TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 3

TALKS ON HEALTH

SCHOOL AND THE DELICATE CHILD (By a Family Doctor) Many parents seem to find difficulty in deciding when to send a delicate child to school. I think we shall agree that school is a good thing, and, if we read any modern history, we shall be grateful for being born in an age when education is so easy to obtain. The hours spent in school are very precious, and the child ought not to be deprived of them without some very good reason. A child must not be sent to mix with others if there is any danger of carrying infection. A little one who coughs dangerous germs over her companions should be rigidly excluded for the sake of others, quite apart from what is best for the single child. We must, of course, protect our own children by insisting on the exclusion from the school of all cases of tuberculosis, ring-worm, sores on the head, sore throat, and fever. Advantages of School Lite But what are we to do with the child who is rather thin and pale, but not exactly ill? Well, until the doctor decides that the health of the child demands that he should be sent right away to the country, I am all ■in favour of the continuance of school life. After all, the schools are well ventilated, dry and clean; and what more can be had at home? The singing, the breathing exercises, the games, and the general instructions are health-promoting. It would not be possible to do more if the child were kept at home, therefore send him to school. It is only very rarely that a parent is justified in saying, "I do not wish to send Tommy to school because he is so delicate.” The Nervous Child But what of the child that is nervous, sensitive, sleepless and frightened? In that case a greater responsibility rests on the parent. The father and the mother must take great pains to study the little child’s growing mind, to come down to his level and try to understand the childish griefs and trials that come to a little human of five years old. A careful explanation that there is nothing to fear, that his terrors are unfounded, will go a long way to restoring confidence. A teacher deals with a large class: a mother can concentrate on the one individual . School Generally Best, You cannot take anyone, child or adult, out of the world. Here we are and here we have got to stick, mixing with all sorts of men and women, rubbing shoulders with many who are distasteful to us, and having to get on as best we can whether we like it or not. If you say that your boy is so sensitive and delicate that you are not going to let him go out in the cruel world, but are going to build him a nice little nest, all lined with cottonwool and swansdown, and never let him fly away, you are doomed to disappointment. Even if a little boy is sensitive, school is the best training for the future struggle of life; it is a great misfortune for a grownup man or woman to be shy; but that shyness and blushing and confusion are inevitable if childhood is spent In exclusion and loneliness.

The Child With a Stoop A stoop in a growing child should be carefully corrected as soon as it is noticed, or it will become a habit. The head must be held up and the shoulders held back so as to allow of full expansion of the chest. The chest is really a bony box or cage containing the lungs and heart. But the cage is not made entirely of bone in a growing child; part of the skeleton is gristle. Now this gristle is soft, and can be bent into bad shapes by a stooping attitude, and as the child grows the gristle disappears, and gives place to hard bone which cannot be bent; it is permanently fixed. And now you see the importance of setting the bony cage in the right shape, so that it may remain in that shape for ever. A bad shape may be stereotyped as well as a good one, and once the gristle has disappeared the shape can never be altered. No Artificial Supports May I also remind you that I object to ail artificial supports. A strong, well brought-up child is quite capable of holding himself in a proper attitude without straps and leather apparatus. Jackets of any description are very rarely needed, and should only be ordered by a doctor. They are only used in advanced cases of disease of the spine. You run a very real danger by resorting to artificial straps and stays. You prevent the muscles that ought to keep the figure in good trim from developing. You cannot have strong straps and strong muscles. If the straps do the work of the muscles the muscles will waste away from disuse. Muscles are meant to be worked, they enjoy being worked. If you tell them they need not work because you will get a strap to work for them they begin to degenerate, just as you would if a slave were hired to do all your work for you, you would soon be flabby. The stays that some little girls wear are an abomination. Good muscles are the best stays, and the female mind must exercise its ingenuity In devising

other methods of hanging clothes on children than by stays.

Cause of Nettle-rash Nettle-rash, or urticaria, is a complaint which always comes from something that has been eaten. In a large number of cases the offending maiterial is fish, especially fried fish. Potted meat, tinned fish, and many other things may upset the patient in this way; lobster is a well-known offender. It is curious how certain articles of diet affect different individuals. Food which is freely partaken by all the members of a family results in nettle-rash for only one. Experience is the only guide; when you have discovered that something gives you nettle-rash every time you eat it, you must avoid it in future; no one can help you, you must look after yourself. Once bitten, twice shy. I find the most soothing application for nettle-rash is lead lotion; pieces of lint may be soaked in the lotion and applied to the face where the itching and swelling are often most apparent; warm baths into which a little soda has been put often relieve, and sometimes bran baths are successful. But the great essential is to give a smart purgative—castor oil is the best—at once. It is most important that the offending matter should be removed from the body without a moment’s delay. A very light diet should be the rule for a day or two.