Willmar tribune., 1921-03-30
MALNUTRITION-- THE THIEF

Strength, beauty, vitality, health,
should be the possession of every boy
and girl. There is a robber which will
take every one of those qualities, and
that robber is malnutrition. 1t is a
stealthy robber, and comes upon the
boy or girl insideously and gradually,
taking away little by little, the vital
ity and energy which makes the best
of life. The presence of this robber
can be detected. The child he attacks
first fails to gain in weight as child
Of that age and height should. If
from seven to ten pounds below the
average accepted weight for his
height and age, the child is known to
be malnourished. He looks pale, and
is tired and listless. Malnutrition has
taken so much Of his energy, that
when work is over there is not enuf
energy left to enable him to enjoy
romping and playing with his friends.
Fortunately, this robber is not diff
ficult to detect or overcome. If we
cannot perceive the malnourished
child at once, his weight is sure in
dex of the amount of energy he has
for work and play. Every time child
weighs from seven to ten pounds less
than he should for his height and age,
there is reason for the failure to
tip the scales to the proper mark. The
presence of physical defects, diseased
tonsils, adenoids, decayed teeth,
strained eyes, are the worst of handl-
caps to the boys or girls who must
spend so much of their energy in
growing, working and playing.s Lack
of the proper food and failure to get
sufficient rest mean that the child is
not given material for building his
body, and the result, Of course, is that
he cannot gain weight, for body is
quite like anything else one might
try to build, if poor, or limited
quantity of material is used, the struc-
ture will bear witness to the negli-
gence. Food, sleep, and rest are the
things that make the body grow. The
utmost care should be used as to the
selection of the food. The proteins,
milk, eggs, meat are the foods for
growth. They must be supplemented
also by bread, vegetables, pure sweets
and plenty of water. Sleep is almost,
if not equally important in the nutri-
ton of the body, as is food. Its i'm
portance in the nutrition Of children
cannot be overestinated. Over-fatigue
which is simply using up all OF the
available energy. and then drawing
on the reserve in body substance it.
self is very often the sole cause OF a
childs being underweight. The pres
sure of the times, tells even more on
children than on grOWn-ups. Children
are pushed in school, rushed out Of
school hours with home duties or mu-
sic lessons, allowed to stay up late at
night reading or entertaining the
guests of their parents, until the strain
of continuous work becomes too great.
Some children live so much of their
lives before they are out OF their
teens that they have neither strength,
spirit, nor health enough to live the
remaining years fully. Unfortunately.
there are no traffic policemen to tell
children when to "slow down. The
wise parent will take the word OF the
weighing scale and obey the semiphor
which points to malnourishment.
A weighing and measuring scale in
every school, regular monthly weigh
ing and measuring Of all school chill
dren, occasional nutritiona! clinics to
discover the reasons for the cases OF
underweight where they are found,
teaching mothers and children the
proper food which growth and health
demand, the establishment Of hot
lunch equipments in the schools where
children are obliged to carry noon
lunches from home, Willingness on
the part of parents to attend to the
removal of physical defects and CO.
operate will prevent or remove all
the dangers and bad effects Of NAL
nutrition-The Minnesota Public
Heath Association Journal.