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

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Lambeth 1926

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lambeth Borough]

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63
fact that the chief causes of an increased diarrhceal rate are to be
found in the improper and irregular feeding of infants and young
children.
27 corrected deaths (20 infants under 1 year of age) were registered
from enteritis.
Practical measures were taken to prevent epidemic diarrhoea (and
other diseases) in infants and young children, and to promote hygienic
conditions in their feeding and environment, as follows:—
(a) Visiting of houses wherein births were notified under the
Notification of Births Act, 1907, or wherein deaths of infants
and children were registered as having occurred from
epidemic diarrhoea or other diseases of a similar nature.
(b) Teaching of proper feeding and care and management of
infants at the Infants Consultations Centre connected with
the Municipal Milk Depot, and at the Voluntary Consultations
Welfare Centres (14 in number), which are comprised
within the Lambeth Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme,
by the Medical Officers and Staffs attached thereto.
(c) Feeding of necessitous infants and young children through
the Municipal Milk Depot, and through the 14 Voluntary
Welfare Centres, in connection with the Council's Milk
Assistance Scheme, which has been approved by the Ministry
of Health, under the Maternity and Child Welfare
Act, 1918.
(d) Issuing of special leaflets on breast feeding and artificial
feeding of infants, and of leaflets and posters during the
summer, dealing with (1) precautions to be taken against
summer, diarrhoea, (2) the danger of the infection and the
contamination of food by flies, (3) the importance of removing
at once all accumulations of refuse and other offensive
matters from the neighbourhood of dwellings, (4) the value of
cleanliness generally, &c.
(e) Voluntary notification of cases of diarrhoea and the free
nursing of infants and children (and others) obtainable under
the Lambeth Nursing (Infectious Diseases) Scheme.