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afternoon since September 6th, 1937, and the one at Downham
Centre has been held every Wednesday afternoon since September
29th, 1937.
Each Clinic is conducted by one of the Maternity and Child
Welfare Medical Officers and 2 Health Visitors. All children born
in 1934 and 1935 who were not already on a school register were
sent invitations to attend one or other of these clinics on a definite
date. Each district has been done in turn so that the Health
Visitor of the district concerned could have an opportunity of
visiting the Toddlers to be invited and encouraging the mothers to
make use of the invitations when they came. For the examinations,
cards similar to those used by the School Medical Service have
been used with a few modifications. Considering that the holding
of separate clinics for Toddlers is new to the mothers of Lewisham
the response to the invitations has been fairly good. One point of
interest that has emerged is that mothers who have never consented
to attend the usual Welfare Centres with their children have accepted
the invitation to the Toddlers' Clinics.
A record is kept of all the defects found in each child as well
as of the recommendations regarding observation or treatment made
by the doctor. The Health Visitors have access to this record for
the purpose of following up their cases until observation is no longer
necessary or treatment has been carried out. From the record
Health Visitors can also ascertain the children who did not accept
the invitation and at subsequent home visits can again urge
attendance. It is proposed to issue an annual invitation to each
child, not on a school register, between the ages of 2 and 5 years of
age.
During the 4 months in which the two Toddlers' Clinics were
working in 1937, 16 sessions were held at the Health Centre,
Lewisham, and 14 at the Downham Centre. 137 children, of which
67 were girls and 70 were boys, attended the Lewisham Centre and
103 children, 52 girls and 51 boys, attended the Downham Centre,
making a total of 240 children that were examined. The average
attendance per session at Lewisham was 8.5 and at Downham 7.3.
The following table gives a synopsis of the conditions and
defects found:—