The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1923-12-21
SCHOOL CHILDREN
ARE UNDER WEIGHT
STATE DIRECTOR OF NUTRITION
CRUSADE WORK VISITS
LOCAL SCHOOL.

IWenty-Slx per cent OF the pupils
of the South Side school average 10
per cent underweight, and seventeen
percent of the grades in the high
school building are per cent or more
under weight, according to Miss Hilda
]. Solibakke, state director of nutri-
tiOn crusade work.
Preparatory to organizing nutrition
classes in the high school building,
Doctors e. NJ. Bevis and F.. e. Elmer
examined the children that are to be
in the class for physical defects which
are the first cause of underweight.
The second cause is lack Of home con-
troll, the third, overfatigue, the fourth,
incorrect food habits, and fifth. incor-
rect health habits
Miss Solibakke, who is in the coun-
ty under the auspices of the Okanogan
County Antituberculosis league, in
speaking before the Methodist mis-
s.onary society at the basket social
Friday evening, stated, Perhaps you
think your childs underweight is not
a cause for worry. Perhaps you would
describe his condition by one or more
of these terms Run down, takes at
ter his mother, no appetite, frail, deli
cate anemic, thin, pale, below par,
always tired, doesn't sit up straight,
low vitality, very small, under-devel-
oped, not thriving, growing too fast,
easily upset, lacks energy, born so,
nervous, just like his fathers aunt,
very sensitive, skinny, not himself
If this is so, your child's condition is
serious. You can correct it. 1t will
mean more to the success and happi-
ness of your boy or girl than any for
tune you can leave them"
Every grade child has been reach
ed by Miss Solibakke in health talks,
emphasizing that not only the under
weight child needs to observe the
rules of health; that the child up to
normal weight also often had physical
defects that should be corrected, and
that It was necessary for the child up
to normal or above to eat balanced
diet as for the underweights. Every
child outside of the nutrition class
will be weighed monthly by his teach
er and the findings recorded upon a
wall chart prepared by Miss SOIL
bakke.
The class will meet once week on
school time, the same hour and the
same day each w elk, to be weighed,
the losses or gains charted on the iE-
dividual nutrition charts. Various cof-
ored stars will be awarded, and the
health lesson and story given. The
goal is normal weight and when grad
uated each child receives silk
badge pinned on with gold plated
pin.
Mothers are especially invited to
come to the weekly class but instruc-
tion is primarily to the children. The
closest cooperation of parents and
tnllu are vi CoulSt tSStiltlli ohtC Il
boy or girl becomes interested in his
weight curve, he will drink milk eat
vegetables and oatmeal. 90 TO bed ear
". open his windows and take the
necessary rest periods-things that
his parents may have been almost
powerless to get him to do. The re-
peated health Instructions together
together with the weekly checking UP
and the spirit Of class competition
combine to produce, on the whole, ex
cellent results. Many of the children
make startling gains and most of them
gain at more than the expected rate.
Miss Solibakke will later in the
year make a follow up visit to the
classes, and in the meantime the com
. mittee, consisting of Mrs. Glover, Mrs
. Hoyt and Mrs. Leonard will make
:, regular reports Of the work to the 10
! cal antituberculosis league and to thu
, Washington, Tuberculosis associa
,tiOn.