View report page

10. NUTRITION.
For the year ended 31st December, 1942, it
may be estimated that there were approximately 10,600 children
in your schools,
Of these just over 9,000 individual children
were examined at school by routine. Your Medical Staff had
some 18,000 other.consultations in respect.of schoolchildren.
This feature is important for two, reasons:-
(a) It shows the completeness of your Service.
(b) Arising from this it would appear that
you are justified in not holding Special Nutritional Surveys,
because not only do your routine examinations cover a very
large number of your children, but your special examinations
more than likely cover most, if not indeed, all cases which
are likely to require investigation from the standpoint of
nutrition
Talking about nutrition leads me to the
results of the ciassification of the 9,000 odd pases which We
have specially investigated from this standpoint. Our
difficulty is of course, that there are no satisfactory
standards of nutrition and only people of long experience
have the necessary background to Undertake this work - of
course owing to the war much of this work has had to be
undertaken by people who have not had .this necessary background.
Whilst therefore, it might bp a .matter. for supreme
congratulation that none of your children are found to be
"bad" so far as nutrition is concerned, I do not think that
we should stress this point very much, nor do I stress
particularly the fact that no less than 99% of your-children
were classified as either "excellent" or "normal". I
cannpt help thinking as I did before the war, that the.
general standard of development of nutrition in Barking is
better than it is in many other places, and that the doctors
who have ccme to us from these other places have been
guided by their previous experience in nutritional development
and have accordingly placed some of the children in
a higher category than those of us might who have had. more
experience of your.standards in Baricing
- 15 -