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9
of parents who feed their children on substances that are unsuitable.
Sweetstuffs, pickles and strong tea is not a suitable
diet for a growing child, and the careless mother is often to
blame for the malnutrition of her children. These, too, are days
when amusement and excitemeht night by night is too often
part of the existence of a child. Children are allowed to roam
the streets or to spend their evenings at the pictures when they
ought to be in bed and asleep. Several instances of malnutrition
being associated with late hours and lack of repose have come
to my personal notice during the year. This is a matter for
which it is difficult to find a remedy, for to bring a sense of her
duty to the bad mother is well-nigh impossible.
Milk and cod liver oil are provided in certain cases where
the School Medical Officer thinks that a child will benefit thereby.
The milk is provided by the Care Committees, and in some
instances the parents of the children pay for the milk: in other
cases it is given free to necessitous cases after inquiry has been
made into the home circumstances of the children. All the
children, about 50 in number, who have received milk during
the year are inspected from time to time by the School Medical
Officer, and are weighed monthly by a School Nurse. Without
exception during the year these children who have been receiving
milk at the schools have done well. They have gained in weight,
and are more vigorous and healthy than they were before the
milk was given them. In some instances the teachers report
definite improvement in a child's mentality, and the parents
also remark upon their children's improved physique. Milk is
a cheap and perfect food, and contains all those factors necessary
for growth and development. Several children who have been
given malt and cod liver oil during the year have also shown
marked improvement. There is one great advantage, however,
that milk has over cod liver oil: the milk is drunk by the child
at school under proper supervision, and there is no doubt that
twice a day the child receives its milk. But the cod liver oil
and malt is generally taken at home, and, being pleasantly sweet
and sticky, it is no doubt sampled and enjoyed by all the
children of the family to the detriment of the delicate child,
who is robbed of his fair share of it. To obviate this the Head
Mistress of one department gives in school their doses of oil and
malt to the children for whom it has been ordered,