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big groups: (1) Difficulty of circumstance—the mother being
compelled to work or her home conditions being such that
she has inadequate time to spend on her child; (2) The
mother herself being undernourished physically or overstrained
menrtally or unskilled in the technique and management
of her child; (3) The child, varying from the feeble
baby who sucks poorly to the vigorous infant who gulps his
feed in a hurry.
A quiet room is used and every mother is made
as comfortable as possible. Test feeds are given and any
child not receiving an adequate feed is seen by the doctor.
Each feed is carefully supervised by the nursing staff in
charge, and practical advice as to the management of each
individual child is given. In certain cases appointments
for afternoon test feeds are given, and every effort made
to overcome each particular difficulty. Records are kept
and the mothers encouraged to be interested in them.
Such work is not possible in a busy routine Infant Clinic,
and not the least of our difficulties is to overcome outside
influences against breast feeding. Numbers show nearly
50 per cent, of complete successes and about 20 per cent,
of oartial success. The records are as follows:—
New cases 300
Subsequent attendances 565
Total attendances 865
Average attendance per session 16.7
Doctors' Consultations 144
Health Visitors ,, 721