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102
Nutrition.
The term is used in a wide sense, and under-nourished
must not be taken to mean that the child is necessarily obtaining
insufficient or unsuitable food. All children who,
for some reason or other, not quite definable, are not
"thriving" are classed as under-nourished. Of the 1,525
children examined, 64, or 4.2 per cent., were noted as "undernourished,"
as compared with 4.8 for last year, and 3.1 per
cent, for 1911. Respecting "Nutrition" Dr. Bywater made
the following remarks some time back, which are well worth
recalling:—
"In considering the 'nutrition' of a child, the height and
weight are of great importance. A child may be small, and
yet be well nourished; on the other hand, with fair average
height and weight he may be badly nourished, but generally
speaking, children who are under-sized and below normal
weight present other evidences of defective nutrition. The
ill-nourished child is usually thin and pallid and weakly looking,
often with a dull and apathetic expression. It must be
understood that by the term ill-nourished, it is not necessarily
implied that the child is not given sufficient food, but that
for some reason the organism is not assimilating nourishment
in such a manner as to ensure normal growth and development."
[Of the 3645 children examined during the last three
years 151 (4.14%) showed signs of defective nutrition].
These were children exhibiting no other sign of disease,
but who were below the normal standard of health, and were
under weight. The percentage is approximately the same as
this year (4.2%) and compared with many districts is very
low indeed. In some of the instances I have been rather of
the opinion that the cause was insufficient rest.
As indicated above, the height and weight are very important
guides, both in estimating the "nutrition" and in
ascertaining to what extent improvement is t king place, and