FEEDING OF INFANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1938, Page 8

FEEDING OF INFANTS

DR. M. B. M. TWEED DEFENDS PLUNKET SYSTEM REASONS FOR HIGH INCIDENCE OF MALNUTRITION NEED FOR CONTINUED CARE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “This is because these children do not continue along the same lines of living and feeding as when they were under the direct supervision of the Plunket nurses,” said Dr M. B. M. Tweed, who until recently was medical adviser to the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, in commenting, in an interview on reports of the high incidence of malnutrition among primary school children in New Zealand. The Dominion Council of the British Medical Association, at a recent meeting, decided to approach the Minister of Health, the Hon P, Fraser, and ask for an investigation to be made into child nutrition in the Dominion. “Truby King methods are well established, and give good results all over the world, but the points to which the public must keep their attention directed are the illnesses and physical defects which are so distressingly common among children after they leave the hands of the Plunket Society,” Dr Tweed said. “When we start right there is no reason why we should not keep right, but the fact that for some reason or other we have to raise large sums of money to repair damaged health among children shows that there is still a great deal of work to be done in the field of prevention. Dr Tweed stated that in 1934-35 an investigation of pre-school children had been made by Dr B. Wyn Irwin, holder of the Lady King scholarship. Dr Irwin’s report, he said, bore out conclusively the following points:— “(1) That infants artificially fed on strict “Truby King” lines show no defect that can be attributed to faulty feeding. “(2) That these children compare favourably with the best type of breast-fed infants. “(3) That, although it will be seen from the above that a rigid continuance of the strictest supervision of diet and habits during the second and subsequent years will ensure satisfactory results, it is obvious that there is no room for complacency on the part of any of us. “The report only serves to emphasise what has been taught by the Plunket Society for so many years: that the benefit of a good start in life can be lost if parents do not continue to give the child the same care during the pre-school period as it received in infancy,” Dr Tweed said.. Dr Tweed observed that it was due to Sir Truby King that 85 per cent of the babies in New Zealand today started off in life fed by their mothers. “It is the aim and object of the Plunket Society to see that these babies are not deprived of their natural food without just cause,” he said. Referring to criticism of the percentage system of infant feeding, Dr Tweed quoted a finding by the medical advisory committee of the society that the percentage method was ideal. “So-called modern simplified methods of calculation, though they might give approximate results, are not in accord with the high idealism of Sir Truby King upon which the Plunket Society was founded,” the resolution stated.