Baby, it's cold outside

By JO-MARIE BROWN and MARTIN JOHNSTON

Babies and young children are getting sick because their parents cannot afford to buy them warm clothes, and Middlemore Hospital is asking the public to help.

The hospital wants donations of new clothing or very good used items such as bonnets, booties, jackets, singlets, jumpers and bedding.

Pam Tregonning, executive director of the South Auckland Health Foundation, said thousands of children were catching respiratory illnesses and other infections because they were too cold.

"It is a desperate situation during the winter. We've got a number of babies whose parents are unable to supply winter clothing. Some of them have just got a blanket.

"So we've got a large number of children being admitted for things that can be prevented, and warm clothes would certainly help."

She said Middlemore launched a similar appeal last winter when the problem was first identified, and the response was overwhelming.

"We were extremely grateful, but we've almost run out of everything. As the winter gets colder we get more kids coming in and we need to build up our supplies."

Pam Tregonning said new or home-made knitted clothes were preferable as the hospital did not have the capacity to wash or repair clothes.

The Starship children's hospital did not have a similar scheme, said spokesman David Jagusch. A group did knit clothes for premature babies at National Women's Hospital, but both hospitals would be happy to accept donations.

South Auckland children are particularly vulnerable to winter illnesses: 1998 figures show 345 children out of every 10,000 are likely to develop a respiratory infection, compared with 260 per 10,000 nationwide.

While poverty is acknowledged as a big factor, there are also calls for greater coordination of services and better health promotion.

Health researcher Joy Simpson said last year after writing a report for the Counties Manukau Health Council that the rate of some childhood diseases in the area matched Third World levels.

Communicable diseases such as whooping cough and bronchial illnesses had all increased over the preceding five years, particularly in Pacific Island families.

Key findings were that South Auckland had four times the national rate of measles, at least a third of the children seen at Middlemore were deficient in iron, and immunisation rates were between 56 and 76 per cent, well below the national level.

In a separate report, Middlemore paediatricians said that of South Auckland's 92,000 children aged under 15, half lived in some of the poorest homes in New Zealand, and almost 10 per cent had a disability or chronic illness.

Health council chairman Len Brown said yesterday that a South Auckland-wide database of children's health records was essential to ensure their health needs were followed up, particularly immunisations.

Much greater emphasis was also needed on health promotion and education, so people knew how to stay healthy and where to go for help if they became ill.

But he said that question highlighted the cultural and language barriers such messages had to clear in areas such as Otara and Mangere.

Health Minister Annette King has instructed her officials to prepare a health strategy to deal with South Auckland's problems, and has indicated she favours starting a national database to track children's immunisation status. She will meet health council members next week.

* Donations to Middlemore can be made by contacting its volunteer coordinator, Faye Robinson, on (09) 270 8028. She will take the clothing on behalf of the new Kidz First hospital due to open in July.