Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1922. OUR GREATEST ASSET—THE BABY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2463, 5 August 1922, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1922. OUR GREATEST ASSET—THE BABY.

THE nation’s greatest asset is the baby, nay, more, it is God’s priceless gift. Yet* the ignorance surrounding motherhood and care of the infant from birth to live years is spoiling and the mortality statistics as the result of such ignorance is staggering. In order to arouse and educate the public in these vital matters Dr. Truby King and Nurse Paterson are conducting a campaign throughout the Dominion, the results of which have already gone far to reduce New Zealand’s unenviable infantile mortality record. Speaking at Foxton to a large number of women on Thursday, Dr. Truby King said that nine out of every ten babies were taken to the doctors for digestive disturbances and the certified deaths of 1,000 children, below the ages of two and five years in New Zealand last, year, 300 died of measles and other infectious disease.-. 240 of respiratory diseases, because their nutrition was imperfect and they had not sufficient resistive power to withstand the onslaught of microbes. He stressed the point that it was important in dealing with plant and animal life and <Miildren that the beginning should be correct. New Zealand had the lowest infant death roll in the world hut it is still too large. One thousand five hundred babies died in the first year, one thousand of these died in the first month and half in in the first; ten days after birth. These facts alone justify the necessity for educating mothers and midwives in the essentials. The Plunket Society is taking on this work and is entitled to public -upport and encouragement. Here are a few facts from the remarks of Nurse Paterson, who by the way, is a Home Nurse trained by Dr. King in London. Miss Paterson said that when touring the country she was struck with the lack of green vegetables growing in cottage gardens. A cabbage and savoy in a Chinaman’s shop in Wellington cost more than in Scotland and that was ridiculous with a climate and -oil such as New Zealand possesses. Children required fresh, raw, green vegetables and ripe fruit. The Country children in Scotland look healthier because they get these things. Another thing that astonished Miss Paterson was the number of people who still feed their children on tinned foods and milks. They served their purpose for war time emergency rations lml would never build healthy children.