View report page

45
Not until the eighth or ninth month, or the teeth arc being cut, is a baby
able to digest farinaceous foods, such as baked flour, powdered biscuit, small
crumbled bread, and fine oatmeal, and these foods should never be given to a
baby until the teeth commence to appear.
On no account should portions of the ordinary food or drink of the mother
when at meals be given to the baby; they may prove injurious and even fatal.
Weaning before Time.
A mother should not wean her baby before the seventh month at the very
earliest, as weaning before time is dangerous to the baby.
Every effort should be made to postpone weaning until after the hot weather
has come and gone, as the months of July, August, and September are
particularly fatal to hand fed babies.
If the health of the suckling mother or of the baby is failing, medical advice
should be sought with a view to avoiding weaning.
If the health of the mother or the breast milk cannot be improved and
medical advice is given that weaning or supplementing the breast milk is
absolutely essential, then the necessary food and feeding of the hand fed baby
should be medically directed, and the baby should be periodically seen and
examined by the medical adviser.
A hand-fed baby's progress should be very carefully watched, and upon the
slightest suspicion of derangement or want of progress, medical advice should
be immediately sought, especially if there be any diarrhoea, as illness in a baby
develops rapidly and is soon past remedying.
Medical advice can be obtained by a mother from her private medical
attendant, or at the various public medical charities, according to her means.
Further information may be obtained from the Women Inspectors, to whom
messages may be addressed, at the Public Health Department, Town Hall,
Pancras Road, N.W.
John F. J. Sykes,
Medical Officer of Health.
From the weekly returns of births the more suitable cases to visit are selected,
commencing in the poorest streets. The Woman Inspector is assisted in this
work by a number of ladies, varying from 12 to 18, who act as Voluntary
Visitors, and the inquiry made is in the following form:—
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF ST. PANCRAS.
Public Health Department.
Inquiry as to Suckling.
Visit immediately after Notification of Birth, before any chance of removal
takes place.
In case of subsequent death, Visit immediately after Notification of Death.