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*Including Toddlers Inspections.
INFANT CONSULTATIONS.
I append some extracts from reports of the Medical
Officers on their work at the Centres during the year:
"It seems to me that mastitis, generally followed by
breast abscess, is becoming more common than it used to
be. Frequently now we have cases that have to be w.eaned
on account of this. It is most disappointing because usually
I think the mothers with most milk tend to have mastitis.
Besides the loss to the baby of breast milk, this is a most
painful illness and may mean weeks of disablement with a
tendency to recurrence in a future pregnancy. It usually
happens from two to three weeks after delivery.
" I have found the Breast Feeding Clinic of great value,
not only as a means of discovering the quantity of milk
secreted but also for the encouragement and advice which
is given by the Health Visitors in charge. Often a mother
is surprised to find that her baby cries because he is overfed
rather than underfed. This can only be demonstrated to
her by one or more test feeds. Often too the young woman
with her first baby is given confidence and encouragement
to continue breast-feedings when she finds from a test feed
that she has more milk than she thought she had.
"I feel more than ever the need of outdoor life for babies
and young children. If only there could be provision for
outdoor play centres. I hope in the new housing schemes
this has not been forgotten."
D. E. Mason.
"When acting as locum tenens for the medical officer
at the Bethnal Green Maternity and Child Welfare Centres,
I am always impressed by the 'welfare mindedness' of the