HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 38, 9 June 1947, Page 7

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

CATS AND DISEASE (By the Department of Health) Are eats safe pets for little children? The answer is in the affirmative. Cats are fairly resistant to many of our human diseases. Very rarely indeed they have been found tuberculous, but this has been traceable to tuberculous infected meat or milk fed to the cat. They can get undulant fever, if fed on infected milk. You need not worry about risks of these diseases from cats. But they do get ringworm, and if so, readily infect anyone handling them. And they do get a few worms, some of which affect human beings. You can guard against transmission of these two troubles. As to worms and possible infection, keep food for human consumption safely shut away from the cat and teach children to wash hands after playing with the animal and before eating food. This will keep any risk from worms down to a vei’y small one. As regards ringworm, inspect the cat’s fur and skin at regular intervals. If the fur is sleek and shiny, and the skin soft and supple without scaliness or dry patches with lustreless and broken hairs, the chances are that all’s well. At the first sign of a ringworm in the children look to the cat. If you keep these two points in mind, a cat is a fair enough pet for a child. You have to take some risks in life, and it would be a shame to deny animal pets to children because of disease risks. Better to know the risks, take steps to overcome them and have the children learn kindliness to and the care of animals. As a matter of fact, keeping pets and breeding them is an excellent lead in to sex education for town children. Rural children observe nature’s breeding methods and usually have a sane approach to sex. Town children can get the same matter-of-fact and normal attitude by observing and breeding pets. Lastly cats do not transmit diphtheria.

A WELL-BALANCED DIET

There Is a tendency to dub anyone who talks about diet a faddist. There are plenty who talk and write about it, too, and plague themselves and their friends with their own brand of diet. They go into minute details and lay great emphasis this or that, backing it up with recipes and much dogmatism. Because of all this spate of semi-scien-tific knowledge, the Department of Health has deemed it advisable to record and publish a guide to a wellbalanced diet. This guide is built up from agreed upon world nutrition knowledge. It begins with milk. - Each day grown-ups should have one pint or more. A pre-school child requires a pint and a half. School children, adolescents, expectant and nursing mothers need a pint and three-quar-ters. Meat is definitely advised because of its body-building capacity. Beginning with one ounce in the second year, you work up to 4ozs. for the sedentary worker, more for the heavy worker. Substitute liver or kidney, and fish, each once a week if posible. Eggs are good for us, one a day being best, when you can get them, when unavailable use peas, beans and lentils, or take more milk, meat or fish. Cheese is excellent food. Begin early with the children at 18 months, and get the whole family into the habit of’having cheese daily, grated, sliced or as cooked dishes.

Potatoes always once a day, sometimes twice. At least two other vegetables, one green always and preferably a yellow vegetable; if the latter be unobtainable, another green or root or other vegetable. Fruits are difficult nowadays—go for tomaotoes, tree tomatoes, grapefruit; oranges, apples, bananas and other fruits as available. Of butter, one ounce a day is enough; of bread and cereals take what your appetite requires, and after the second year of life, wholemeal bread is preferred. At least half your bread should be wholemeal. Give the children a teaspoon daily of cod liver oil, and two teaspoons for expectant and nursing mothers, and babies. You should use only iodised salt, but if you won’t, take two teaspoons of seameal per day instead.