INFANT WELFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1938, Page 8

INFANT WELFARE

CRITICISM OF PLUNKET METHODS VIEWS OF WELLINGTON SPECIALIST. REPLY TO DR. M. B. TWEED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “It is the opinion of specialists throughout New Zealand that the Plunket system of feeding does not supply even the bare minimum of food values required for a baby’s perfect development and health,” said Dr F. Montgomery Spencer, Wellington child ailment specialist, yesterday, replying to Dr Martin Tweed’s defence of the Plunket system, published last week. “I feel that Dr Tweed’s remarks cannot be allowed to go unanswered,” he said. “He has said that malnutrition begins after the children have left the hands of the Plunket Society, and that when they start right there is no reason why they should not continue right. Well, we maintain that they do not start right. It is the physical defects which are present before the child leaves the care of the Plunket nurses that account for the prevalence of malnutrition among our school children. “Such accompaniments of malnutrition as rickets and dental decay have their origin, it is widely recognised, in the first 12 to 18 months of a child’s life, which is the period when it is still under Plunket supervision. We are not as concerned with children fed well in infancy and under-nourished afterward, as with those who pass through their infancy in a satisfactory state according to Plunket standards — but which we consider are not at all satisfactory.” Having further discussed the question in detail and stated that a number of doctors of high standing, whom he named, did not approve of Plunket methods, Dr Spencer added that other countries had been through the percentage feeding era, but had grown out of it 15 to 20 years ago in favour of simpler methods giving better nutritional results. Dr Tweed had said such methods were not in accord with the high idealism of Sir Truby King, upon which the Plunket Society was founded; but what ideal could be higher than that of producing babies of the' best possible’ physique and the maximum resistance to disease? It had been stated that Plunket methods were well established all over the world, but that was far from being the case. They had established themselves to some extent in London and in Sydney; but no single children’s hospital or children’s specialist of any note had adopted their methods. Dr Spencer added that nobody had any desire at all to do away with the Plunket Society; far from it. No other country possessed an organisation that so effectively reached the homes of the people, or cared for so large a proportion of the children. But there was urgent need for a change in the artificial feeding system. Happily, there was every indication that such a change would be forthcoming. The advisory committee had con--sidered the matter at a recent meeting, and he had no doubt that they intended thoroughly to investigate the present system of artificial feeding. So it seemed likely that there would be improvements in the near future.