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Question:—What is the difference between Vitamins A, B, C,
and D, and are they all necessary to the growth of a child?
Answer:—In answering this question I want to speak very briefly
on the subject—as such.
It means that certain special foods are not so "universal" as some
other foods.
Imagine that you are building a Gothic Cathedral and that it is being
built of Cornish granite. Then, of course, the quarries of Cornwall will
provide the stable requirements of the building, but here and there in the
building, for certain architectural reasons, you will want special size stones
of special quality which do not come into the common requirements
of the whole building. These might be looked upon as vitamins.
Fortunately for us in this country our ordinary food does contain by far
the greater amount of all the vitamins we require; particularly, of
course, where the thoughtful mother does see that her child has the proper
amount of milk every day, an orange now and then, and does see that
the cabbage, when it is cooked, is not parboiled.
In so far as Nature has provided vitamins without any form of
concoction, it is far better that we should take them in our ordinary diet
without thinking about them, than that we should get all sorts of health
fads to make quite sure we are getting not only A, B, C, and D, but E and
F, and all the others which have been discovered.
Question:—Why do some children require dental treatment
at an earlier age than others?
Answer:—This question I am asking Mr. Tran, my Senior Dental
Officer, to answer in detail, but I have a few general observations to offer
and they are that most children require dental treatment at a far earlier
age than is commonly supposed.
If you look at a most beautiful moorland scene with glorious heather
you think it perfect, but if you only stoop down and look at some of the
heather you will find that here and there it is diseased.
The same is true of almost everything, and growth and decay go on
together, and I do wish we could develop a public opinion which would
bring children to the dental chair earlier than they do come because if
only the little odds and ends were dealt with at the time it would save so
much trouble to the child later and, incidentally, so much worry to the
mother and—if I may be permitted to say so—also so much work for us.
Another general observation I have to make is—please do have
regard to what the dentist tells you as to whether a tooth can, or cannot,
be saved. It is so necessary to save the milk teeth because otherwise the
jaw will not develop so well as it otherwise would.
What Mr. Tran says on this subject is as follows:—
" Why do some children's teeth decay sooner than others?
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