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BOROUGH OF HORNSEY.
Precautions against Summer Diarrhœa.
1. Infants fed by hand suffer in a far greater degree from
Diarrhoea than infants fed at the breast, and it is very important
that infants should be fed at the breast whenever it is possible.
When they have to be fed by hand they should get only good milk,
and the feeding bottle used should be of the improved boat-shaped
kind (not those having a long india-rubber tube).
2. All milk should be boiled before use.
3. Children's food should be freshly prepared. When it is
necessary to keep milk in the warm season it should be boiled and
stood in a clean jug or dish, covered with a clean cloth.
4. All food should be kept in a clean, dry, and well-aired
place.
5. Meat and fish should be carefully examined on purchase,
and no tainted food should be bought. Food which his become
tainted after cooking should be rejected. Fruit should be carefully
selected and cleaned.
6. Overcrowding is a cause of Diarrhoea. During the warm
season bedroom windows should be left open day and night, and
the fireplaces should be kept open. Bedroom walls and ceilings
should be limewashed early in summer. If the room is papered,
the paper should be cleaned. Overcrowding should be avoided.
7. All dirt should be removed from the house. The floors
should be frequently scrubbed with soap and soda. Dirty paper
should be removed. If the walls under the paper are dirty or
broken, the paper should be removed and the walls made good and
cleansed.
8. Damp or dirty conditions about a house are conducive
to Diarrhœa.
9. The paving at the rear and the front areas should be kept
clean and the drains flushed with a few pails of water daily.
10. The dustbins should be kept covered and not allowed to
overflow, nor should vegetable refuse be put into them. Tea leaves,
cabbage leaves, fish, potato peelings, etc., should be burned in the
kitchen fire. No liquid should ever be placed in the dustbin.
11. Where any offensive smell is perceived in or near a house
the cause of which cannot be ascertained and removed, complaint
should be made to the Public Health Department, Municipal
Offices, Highgate.
HAROLD COATES, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Municipal Offices, Highgate, N.