Behavior Problem Children

Today we are faced with a new and serious medical problem which is a challenge to the medical profession. The health of the nation is in a critical stage of degeneration, and to meet this challenge it will take courage, determination, and most of all a willingness to accept a new approach to find a method of preventing the early breakdown of the body tissues and organs.

Since the beginning of modern medicine around 1900, we have concentrated our research on the control of acute infectious diseases, which were the predominant ones of the time. A look at recent mortality statistics will reveal that our efforts to control these diseases have been successful.

As the result of these preventive measures, such as improved sanitation, discovery of antibiotics, clean milk supply, etc., life expectancy from birth since 1900 has increased 22 years. In 1900 life expectancy at birth was 47 years. Today it is 69 years. But the life expectancy of the middle age group has not changed since 1900.

This is an accomplishment that we can refer to with pride, but as we live in a dynamic and changing world we cannot rest on past accomplishments. While we were devoting our energies to the control of acute infectious diseases the population was growing older and rapidly developing degenerative diseases. We are now faced with this new medical and health problem.

Mortality statistics for acute infectious diseases in the U. S. today are the best in the world, while for coronary thrombosis, a degenerative disease, they are the worst. Coronary thrombosis in American men between the ages of 45 and 60 years are two to three times as high as in England, France, Germany and Italy. In fact today nearly 50% of the population has some form of chronic degenerative disease and of the remainder there are only 13% who are free of some type of physical defect.

The Background

Perhaps you are asking yourself, “Why is he talking about degenerative disease in adults when the title of the talk is on Behavior Problem Children?” I did this to give you a background–or as it is sometimes said “to fill you in” with some accepted facts. It is now recognized and more or less accepted that degenerative diseases of middle aged people is a serious problem, but, as yet, it has not been generally accepted that this problem of degeneration is gradually appearing earlier and earlier in life. In other words, in each new generation degenerative diseases in some form appear at an earlier age until at the present time a large percentage of babies develop certain tissue defects in utero and are actually born with a degenerative disease. These appear in varying degrees of severity from the slightest undetectable tissue defects up to congenital deformities and even cancer. In fact, cancer today causes more deaths in children than any other disease. I call these congenital degenerative diseases. Many times these tissue defects will not cause any apparent trouble until later in life, when they breed down into some form of degenerative disease due to the stresses of every-day living.

The Accepted Fact

We, in NFA, accept the fact that degenerative diseases, as well as congenital deformities, are metabolic in origin and are usually due to malnutrition. This opinion has been confirmed by many research groups. Recently Dean John B. Saunders of the University of California School of Medicine states: “Deficiencies in mothers’ diet during pregnancy was to blame for many deformities.”

What do we really know about nutrition? Nutrition and health are very complex problems and I am afraid that today we only know fragments of the truth. That is we know very few of the natural or universal laws of farming and nutrition. We have many theories that need further scientific research. I believe the real value of membership in NFA is that we are working together in search of the universal laws of health and nutrition. This is the reason we should formulate and support a research program, perhaps in co-operation with the American Academy of Nutrition and Nutrition Society, in order that more basic truths can be discovered. Today each group has its own pet theories on nutrition.

Gandhi and other philosophers have stated: “Where there is truth there is knowledge. Truth is eternal.” Truth is also universal. It can be applied at any time, at any place and will produce the same results. Truth is knowledge of the natural laws of the universe. If we know these laws and fulfill them, we have perfection. Less than that is imperfection. We see this in our health today. Ignorance of these laws is no excuse. We must still pay the penalty if we break them. This is as true in nature and health as in our civil laws.

Breaking Natural Laws

This reasoning can also be applied to the natural laws in farming. If a farmer breaks these natural laws, either wilfully or through ignorance in the preparation of his soil, a penalty will be paid in low quality plants and if continued will result in a complete destruction or deterioration of his soil. The penalty in low-grade plants is transmitted to the farm animals and to human beings that consume them as food and this results in imperfect health.

In the case of an airplane, when the universal laws of aerodynamics are broken the results are sudden and dramatic, but unfortunately in the case of the farmer and the consumer the results are usually slow and insidious. In some cases defects do not appear in human beings until the first or second generation.

As the result of and the penalty for the breaking and ignoring the natural laws of farming nutrition, we are faced with today in our public school, a new and major health and sociological problem in the form of Behavior Problem Children. These are not the mentally retarded children or the abnormal children. There are special schools for this type child and are not included in this study.

These are children that have trouble with their studies, not quite able to make a passing grade. They are nervous, irritable, emotionally unstable, frequently absent from school for some illness. They require special attention from the teacher, frequently non-cooperative. This group of children have been classified as “Behavior Problem Children”.

Recognized Problem

The California School Board recognized the need for a better understanding as to the cause and treatment of these children, and Dr. Tobias was appointed to make a complete study of this problem. He was selected to make the study because of his background as a pediatrician. Dr. Tobias and his coworkers attempted to study the whole child. They studied the child’s growth and development, behavior patterns, emotional patterns, ability to learn, environmental conditions in the home and nutritional background. Laboratory tests and X-rays were made on all children. These findings were tabulated on cards and analyzed by IBM machines. This is probably the most complete analysis of the Behavior Problem Child that has ever been made. In fact, the findings are still being analyzed and classified.

Each one of the factors studied threw some light on the problem and was important in the final statistics, but there was one finding that appeared to be a common denominator for all the children-there was an immature maturation or incomplete growth of the bones. This finding was based on X-rays of the wrist bones. It is a well-known fact that normal development of the bones according to the chronological age of a child can best be determined by X-rays of the ends of the long bones. This area is called the epiphysis and is the growth area. There is a separation of the epiphysis from the shaft of the bone in infancy and childhood and it is not until the bone has completed its growth that the two areas fuse and become fixed. After this the bones will not grow. A radiologist can determine by an X-ray of the wrist whether the bone structure is developing according to the chronological age of the child.

The finding that was so impressive in the study was the fact that all of these behavior problem children revealed immature maturation of the bones. In other words, the bone age development was less than the chronological age of the child. This age variant differed in the children but it was always present to some degree in the problem child.

Dr. Tobias came to the conclusion that the underdeveloped bone structure was not alone–it merely reflected a totally immature child. In other words, the entire body and nervous system, as well as the brain, was also immature. And thus, they were not dealing with a simple emotional problem due only to environmental influences, although certainly these factors could not be ignored as part of the total picture; but they recognized that they were dealing with a totally immature child. Therefore, psychological therapy, although it may be helpful, would not solve the problem.

Fortunately Dr. Tobias was interested in nutrition, and was able to make what I believe we would consider the right diagnosis. These children were the products, or end results of malnutrition in early childhood and more likely during fetal development. Mothers should start on good nutrition six months before pregnancy so that she will be in nutritional balance at the time of conception.

Diet Deficiencies

We are all aware of the fact that malnutrition in mothers during pregnancy and in early childhood is a reality. One study revealed that 98% of the mothers showed deficiencies in their diets. As for young children and teen-agers, it is estimated that three-fourths of the boys and girls are undernourished. These are the mothers of tomorrow. What else can we expect except an increase in the behavior problem children in the future.

We have only to refer to Dr. Francis Pottenger’s cat feeding test to find clinical examples of these bone deformities under controlled studies.

The question was asked: What would good nutrition do for these children at this time? This is problematic. In the younger children it is possible that they would show some improvement. It is believed that a good deal can be done for these children whose maturation pattern has not been too severely retarded. Growth undergoes fluctuations as a temporary inhibition or as an alteration in tempo. The temporary inhibition is noted as transverse lines on X-rays of the bones. A more definite inhibition results in “scars.” This is possibly a permanent defect. The earlier stages may be corrected.

Protracted or repeated ill-health, starvation or malnutrition interfere with normal growth and maturation.

Previous studies have shown that children from poorer homes are often 12 months below normal, while children from better homes are 12 months ahead of normal maturation for chronological age.

Normal bone maturation in girls is 16 years and boys 19 years. This means that the epiphysis and bone ceases to register further growth progress after this age.

It is the general belief that nutrition would not be of much value in these children as it is felt that these changes are permanent defects. This opinion is based on an earlier study in which such problem children were followed into adult life. They found that the same weaknesses and emotional instability found in childhood continues in adult life. There was no attempt to correct this group with good nutrition.

It seems that we may expect the same thing with these children unless there is some practical approach developed to change their eating habits. In fact, the most recent findings on the physical fitness of the young men in the armed forces confirms the fact that the majority of our young men are immature and emotionally unstable.

Recent estimates of mental defectives:

Of approximately 11,400 births each day 340 will be mentally handicapped. Also 30 are mentally retarded out of every 1000 of the population.

Report from Fort Dix, N.J., 1957:

• ARMY–Out of 834,000 men drafted, 220,000 were able to do only menial labor, K.P. duty, etc.;
  136,000 inducted by draft board;
  50,000–or 37% were rejected by the board;
  44,170–or 30% were rejected after 8 weeks’ basic training.
  67% Total.
• AIR FORCE–99,800 volunteered; 9,000 or 9% were mentally slow.
• MARINE CORPS–176,000 men volunteered; 31,750 or 18% mentally slow.
• NAVY–634,000 volunteers; 10,840-16% mentally slow.

A book published in England by Julius I. Steinfeld, an authority on mental diseases, maintains that schizophrenia has its origin in underfeeding during the first few weeks of life. Thus another voice is added to a growing list of people that realize there is a definite relation between malnutrition and mental health problems in our young children.

Now that we are aware of the basic cause of this problem, how long will it take to educate the mothers that good nutrition is essential to the mental and physical health of their children. How long will it take the school boards to accept these findings and prepare more nutritious lunches for the school children? The school should not only set an example with the school lunches, but home economics classes should teach good nutrition rather than teaching children how to make the best cakes and pies. Unless such corrective measures are instituted the behavior problem child will soon reach a critical state.

This, of course, brings up the problem of therapy. Can these people really be cured? There is no question but that many of these patients can be helped and even their disease controlled, but these patients must be ever “vigilant” as we are beginning to learn that their congenital weaknesses are always present and acts as a deterrent to good health. As these defects interfere with normal assimilation and absorption of foods.

This brings us back to my statements at the beginning of this talk. We must strive to learn more about the natural laws of nutrition so that we can live within the laws in order to develop and maintain good physical and mental health.