OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3509, 14 June 1921, Page 51

OUR BABIES.

By

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society tor the Health •I Women and Children. "It Is wiser to put up a fence at the lop of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

THE FEEDING RIGHT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. Last time we reprinted part of an article which appeared in the column nearly six years ago in "babies bights as begabds feeding” we emphasised the three following points as essential for good growth and development. (1) A sufficiency of suitable food containing the right proportions of sugar, fat, and protein, and enough of the so-called "fresh elements” or Vitamines, and the necessary salts. (2) Feeding at regular times, no food whatever being allowed between the appointed meal hours. (3) 'lhe form of feeding and the nature of the food must he such as to ensure active exercise of the mouth, tongue, jaws. etc. The article then went on to deplore the fact that when the child was 6cnt to school to kindergarten—in the vast majority of cases a certain small amount of food was given in the middle cf the morning as part of the regular routine. The following is a continuation of the original article: — Ay Evebt-dat Stobt. We were travelling from York to Huddersfield- On the opposite seat cf the railway carriage were a working man and his wife, returning from a seaside holiday with their two children—a girl of six and a boy of four. The parents looked strong and well, and were' obviously wrapped up in the children. But the children were stunted and singularly pale and delicatelooking in spite of their holiday, and both had extremely decayed teeth. ' Each child was sucking a stick of toffee. We spoke about their not looking well, and the father at once entered into a description of what they had had to contend with in the way of had teeth, indigestion, anil sickness in general; but clearly neither he nor his wife had the remotest idea that there was any harm in what they were allowing, and indeed providing—there was a bag of teffeo in reserve. We tried, as gently as possible, to get them to understand that there was such a thing as cause and effect, and that the teeth, the appetite, the digestion. and the nutrition of children were matters of vital importance for their future health, happiness, and success in life. These North Country people took it in wonderfully good part—a thing by no moans to be relied on when one is intervening on behalf of children. —and after a long pause the father said, rather hopelessly, but 'resignedly: “Well! I suppose us’ll have to find out some other way of given oom pleasure.”

This appears to u.s to he precisely the problem with which ihe kindergartens are confronted. The idea of using the "stomach” as a mere means cf gratifying the child at irregular or unsuitable times will have to be abandoned if the interests of the race and of our future men ana women are held to he more important than the temporary gratification of the appetite or mere questions cf school expediency and pleasing the parents. Madame Montessori. The latest development and extension of the Froebe! idea which lias claimed so much attention of late years is the Montessori system. I am far from quoting Madame Montessori as a reliable guide oil the feeding of children, but on the question of the evil of giving food between meals, what she says is entirely sound and sensible: One principle must dominate and must be diffused among mothers —namely, that the children shall be kept to rigorous meal hours in order that they may enjoy good health and have excellent digestion. . . “Outside of theib regular HEAL HOUBS CHILDREN SHOULD NOT EAT.” On the whole, ir takes four or five hours for food to digest, and the stomach should be left clean swept for the succeeding meal. A child dors host on only three mods a day. and he should have nothing between except a drink of water if thirsty. Mothers have complained again and again to us that the simple and proper food habits which they have established become broken and no longed practicable, owing to the feeding between meals introduced through going to school. That- school practice should l e misleading instead of a ea f e guide in such matters is nothing short of a public calamity.