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4. Nursing mothers —using 6,206 pint bottles of milk mixture
;
5. Expectant mothers —using 1,321 pint bottles of milk
mixture.
6. Children over 2 years of age —using 2,955 pint bottles of
milk mixture.
A total of 12,937 gallons of milk and 476 pints of cream were
used during 1919.
Weekly medical consultations* with mothers were held at the
Depôt, the babies being weighed, the weights and other details
tabulated in the Register, whilst the babies were visited also at
their homes by the Health Visitors as required.
The most conclusive proof of the value of a Milk Depôt, in
so far as the infants and children fed are concerned, is to be found
in the medical histories of individual cases, which show again and
again, in the case of the Depôt, that those infants and children
who appear to be seriously ill and wasting, if not moribund, as
the result of improper or irregular feeding, at the time of commencing
the milk, actually recover and become strong and healthy.
The educational value, too, of a Milk Depôt must not be
lost sight of.
The Milk (Mothers and Children) Order, 1918, and the Local
Authorities (Food Control) Order (No. 1) 1918 were in force
throughout the Borough during 1919, being administered locally
through the staffs of the various Voluntary Maternity and Child Welfare
Centres, though part of the milk was supplied from the York
Road Depôt in connection with applicants living within the immediate
neighbourhood of such Depot. Much extra work has been thrown
upon the different Voluntary Centres in consequence, but it is
'typically work for such Centres, which are, naturally, in touch with
local needs and conditions. From an administrative point of view,
this arrangement is a great success.
* In connection with the Infants consultations at the Milk Depôt, the
Ministry of Health has again given a financial grant in aid for the year 1919-20.