View report page

116
proceedings at home. Each little group of mothers is given instruction
as to the value and properties of direct natural sunlight, and advised as
to their children's diet, clothing and general hygiene.
Warnings against the impervious mackintosh cover and perambulator
hood are frequently repeated, and the desirability of a daily bath is
emphasized, while it is pointed out that sunlight treatment will be quite
useless through a dirty skin. If a child is not clean when brought to
the centre, no treatment is given.
So far, the results have been encouraging, although, as at other
centres, no remarkable increases in weight have been recorded. The
children treated have all been selected cases from the Infant Welfare
Centres, and were definitely losing weight, or gaining very little, before
the treatment was commenced. In a large proportion of cases the child
was thin, flabby, anaemic and apathetic, with a poor appetite and no
apparent interest in life. These patients show a striking change;
both mental alertness and muscular activity have increased surprisingly.
The actual physical results seem to be, that while the child's muscles
are firmer and his colour and appetite improved, he does not put on fat,
as he takes much vigorous exercise; there can be no doubt as to his
increased cheerfulness. So far, no child has had longer than 30 minutes
exposure, as in one or two cases with patients under one year, slight
restlessness or sleeplessness was reported after 30 minutes, although
most of the children are reported as sleeping better at night. In a
number of children between six and eighteen months of age, where gain
in weight has been very slow, it has been observed that the eruption of
teeth was proceeding very rapidly—as many as seven new teeth being
cut in a few weeks, in a baby who previously had none.
There has been no definite result observed as to the incidence of
bronchitis among children having treatment. But it appears to have
been unpleasantly common, and is responsible for many cases of
absenteeism, and irregular attendance at the centre. But it must be
remembered that the selected children are peculiarly liable to bronchitis,
and during the latter part of the year we have had an epidemic of
influenza, associated with bronchitis, though in one or two specific
instances, children who have previously suffered from chronic bronchitis
have had less of it.
Cases of rickets and muscular weakness show the greatest improvement,
and one or two cases of enlarged cervical glands of the type
described as " pre-tubercular " have apparently been cured.