NATIONAL MEMORIAL FUND

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3895, 28 April 1937, Page 2

NATIONAL MEMORIAL FUND

COUNTRY CHILDREN. HEALTH CAMP BENEFITS. The necessity for Health Camp treatment for country children as well as children from the towns and cities is emphasised in the reports on school hygiene which are made to the Direc-tor-General ojf Health by the Officers cf th© Division of School Hygiene. “Country children generally, especially from good farming districts attain a satisfactory standard of growth and health” wrote Dr A. G. Paterson, Director of School -Hygiene in a report to the Department. “It has always been noted by school medical officers, however, that though their nutriticin as a whole compares favourably with that of city children, marked malnutrition may occur in remote country districts. It is a. popular fiction that the country child is necessarily possessed of superior advantages. Among the struggling population of the backblocks, houses are often poor and cramped, with sanitation non-existent. In dairying districts children may be employed early and late out of doors. Food may be monotonous, hastily prepared, and badly cooked; it is often deficient in vitamins and in body-building constituents.” It was in cases such as these, stated an official of the Health Department during the course of an interview, that the Health Camp could play a wonderful part in the health services of the Dominion, and in recent years large numbers of country children had benefited mentally and physically 'from a period in a Health Camp, while at the same time their fathers and mothers had obtained some relaxation from parental cares. Throughout the period the Health Comps have been in existence, detailed information has been kept of the progress of each admission One country child at the Otaki Camp, for example, put on 7 lbs in weight in a fortnight. Another took thirteen weeks to gain Jib, and then for no apparent reason put on 4 lbs in a month. It was unfortunate that in Order to make room for others he had to be discharged just at this point. Another four months under the same regime was apparently necessary, but unfortunately the facilities were not available.

Foi- the Auckland Camp which would have been held this month at Mfetuihi but for the infantile paralysis epidemic, 232 boys and 173 girls would have gone into camp from districts outside the city area, and this fact illustrated the desire of the controlling bodies to give every child below normal health, whether it lived in town or country, an opportunity to recuperate. In a review of the Southland Children’s Health Camp Association’s activities, the following sentences appeared in a report furnished by Dr Abbott:—.“One child who gained most was a country boy of 13 years who suffers very badly from asthma, and misses a good deal of schooling on that account. While in camp he had no attacks of asthma, and gained 8 lbs in weight and J-inch in height. The girl who gained most was also a country girl of the same age; she gained in weight by 61 lbs. The girls put on more weight on the average than did the boys, while country boys averaged 3.6 lbs against 3.2 lbs gain for dity boys. In commenting on the big proportion of country children in the Southland Camp, Mrs Stanley Brown, the Camp Commandant stated: “This number from country districts, where fresh air and sunlight are there for th© having, makes one wonder whether we need be so concerned when sunshine is lacking, and should we not concentrate upon the thought that perhaps the things of most benefit te these undernourished children are -regulated rest and diet.” The medical officers cf the Health Department are welcoming the proposal to establish permanent Health Camps because it will give scope for adequate treatment to children under the best conditions. These Camps will make it possible for the stay cf certain children to be prolonged until their physical and mental condition has been fully restored and they have gained powers of resistance which will stand to them in the future.