85 per cent, of the babies in New Zealand to-day started off in life fed by their mothers. “It is the aim and object of the Plunket Society to see that these babies are not deprived of their natural food without just cause,” he said. Referring to the criticism of the percentage system of infant feeding, Dr Tweed quoted the finding by the Medical Advisory Committee of the society that the percentage method was ideal. “ So-called modern, simplified methods of calculation, though they might give approximate results, are not in accord with the high idealism of Sir Truby King, upon which the Plunket Society was founded,” the resolution stated.