OUR BABIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17350, 15 May 1924, Page 9

OUR BABIES.

(By HYGEIA.) Published under the auspioes of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wieer to put up a fence at the t-op of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." GIVING SWEETS AND RUINING THE TEETH. Colonel Hunter (as Director of Dental Hygiene) and Dr Truby King (a, Director of Child Welfare) are constantly receiving protests from sensiblepeople, especially parents, against the giving of sweets to their children. The following letter is a typical example : A PARENT’S LETTER. “ Dear Sir,—-I am taking the liberty of calling your attention to the en closed cutting which appealed in the Press recently (see the words underlined), in the hope that you may take what opportunity offers, by propaganda, etc., to point out again to the general public, especially parents and children, the injury caused to the teeth by sweets.” The newspaper cutting enclosed gave a laudatory account of a treat given to some hundreds of children by a philanthropic social organisation, and described how the youngsters were taken to a bright evening entertainment. Then occurred the words underlined: As tfie little ones trooped into tho hall, they were each handed a bag of The writer then continued :

“ Jt noticed recently that at an otherwise excellent daj* nursery lollies aro given nearly every day to the childreti sent- there. * “ Every conceivable opportunity seems to be taken to give children these injurious things. it would be good for the community if lollies and other damaging sweets* could no prohibited like strong drink ; but. of course, that would not be heard of. The only thing one can do is. to ask some person in authority, such as yourself, and whom the public will take some notice of. to urge people to refrain from giving lollies to children. At our own home we have great difficulty m preventing kind (?) friends giving lollies, cakes, etc., to our yougster who has, so far at least, never had any thing at all between meals in the wav of food, and never any lollies or cakes at any time. “Could vou be bothered to say something in the Press?—Yours, etc.” COMMENT BY HYGEIA. A letter of this kind has the entir: sympathy of all those whs> can speak with authority on the matter complained of. Long ago Dr Pickerill (the professor of dentistry at Otago University) stated, soon after his arrival in the Dominion, that lie found far more decay of the teeth among the children in New Zealand than he did at Home, though he had had extensive experience among the poor of the Old Country. Indeed, he stated that, in his opinion, the fact of our children being given more money to spend, and their spending it on sweets, was the very cause of their having such bad teeth. It was not poverty, but being too well off. that was ruining the teeth of our children. Many people would say that our cor-

respondent s idea of restricting the temptation offered to children in the way of sweets and cakes between meals was all faddism and nonsense. How is it, then, that the two leading dental .authorities in this country (Colonel Hunter and Professor Pick erill) have expressed themselres even more emphatically in the same direction than the parent whose letter 1 am dealing w*ith? They, too. feel very strongly indeed that ruinous and in-re-sistible temptations ought not to be placed in the way of children, and that strong measures should be taken to prevent this vicious custom. The samo views are held by Dr Sim Wallace. Dr Harry Campbell and the other leading authorities at Home, so that our correspondent is in good company—if that is any consolation to him.

Dr Truby King had some interesting experiences in this connection when at Home in 1913. In the course of investigations and work carried out for several months in the poorest and most crowded slum area, of London—nameh, Bethnal Green—-he took occasion to visit the school which was in the centre of the worst district. On speaking to the heads of the school, he was told his surprise that the children had much better teeth than the average in West End schools. This they attributed mainly to two factors—namely, the preponderance in the East End oi suckling, as opposed to bottle-feeding, and to the fact that in the East En I the children were far less pampered and spoiled with sweeties and pap-feed-ing. On examining the children in Bethnal Green, Dr King found far lessdecay than there is among New Zealand children.

The following incident shows how world-wide is the spoiling of children by sweeties on the part of well-inten-tioned but utterly thoughtless people. Dr King was travelling by rail from York to Huddersfield, and in the sari-? carriage were two pale, sallow children —a l»oy and a girl—returning from the seaside with their parents. The latte.* were evidently of the working class, and the man spoke in a broad Yorkshire dialect. Each child was sucking a large bar of toffee. Both were irritable and fractious, and the little boy was crying with toothache. Dr King, speaking aside to the father, pointed out how the indulgence in pieces, especially sweets, between meals was ruinous to the digestion and proper nutrition, and caused the teeth to de cav and ache. He appealed to t/io father to be sensible, and safeguard itt stead of spoiling bis children. The man did not reply for some moment*, but looked puzzled and preoccupied. then he said with a dejected air. “Well. 1 s’pose us’U ha’ to find out j The amazing thing is that in this I stage of civilisation there ar© many people who have not risen above the level of feeding animals in the Zoo with buns and huts —that this is the length of their uleas as to how to give pleasure to their own progeny. More amazing still is the fact that in inanv A our schools the children are actualK given “ pieces ” between meals as part of the daily routine, and that in schools, generally no attempt is made to prevent children eating most of their lunch at playtime, when only .hail through tho morning. When is mankind going to realise that the body i> worth some care and attention, and j that th© development of mind, morals I and character are largely depeudent on ! healtli and fitness?.