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19
Of the 31 infants under 3 months, 6 were aged 14 days or
under.
These 104 infants and children (under 2 years) may be classified,
as to their states of health at the time of being put upon the milk, as
follows : -Healthy, i.e., showing no signs of wasting or disease, though
often below par constitutionally, 58; weakly 29, wasting 3, diseased 14.
The diseases from which the 14 infants and children were actually, or
had recently been, suffering at the time of being put upon the milk were
diarrhoea and sickness 3, scarlet fever 1, bronchitis 1, whooping
cough 2, indigestion 4, erysipelas 1, and congenital malformation 2.
An average of 94 infants and children (under 2 years) were fed
per week at the Depot, necessitating the distribution for the year ot
91,351 bottles of milk mixture (5,142½ gallons), whilst, in addition,
milk was also supplied as follows :—
1. Lambeth Hospital—using 8,118 bottles of milk mixture
(1,014¾ gallons);
2. Nursing mothers—using 1,766 pint bottles of milk mixture
(220¾ gallons);
3. Expectant mothers—using 59 pint bottles of milk mixture
(7 gallons);
4. Children over 2 years of age—using 1,760 pint bottles of
milk mixture (220 gallons).
A total of 6,1574 gallons of milk and 316 pints of cream were
used during 1926, distributed in 99,469 bottles.
Attached to the Milk Depot is an Infants Consultations Centre,
where consultations for mothers, infants and children (under 5 years
of age) are held, with the Medical Officer of Health and one of the
Council's Official Health Visitors in attendance. The babies are
weighed and the weights and other details tabulated in the Register,
and those mothers and infants and children (under 5 years of age)
who require medical advice are examined by the Medical Officer of
Health, visiting at the homes being carried out by a Health Visitor,
as required. The Manageress also attends daily (Sundays excepted)
between the hours of 12 (noon) and 2 p.m. at the Depot for the
purpose of distributing the milk and of also consulting with mothers
and others in regard to infant and child feeding and management.
The Medical Officer of Health can also be seen personally by mothers
by appointment at the Town Hall, or communicated with by telephone,
the Town Hall and the Milk Depot being in telephonic communication.
The most conclusive proof of the value of a Milk Depot, in so far
as the infants and children fed are concerned, is to be found in the
medical histories of individual cases, which show again and again, in
the case of the Depot, that those infants and children who appear to
be seriously ill and wasting, if not moribund, as the result of improper
or irregular feeding, at the time of commencing the milk, actually
recover and become strong and healthy. Practically no medicines are
used, reliance being placed upon what is known as percentage feeding,
b 2