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123
(3) Attendances 300
(4) Number of children who have never attended a centre 84
(5) Clinics held 36
(6) Average attendance per clinic—
New cases 7.77
Old cases .56
8.3
(7) Referred elsewhere for treatment (including dental treatment) 118
(8) (a) Advised to attend Schick Clinic 255
(b) Did so 29(11%)
(9) Number of children recommended for grant of milk 8
Medical Inspection of Toddlers, 1936-7.
Disease, defect or condition found—
Nutrition—(a) Normal 270
(b) Poor 10
Defective teeth 80
Englarged tonsils and adenoids 54
Enlarged glands 13
Eye defects—(a) squint 6
(6) infective 2
Otorrhoea 1
Skin conditions 13
Knock knee 21
Heart—(a) organic 2
(6) functional 3
Lung defects 9
Nervous defects 3
Phimosis 12
Enuresis 13
Hernia—(a) umbilical 1
(b) inguinal 1
Nasal diphtheria 1
Evidence of past rickets 25
Nævus 5
The total attendances of children at the infant welfare clinics
during the past three years were as follows :—
Under 1.
1 to 5.
1934
16,357
9,551
1935
17,784
9,423
1936
18,563
8,681
From these figures it appears that, whilst there has been a
steady rise in the attendance of children under 1, there has been
a corresponding fall in the attendance of toddlers.
I have been struck by the large number of children (30 per cent.)
who have never been brought to any infant welfare centre, and
I think that the value of a special toddlers' clinic is being
increasingly realised by parents.
At present toddlers attend the special clinic in response to
a written invitation, the list of invitations being compiled from
the register of births and deaths. Frequently, however, families
have removed to an unknown address, and there are, in addition,
many families, of which we have no information, who have removed
into the Borough.
The total number of children examined at the toddlers' clinic
during the past 9 months is 280, and I have estimated that there
are about 5,000 children between the ages of 1 and 5 in this
Borough who are not attending an infant welfare centre and who
are not under medical supervision at a nursery school. This
experimental toddlers' clinic, therefore, only touches the fringe
of the problem. As 42 per cent. of the toddlers who attended
the clinic at the age of 3 have been recommended for treatment
for one or more defects I think the necessity for a comprehensive
scheme for the supervision of toddlers is established, and it appears