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(9) NUTRITION.
The method of assessment of nutrition in
school children has been set out in Administrative
Memorandum 124 - December 31st 1934 - of the Board of
Education. In this medical officers are asked to
classify the nutrition of children under -
"A" Excellent.
"B" Normal
"C" Slightly subnormal
"D" Bad
taking into account not only their weight and height
but also their general appearance, their posture,
their colour, etc. This must of necessity lead to
considerable variations in opinions and standards
between different examining officers and in interpreting
the results in the following table some
allowance must be made for personal variations. Even
so, judging by these figures it appears, as I have
hinted elsewhere, there are grounds for satisfaction
in the nutrition of our school population.
One may discount comparison with 1939 as
the number of children examined during that year was
much smaller than in 1938 and 1940; but the numbers
examined in 1940 are comparatively high and in all
groups they seem to indicate a diminution in the cases
of poor nutrition and an increase in those of excellent
nutrition.
To what extent this is due to the possibility
that the healthier members of the school population
remained in Barking whilst their less healthy brothers
and sisters were evacuated is difficult to assess. It
is also possible that the housewives, having had their
attention constantly drawn to the importance of certain
foods and the different food values of proteins, fats,
carbohydrates, vitamins, etc., may have made a special
effort to see that their children went short of
nothing, and indeed probably fed them better in the
light of the advice given.
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