View report page

70
One child, aged 5 years at Berrymede Infants, was found at
medical inspection to weigh 22 lbs. 8 ozs.,, the normal weight for
about 1 year. The home was bad, and the child was given most
unsuitable food. We started the child on milk only, as we were
rather afraid of overtaxing a digestion unused to correct food.
Four months later, the child weighed 33 lbs. We then commenced
daily dinners as well with the result that at the end of a year she
weighed 41 lbs. and was capable of taking her place as a normal
healthy school child.
Three of the children were sent to the Convalescent Home at
Bexhill and made very good progress. We also had under our care,
12 children who were undernourished but not necessitous. One of
these was in such a bad condition that we sent her to the West
Middlesex Hospital for a month before we commenced school meals.
In this case the parents paid for her dinners and milk. The parents
have co-operated with us, physical defects have been remedied,
and healthy habits established. All are now gaining steadily each
month.
In some schools, the teaching staff has provided certain
children with cod liver oil daily, and in other cases the mothers
have paid for it. At the Central School Centre, half of the children
were given a ration of a "Vitamin B" product daily in their milk or
soup. This was sent to us free, so we decided to use it at this
Centre. Actually the children who were given this product over
a period of 6 months gained an average of 1.9 lbs. more than those
who did not receive it, and their vitality was certainly improved.
We did not however, recommend these rather expensive additions
because they are apt to have a vogue among parents, who strive to
pay for them for a short time and then drop them. When a child
improves visibly on a sensible balanced diet which the rest of the
family can share, and is given adequate rest, the parents are far
more likely to maintain these conditions over a long period, when
school meals have been discontinued. The choice of food for the
growing child is not really the very difficult and obscure matter that
some food faddists would have us believe, and in feeding these children,
we emphasize the importance of providing a simple balanced
diet which contains as far as possible all the essential elements.
Otorrhoea.
In the Annual Report last year, we discussed our views
on the common causes of the chronicity of the majority of cases
of middle ear disease, and emphasized the importance of treating
these cases at the earliest possible moment.