New Britain herald., 1923-10-29
DR. PULLEN FAvORS
 NUTRITION CLINICS
Endorses Work That Has Been
 Done in Past Year
By RICHARD c, ruLLEN, MD, lsupi. of Health pepll


 It seems timely at present 10 hFlns up inc question Of nutrition clinics These have been tried here in New Britain during the past year and have ben successful, They are now helHs started for the present pear.
 These clinics are formed for me purnose of correcting and bringing ia normal the undernenrished ehilh' The srst question that arises now ls, what is the undernourished child and how distinguished from the rest of the children. This question can eas. fly ha answered. The undernourished child Is the child which falls below the average weight for child Of lis age and height, The child Is picked out from the rest. first by weight All the children in a school are weighed and measured. They are then grouped in accordance with height weight table which has been ah' iained by weighing and measuring thousands of normal children. All the children who are seven per cent or more below the standard are called hnhtfhnufihhfuf
 This method of grouping the chil- dren Is often questioned. Mothers ask, why. fl my child Is naturally very small should it be called under nourished because Il weighs less than other children who are naturally large? Or. why should my child weigh as much as other children when both its mother and father are naturally very small? Or, again. My child is much too tall for her age and NO why shouldn't she be a little nn- derweight because she has grown tall so fast? The answer to all these questions is this. The table which is used to determine undernourished children takes all these things into consideration and allows for them.
 It is now natural to ask. why is the child undernourished. To answer this one must consider two great groups of causes. First. physical de- fleets. These may vary from minor things like adenoids to serious diseases of the heart. Until these physical defects are corrected the child is not to be considered free to gain. The second great group of causes may be called the habit group In this group come all the forces which affect the child's daily life; Its habits of eating. its exercise. it's habits of rest its social activities and so on
 Now then. why all this fuss about the undernourished child? The great outstanding reason is this; the under nourished child is not starting life with a fair chance. It Is being forced to start on long race with great handicap. It does not have the strength and reserve force to fight against the strain and struggle of modern life. The undernourished child is without power to fight against the many diseases to which if is subject. It does not have that wonderful pep and vitality which go far to make life enjoyable and healthy. It is physically unfit.
 Physically unfit Think what that means. And physical unfltness Is a serious matter in this country. In the examinations made on men of army age during the great war one in every three was physically unfit. Why? Surely it is only fair to sup pose that the reason some of these men were unfit was because they had not been properly cared for when they were children and had been started off in the world with handi- cap. And it is certainly true that fl