RAISING CHILDREN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 203, 28 August 1942, Page 5

RAISING CHILDREN

IMPORTANCE OP RIGHT FOODS

Poor buying and cooking of foods, social and financial problems, the wrong perspective on the part of parents, and their failure to realise certain essentials when raising children, were some of the contributing causes of malnutrition, said Miss Samson, charge nurse of the Plunket Society, when speaking at a luncheon meeting of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Women's Food Value League.

It was amazing, said Miss Samson, to find the numbers of poor women who bought expensive joints of meat, with not much money left over for fruit and vegetables. Many did not know how to cook brains, sweetbreads, kidneys and liver, which were included in the protective food group.

In New Zealand a small amount of fish was eaten, and there was prevalence of goitre; Japan had no goitre problem and was the largest fisheating country in the world. In Italy, where teeth generally were good, only 91b of sugar a head per annum were consumed; teeth were bad generally in the Dominion, where 1121b of sugar a person was used a year.

The speaker stated that at least a pint and three-quarters of milk was required daily; one egg three times a week, meat, fish, liver, or brains on other days. Cheese, butter, wholemeal bread (several days old), fruit and vegetables were needed* Vegetable water was valuable andfcshould not be thrown away. Cod liver oil or some vitamin D concentrate was necessary, specially during winter months. This helped to prevent dental caries, guarded against infection, and helped bone formation, and all children should be trained to drink water between meals.