Plunket: Please keep the Well Child focus going

Media Release
9 March 2007
For immediate release

Plunket asks: Please keep the Well Child focus going

With the closing of Well Child week 2007 (March 5 - 11), Plunket wants to remind New Zealanders to keep up the positive focus on children’s well being.

“The theme of this year’s well child week – ‘time is your most precious gift’ – was one of the most important yet,” says Ramona Dillon, Northern Clinical Advisor for Plunket.

“Giving time to our children costs us nothing. Yet the ways in which they benefit from this gift is priceless,” she says.

“Children rely on their caregivers to feed and clothe them, to keep them safe and warm. But just as important to their healthy development is what happens when they are shown they are loved and cherished and enjoyed.”

“From the earliest hours, right through childhood, being touched, held, sung to and talked to, builds the bond that connects a child in a positive way to a loving caregiver.”

“Over the months and years as we are shown we are valued and loved, we take on the belief that we are valuable and loveable.” Ramona continues. “With this knowledge, we have the foundation of a lifetime of healthy, rewarding relationships.”

“Favourite ways of spending time together will be different for all families. However”, she explains, “it is especially important in the early years to spend time where the child is the focus – where their enjoyment or unpressured learning is all that it’s about.”

“Reading, playing together outdoors, listening to their stories, teaching them a skill like tying their shoes, helping to colour a picture, all these things and countless others make a child feel special and capable.”

“As they grow and are encouraged to take challenges that are matched to their age and ability they learn to strive and achieve. Each little victory that is celebrated inspires them further.”

Ramona concludes, “Plunket can think of no other investment that would pay off so richly as the time that is invested in a child.”

ENDS

About the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society
The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society (Plunket) this year celebrates its centenary year. Plunket is New Zealand’s largest provider of services to support the health and development of children under five and is dedicated to working with parents and communities to ensure that New Zealand children get the best start in life. Plunket’s services help families nationwide, through 600 branches, mobile clinics and a free phone service, PlunketLine. For more information go to www.plunket.org.nz

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