A HEALTHIER RAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 32, 8 February 1933, Page 11

A HEALTHIER RAGE

DIET FOR CHILDREN

TONSILS AND ADENOIDS

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 6th December.

Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education, in his annual Teport, remarks:— "A new kind of self-respect has grown up, a health conscience. Of this there is abundant and undisputed evidence. The children as a whole are cleaner; better in physique, better fed, better clothed, better nurtured than they have ever been since we possessed records of them. "This evidence is clinched by the simple fact that their parents have themselves been through the same hygienic discipline and know its value. The mortality Tate of children under school age has been almost halved since. 1907 (principally by bettor motherhood), and the death rate of persons between school age and forty has shown a steady and uniform decline. "Ringworm, blindness, malnutrition, heart disease, dental decay, tuberculosis, and certain infectious diseases have declined in prevalence during the last twenty years. The decline in the mortality of tuberculosis under fifteen years of age from 1921 to 1930 was 36 per cent., 44 per cent., and 58. per cent, for pulmonary, bone-and-joint and abdominal tuberculosis respectively. The mortality of measles, scarlet fever, diptheria, and whooping cough under fifteen years of age has declined steadily for a generation." Comparing the period 1891-95 with 1926-30, the fall in annual mortality per million persons living under fifteen years of age was: Measles, front 1174 to 381; scarlet fever, from 498 to 55; diptheria, from 896 to 302; whooping cough, from 1151 to 387. Tho standardised death rate of children aged five to ten years declined between 1906 and 1930 from 3.6 p"er 1000 to 2.3; between ten and fifteen years of age it fell from 2.1 to 1.5. - ' POINTS ON DIETARY. "Coinmonsense," further remarks Sir George, *' dictates to us all that to attempt to educate children whose bodies or minds are impaired by ill-health or physical defect would be futile and wasteful.-" Dietaries are laid down for tho meato which children now received in the schools. For normal children dinners should not be less than two-thirds the total amount of the total daily requirements. This could be obtained from one pint of milk, or from approximately four ounces of beef, six ounces of mutton, or four and a half ounces of cod or herring, or from about two and a half ounces of cheese. The total protein ration can be made up with cereals (including bread) or dried pulses, poas, or beans. To ensure a sufficiency of fat, an allowance of one ounce or rather, more of butter, dripping, lard, or margarine should be made. The vitamin and mineral content of the . meal . shpuH be borne in mind;. milk, Taw vegetables) and fruit, and'either butter or vitaminised margarine should find a place jn the menu. ■■ V . . . For_ delicate and malnourished children, in addition to a pint of milk and meat or fish, at least one ounce daily of butter or of vitaminised margarine should be given, together with an orange, a tomato,'or a helping o£ fresh salad twice or three times a week. It is generally wise to supplement the diet of these children with a small regular dose of cod-liver oil, to ensure a sufficiency of the fat-soluble vitamins. The number of authorities providing school meals in 1931 was 157 out of 317; the number of meals provided was nearly 48,000,000, of. which nearly 27,000,000 were "milk meals." The number of children fed was 320,000. This figure represents an increase over the previous year of about 7,500,000 meals and 25,000 children. REMOVAL OP TONSILS. Sir George, discussing the progress made by the school medical service since it was established 25 years ago, makes many interesting disclosures: "It is significant that, in London, tho proportion of children free from adenoids is highest in the poorest group of. schools. The disease 13 more prevalent among the more carefully nurtured and we frequently find in a firstclass preparatory or public school that 60' or 70 per cent, of the pupils have had their tonsils and adenoids removed before reaching the age of 14. The disadvantages of the unnecessary Tembval of adenoids or tonsils are not inconsiderable, and far too many operations are being performed." It seems that more than 110,000 operations were performed on school children last year for the removal of tonsils and adenoids—an increase of 130 per cent, in nine years. Inquiries niade~ by a "Daily Express" representative among prominent throat specialists in London showed that a revolt, headed by a number of Harley street doctors, had begun against Temoving the tonsils. They will not operate on healthy tonsils, and they are doing all they can to kill the belief the removal of tonsils is essential for the cure of a number of specific diseases. One remarked: "Eeaction has set in now, and there are few specialists who would sanction the removal of tonsils unless they are definitely diseased. For my own part I have never believed that rheumatism is due to diseased tonsils, nor that their removal could cure'rheumatism." ■ -.■-.. "The attack on tonsils has been I,rowing weaker for some time," declared another. "The medical profession never believed that tonsils wore useless, but a great number of complaints were attributed to infected tonsils. A diseased tonsil should be removed, given certain circumstances, but to-day throat specialists aro removing tonsils only when they are definitely diseased."