HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1240, 24 July 1947, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

RINGWORM IN THE GROIN (By Department of Health) There is a type of ringworm that has spread generally to most countries. It used to fee regarded as a tropical trouble. A washerwoman or dhobie was supposed to infect clothes, hence the name “dhobie itch.” This particular ringworm fungus prefers males. It makes a flatfish brown patch, ringlike in shape, raddish at _ the margin, on the skin of the groin. It may be on one inner side of the upper part of the thigh. Usually thcire’s a patch on tooth sides running into the groin and probably meeting behind. There’s a sharp edge and a little scaliness at the rod circular spreading margin. Very often a person who has this ringworm, also has another one between the toes, especially between the little and fourth toa. The groin ringworm can be very itchy. It may flare up and be very active in a spell of excessively hot weather, or after some heavy exercise. Fortunately the diagnosis is not difficult. Luckily, too, the treatment is simple enough. A number of new remedies have been tried out during the war, for ringworm conditions wero very common in the armed forces. None of these is in general civilian use yet. 'lSierc l are, however, some remedies that have stood the test of time. One is a paint, CastciUani’s paint, but as this stains, you have to be careful in its use. Another remedy is simple weak tincture of idoine, painted on twice daily. Don’t use the strong tincture or iodine paint. Hbwover, some folks are allergic to iodine, and get a skin rash on using it. Probably the safest treatment for home use is Whitfield’s ointment. Most patches will clear up quickly after the daily usa of this ointment. As the fungus spores may be in the deeper skin layers or in hair follicles, and gradually work to the surface', you may get a reinfection some, weeks later. So keep treatment going for some time after an apparent cure. Underclothes should bei. boiled to kill any fungus spores. THE THIN CHILD (By Department of Health) There ip a type of child who worries mother a lot—the youngster that stays thin and “p'eaky’’ 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 be satisfied 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 ISha thinks l 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 older it is wise to make sure that good habits bogun in baby days are continued. Check over your daily food planning when a child isn’t growing as well as expected. Proteins, provide tha main building blocks—milk and cheese and meats of all kinds. Also dried peas, beans and lentils, and oatmeal. Try to get more eggs, till he gets three or four a week at least. Check tha milk consumption —at least three, and preferably four, glasses daily. Use dried skim milk for cooking if 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 wall. Sunshine, exercise and fresh air at night help to build bonny babies. And so does adequate sleep. Check all these things, and if correct, cease worrying. The bloom will develop.