The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-04-21
WHY IS BILL JOHNSON LOSING
 WEIGHT?


 If you asked Bill Johnson just now how he was feeling lie would probably reply, "Fit as fiddle!" As an active 15-year old he would scorn the idea that all was, not well with him. And, indeed, he seems always to be on the go; he is an enthusiastic scout, regular attendant at the boys gymnasium. a member of the school baseball team and this year I know he plans to take up tennis seriously. All winter he has been swimming twice a week at the Y. M. c. A. pool. He is a popular boy and is always being asked out to parties by the other young people in the neighborhood. This winter he has attended dances on an average of once week. School work. of course, takes up a great deal of his time and energy. Though by no means brilliant, Bill is a steady
 worker and manages to keep up g | fairly good record of marks. All together he is what you would call an all-round good fellow and his parents are justly proud of him. But as a matetr of fact he is moi quite as fit as he would have yol believe. For some months now he has been losing weight rather rap. idly. Boy-like he hasn't said g
 word about it, and his mother has
 been so busy, especially since John arrived, that it never occurred to her that anything might be wrong
 with Bill. However. since the in-
 cident of Mary's eyes last week she has been checking up on the other children and SO has discov- cred that Bill weighs considerably less than he did at Christmas time. Knowing that Bill weighed him. self every week at the gymnasium she asked him when his weight had begun to go down instead of up. Bill replied airily, ooh, a good while back. I guess it's just the spring." But his mother was wor- ried and as usual asked my advice. She said she didn't want to be fussy but Bill had grown so en- ormously during the previous year and had put on so much weight that it seemed funny he should go back all of sudden.
 assured her that as far as I could see only one thing ailed young Bill and that was too much &C., tivity and too little sleep. asked her to run over for me Bills week.
 ly program: gymnasium, scout meeting. swimming, games. school, home-study and several movies or other late parties. I explained that such a program would tire the average full-grown man. let alone a half-grown boy. Apparently >fr hA1fivoa hn0 hoan 10 o'clock but Mrs Johnson ad-. mitted that very often it was l0:SO before he went upstairs-especiaiiy if there happened to be a particu- larly good program on the radlo. And as Bills bedroom IS just aDove the sitting room. he often asks his mother and father to turn. the radio up a bit so that he may near 1t while undressing and going 10 sleep. Altogether it's doubtful If he ever really gets to sleep much before II even on week nights and at week-ends it's apt to be mid night. Now Bill, know, has to get up at z, so that he gets bare- ly eight hours sleep as a general rule. I pointed this out to Mrs Johnson and she admitetd that 1t was so.
 "But, doctor" she continued. "What can I do? can't send him off to bed at S:30 with Mary. He's not a child, and he must have some time in the evenings" So explained to her that although Bill was SO big and husky he wasn't by any means grown up yet. The very fact that he had grown so rapidly