The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1938. CHILDREN’S WELFARE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13885, 18 June 1938, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1938. CHILDREN’S WELFARE.

There is a note of urgency in tha request that the Dominion Council of the British Medical Association is making to the Minister of Health for an investigation into child nutrition. Physical deterioration of school children has become a standing reproach to the nation, and the Director-Gen-eral of Health in 1931 reported that of 51,000 children subjected to a complete examination 70 per cent, had physical delects, l’his summanscs « state d 1 affairs to which pointed attention has been directed for two jr three decades, but nothing has been done about it. Late investigations show, according to the .British Medical Association, that 7 per cent, of primary school child!en suffer from malnutrition and that dental troubles are more prevalent in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world These troubles are ascribed largely to diet deficiencies in infancy. The need lor caring for the infant lias been demonstrated again and again in other countries. It was the conclusion reached bv Sir George Newman at the time of King George’s silver jubilee in a review of the rise and achievements of the maternity and child welfare services. A new starting point is being asked for in New Zealand, with the object of initiating the salvage work at an even earlier stage than is attempted, say, in the provision of milk for children in the schools Medical experts ought to be able to provide a definite programme that will pul an end to the “shockingly low average of physique among school children, 1 ’’ but even then the mischief cannot be undone unless parents co-operate before and immediately after the birth of the child. The urgency ot the case is demonstrated by the tact that malnutrition m New Zealand is due not to starvation but to wrong feeding, and occurs among the children of the rich ns well as of the poor. It has been describe! as a self-inflicted wound for which the parents are responsible, and for which the children suffer.