London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Battersea 1907

Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1907

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40
situation—placed at our disposal through the courtesy of the
Baths Committee. The condition of the child is then noted,
the weight recorded in the record book and on a card supplied
to the mother, and any unfavourable circumstance commented
on. No medicinal treatment is given. Should there be any
necessity for this, the mother is advised to consult a medical
man or go to a hospital. The Depot is simply and solely a
Milk Clinic, not a dispensary. While visiting the home of the
infant, the Health Visitor carefully notes any insanitary conditions
which may be found to be present, and deals with such in
the ordinary way in her capacity as a Sanitary Inspector. In this
way the best results are obtained; and the mothers find the
visits of the Health Visitors of great assistance to them. Rarely
is any difficulty met with by Miss Moss in carrying out her
duties in this respect. Her visits are in most cases eagerly
looked forward to and much esteemed.
To sum up, the methods carried out at the Infants' Milk
Depot have for their object the feeding of infants of the poor,
whose mothers are physically incapable of breast feeding
them :—
(a) With properly modified milk,
(b) Sufficient for each meal,
(c) Supplied in separate bottles,
(d) Securely stoppered, to prevent contamination.
In this way each bottle is ready for immediate use, simply
requiring to be placed in hot water for two or three minutes,
the stopper undone, and a teat (which is supplied at cost price)
slipped over the neck of the bottle ; the baby does the rest.
The Results Obtained.
The results obtained during 1907 were on the whole very
satisfactory. The total number of infants dealt with during the
year was 618, or 2 less than during 1906. Of this number 197
were still using the milk at the beginning of 1907. This very
slight drop in the number of infants was not due to any loss in
•
popularity. The Dep6t would seem, on the contrary, to have