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The largest average attendance, and largest number of children
both belong to the St. John Street Centre.
The smaller attendance at the Penton Street Centre is probably
due to the fact that some of the mothers prefer to attend the
weighings held close by at the Dinner Centre at 26, Cumming
Street, and in this way achieve a qualification for the purchase of
cheap dinners at that centre for a payment which barely covers
the cost of the food alone.
Many of the children when first brought to the weighing centres
were found to be fed chiefly on patent biscuits or boiled bread.
The breast fed children were, however, in the majority, and were
more than four times as many as the others who were not breast
fed. In recent years the proportion of breast fed children to the
others in the borough has shown a definite increase. On their
first visits 75 per cent. of the babies were fat and plump, others,
amounting to 20 per cent. were markedly thin. The residue, about
5 per cent. of the whole number, were already wasting.
By far the larger number of babies are brought to the centres
between the ages of one and three months : twenty-two were over
12 months of age. Most of the babies weighed between 7 and
8 lbs. at birth, 124 weighed between 8 and 9 lbs., 67 between 9
and 10 lbs., and 36 weighed 10 1bs. and over. Nine babies
weighed under 4 lbs. at birth. Eight infants were premature
ones.