When a young child pushes his (plate away and declares that he is ;not hungry, the wise parent will I not plead with him to eat, Miss ! Margaret C. Moore, consultant of ! nutrition, Louisiana Board of Health, said here Thursday.
"When a child is around two years old, his growing is temporarily slowed down so that he is not as hungry as usual," she said. "When young Johnny says, I don't want my dinner," his mother will immediately put on a grand show to get him to eat. He enjoys all the attention."
Miss Moore said that this pleading with the child teaches Mm bad habits that he carries over into later life.
"It gives the child a sense of power over his parents," she said. "He is very proud of the fact that he doesn't like milk."
HELD NORMAL
She said that many parents do not realize that this failure to eat is nomral for children this age,
"And so, 'please take just one more bite for mommy' becomes a universal plea," she said.
When parents encounter this type of action, she said, they should take the child from the table.
"When he gets hungry," she said, "he'll eat. And don't worry, he's not going to starve."
Miss Moore was one of the speakers at an institute on "Infectious Disease and Your Child," given for parents' clubs representatives at the Louisiana State university medical school. WARNING ISSUED
Miss Moore also warned,.-the parents about another dangerous period in a child's eating habits —the time the child starts school.
"Parents should work with teachers and cafeteria workers to see that the child is fed properly," she said. "Often, when a cafeteria worker sees a slightly chubby child, she will think. 'Oh what a nice, fine boy' and give
him two scoops of rice. And he certainly doesn't need two scoops."
She said that an adolescent's growth was "tremendous" and | that parents should provide "good }snacks for in-between meals." HIGH-CALORIC VALUE
"Many of the snacks that ado-
lescents eat between meals," she said, "have no food value and' high-caloric value. Parents should substitute flavored milk drinks for bottled beverages, and oatmeal cookies with food value forj cookies that are merely sweet."
Dr. Andrew Hedmeg, director, division of local health services, Louisiana state board of health, ciritcized the "apathy on the part of the public" regarding infectious diseases—diseases caused by germs.
"There,is a feeling of overcon-fidence," he said. "People think 'this isn't going to happen to us.' And, unfortunately, it does." j TAKEN FOR GRANTED j
Dr. Hedmeg, who presided over the morning session, said that people failed to take advantage of immunization agents that prevent many infectious diseases.
"This is evident in recent epidemics in this area of diptheria and typhoid fever—two diseases that have effective immunization agents," he said.
He said immunization methods are "so often taken for granted that many persons are not as well protected as they think."
Dr. Margaret H. D. Smith, as-' sociate professor of pediatrics, Tulane university school of medicine, said that although tuberculosis cases had shifted to an older age group, children were still infected.
TESTS URGED
She explained that it was often' the grandparent who gave the disease to the child. Dr. Smith; u?ged the. more widespread usei of tuberculin tests early in child- j hood so that treatment could be given immediately to those with the disease.
The institute was sponsored by the Tuberculosis Association of Greater New Orleans with the' co-operation of the LSU medical school; Parent-Teacher Association Councils of Orleans and Jef-j ferson parishes; Orleans and Jef-j ferson Home Demonstration Councils; New Orleans Council of Catholic School Co - operative Clubs; and other parent groups.!
W. Findley Raymond, of the tuberculosis association, estimated that between 90 and 100 representatives of parent groups at-
tended the sessions
