COUNTRY CHILDREN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 86, 28 April 1937, Page 12

COUNTRY CHILDREN

Benefits of Health Camps KING GEORGE FUND The neceseity for Health Camp treatment for eountry 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 of Health by the officers of the Diviision of School Hygiene. "Country children generally, especially from good farming aistricts 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 nutrition 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 supenior advantages, Among the struggling population of the backblocks, houses are often poor and cramped, with sanitation nonexistent. 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. " The medical officers of the Health Department - are welcoming the proposal to establish permanent health camps, because it wiill give scope for adequate treatment to children under the best conditions. These camps will make it possible for the stay of certain children to be prolonged until their physical and mental condition has been fully restored and they have ganned powers of resistance which will stand to them in the future.