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17
Fortunately this can be secured without adding to the cost
of the service. An ideal site has been obtained in a quiet, central
position at Crouch End, with approaches from the Broadway,
from Weston Park, and from Haringey Park. Plans prepared
by the Borough Engineer and Architect are now under
consideration, and it is hoped that building operations will
commence in time to enable the new Clinic to be occupied in the
autumn of 1932.*
general summary and review—the need for
a nutrition campaign.
The impression left on one's mind by the year's work in the
schools is that a majority of the children are well cared for and of
sound physique. The standard of cleanliness is very high. There
remains, however, a minority of the children whose general
physique leaves much to be desired. They show diseases and
defects of one kind or another due in the main to errors of
nutrition and poor mothercraft generally. These children strip
badly—they are thin, pale, soft, badly shaped, and frequently
show structural defects of the bones—evidence of rickets in
infancy and early childhood. They are frequently the victims of
"nerves" and are educationally as unsatisfactory as they are
physically.
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that, in the main, the
problem presented to the Education Committee and to the
Maternity and Child Welfare Committee by this class of child is
a nutrition problem. An adequate diet of plain, wholesome foods
for the expectant mother, the infant, the pre-school child and the
school child is the first consideration.
Everything possible is being done in this direction by both
Committees by way of education and, in necessitous cases,
by the supply of food. An average of 2,500 children took
one-third of a pint of milk daily in the schools throughout the
year. About 90% of these paid for their milk. For the remaining
10% the cost was defrayed by the Authority. Just as half a loaf
* Building commenced April, 1932, and the new Clinic will be ready
for occupation September, 1932.