The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau.
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
LEARN TO EAT.

appreciated. While New York is try
| ing to reduce some of its latest ladies
1 to pleasant curves, cities in different
/ parts of the country are beginning to
| take an interest in their too thin and
| too fat children.
The fat ladies' reduction class is an
/ interesting experiment. Nutrition
| classes for school children have been
carefully tried out and are found prac-
! teal and successful. AS a result they
are attracting wide attention. Not only
are progressive cities installing these
| classes in their schools, but the entire
state of New Hampshire has been or
| ganized to fight malnutrition in It's
| children. DIR. William r. P. Emerson,
expert on child nutrition is visiting
| San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other
cities at their request to hold institutes
and explain methods of reducing the
| large number of cases of this disease.
That malnutrition is d disease, that
| it is a insidious drain on the strength
of many people who are unaware that
| they are physically below par, is the
opinion of nutrition specialists. They
! have found by tests that about one
third of the children in the average
school are per cent or more under
weight. In other words many chill
dren are not growing at the normal
rate The result is a droopy condi-
ton of mind and body instead of
aIertness-
Nor is our adult population free
from this underweight condition. NO
organized effort is being made to
bring the adults of city up to nor
NAL weight. It is interesting to note,
however, that at a normal school
where the student teachers were
weighed and measured all but seven
in a class of 200 were underweight
per cent or more.
Another surprising fact, which ex-
periments have shown, is that NAL
nutrition. occurs with about equal IRE
quency in homes of rich and poor.
white and colored, foreign-born and
native stock.
Malnutrition is not, generally,
caused by lack of food on the table.
Many a woman is underweight be-
grocery bills. just as children have
been found to stop gaining because
they worried over examination marks
or uncomfortable clothes.
Causes of Underweight.
The most frequent contributing
causes of malnutrition are found to be
bad diet, physical defects. bad habits,
and, in children, lack of home con-
troll. Each case is complex and each
case is different. With the children
the condition is attacked by organic
ing small classes and giving each
member individual instructions as
well as the class talks on health. A
doctor and trained nutrition worker
preside over these classes. Each
member of the class is put into Health
training, just as college students
train for an athletic event
Rochester has established thirty-six
nutrition classes as an integral part of
the school system with nutrition work
ers and school doctors working under
the department of physical training.
Chicago has had classes for three
years.
Washington is starting on its second
year with twelve demonstration
classes. Experiments made last year
convinced the Washington school Of
ffcials who were interested of the value
of the work. The city hopes that con-
gress will soon make it possible for a
nutrition class to be organized in each
school building, so that every under
weight or overweight child can be
educated as to the Importance of nor
NAL growth.
The classes in this city, which are
similar to those in other cities, are
held once a week in school time
Where only a few test classes can be
held' number of pupils are weighed
and measured and the extreme cases
are selected for the training. Each
of these children is examined physi-
cally, preferably in the presence of
parents Physical defects are noted.
Diseased tonsils, decaying teeth, or
adenoids may be a main reason why
the child does not gain AS he cannot
hope to gain normally with any de-
feet which draws on his strength, the
child and his parents are urged to
cooperate in having defects removed.
An attempt is also made to find out
how the child lives at home, and to
get him to change any habits that OBJ
Ir,T1e civ 1-sao Ii
child told of reading stories regularly
in bed until after midnight. Another
drank two cups of coffee with each
meal. A girl belonged to half a dozen
clubs, each requiring hard work out
side of school hours for drives and
sales. And a boy ate too little be-
cause he had heard it said that he
would probably grow up to be fat like
his father.
Value of Rest.
With such hindrances removed, the
pupil is in better condition to begin
training for health. One important
rule for the underWeight child in
health training is an hour of rest
day, preferably at two different times
and before meals if possible. Food
| is digested much better if it is eaten
when the person is not fatigued. An
hour of rest is one of the few general
rules which are urged up n all stu
dents in the malnutrition classes.
Where possible a place at school is
provided so that these children can
rest at certain times of the day.
The undernourished child is also
encourag ed to eat more frequently
and not heavily at any one time. A
light lunch in the middle of the morn
ing and of the afternoon is a weight
builder. Some schools supply this in
the form of bread and milk, cocoa, or
soup.
A. +be weakly c1as= r,aa+ips eacI.
child has before him his chart show
| ing the details of his case and his
gains or losses in weight. If posi-
BILE. his mother is there, seated back
of him. The old fashioned arrange
ment of having the pupil making
most progress at the head of the
class and the rest graded down to the
foot is found useful here. No mother
| likes to sit back of her child at the
| foot of the class When she learns