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104 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
employment among the men; in many instances we had to
call four or five times before finding the mothers at home.
There was a great many cases of removal, the majority of
which we failed to trace, and those we did find had more
often than not been obliged to seek smaller and cheaper
accommodation. Wrong addresses were again a difficulty,
especially in the case of illegitimate births.
"The second Table shows the number of re-visits and the
method of feeding the infants then found, the average age at
the second visit being from four to five months.
"Comparing the results of this year's enquiry with last,
it will be seen that the percentage of infants having food in
addition to the breast at the first visit is slightly less. In the
majority of cases the 'food' meant half a nursery biscuit or
a little bread while the mother was at work. At the second
visit we found that many of the mothers had, on our advice,
discontinued this 'food' and were giving the breast only, or
cows' milk in addition.
"During the summer months it is much more usual for
us to find that Nestle's milk was being given as 'they were
afraid of cows' milk.' With reference to 'cows' milk and
food' we should state that whenever the barley water has
been made from patent barley instead of pearl barley, we
have regarded it as a farinaceous food. In many of the
cases where the mother's milk was supplemented by other
methods of feeding it was due to the fact that the mother
was so poorly nourished herself as to be unable entirely to
feed her baby, or that she was obliged to go to work.
"We have had few instances where mothers have wilfully
dried their milk supply, but one or two examples might be
given. One mother said she had been a nurse, 'knew how to
bring up children, and thought breast feeding was wrong.'
Another 'considered the bottle was better, as it was possible to
go out and leave the baby with it.' A third case has its pathos
—the mother had six children under seven years of age, and
the bottle was given 'because she was too busy to nurse'; she
was, however, following the pamphlet given to her after the