HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Opunake Times, 22 July 1947, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

THE THIN CHILD (By the Department of Health) There is a type of child.. who > worries mother a lot —the- young*: ster that stays thin and "peaky" and doesn't grow sturdy like other children. There is nothing obviously wrong, a medical, checkover shows heart and lungs normal, and mother has to besatisfied with the assurance that he'll fill out all right as he gets older. But mother wants to be sure she has left nothing undone. She thinks first of food when a child is thin. If there's any. bad food habit —picking at food, or refusal of certain , things—; : this will have to be firmly mastered. Then there is the question of worms. Has the child got them ? Well, find out, for a heavy infestation will keep a child back. Again, is there a regular daily bowel action? Constipation plays up with children, and as they get ojder it is wise to make sure that good habits begun in baby days are continued. Checkover your daily food planning when a child isn't ~ growing as well as expected. Proteins provide the main building blocks—milk ana" cheese and meats of all kinds. Also dried peas, beans and lentils, and oatmeal. Try to get more till he gets three or four a week at least. Check the milk consumption —at least three, and prefer-, ably four, glasses daily, TJss dried skim milk for cooking* jf the milk bill gets too costly, and let the child drink plenty of milk. A daily ration of cod liver oil or substitute is. important. It gives the vitamin that slips the mineral building blocks into place in bones and teeth and makes big frames. A cooped up child will not : grow well. Sunshine, exercise, and fresh air.at.night helps to build bonny bodies. And so does , adequate sleep. Check all these things, and if correct, cease worrying. The bloom will develop. _^