Tuesday, January 9, 1973
ABRUPT WEANING SLOWS DOWN CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Survey Extended To Study Malnutrition
Abrupt weaning and the subsequent replacement of milk by an
inadequate and imbalanced diet partly explains the slowing down of Hong
Kong Chinese children's development, both physical and mental, in the
first two years of their childhood.
This was stated today by the Supervisor of the Child Development
Survey, undertaken by the Paediatric Department of the University of Hong
Kong and financed, among others, by the Government lotteries Fund.
The Child Development Survey was launched in 1967 with the aim
of studying the growth and development of 782 new-born Chinese babies in
Hong Kong.
The survey has now been extended for another three years in an
effort to examine the effect of malnutrition and child-rearing practices
on general scholastic performance of children between the ages of five
and eight.
A total of 447 five-and-a-half year old. children, representing
a fair cross-section of Eong Kong, are currently under observation at the
Child Development Centre.
The Supervisor pointed cut that so far there was no obvious indication
of any adverse effect of malnutrition on the children's intellectual
capacity, but the analysis of the results beyond the first year had not
yet been completed.
/On malnutrition
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