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Malnutrition may be due to improper food, although the total
amount taken is adequate. Proteins and fats are expensive,
carbohydrates relatively cheap. In times of financial stringency
the cheapest foods are bought, and thus children obtain an undue
proportion of carbohydrate and too little protein and fat. Milk
is undoubtedly the most valuable food to make good the protein
and fat deficiency, though the milk must be above bacteriological
suspicion.
The fundamental fact which appears to emerge from the
welter of theories and opinions so continuously put forward, is
that a plain, straightforward diet on old established lines, containing
meat once a day, green vegetables, bread and butter and
milk, contains all the necessary food factors and main chemical
groups necessary for proper nutrition. Whether a child gets a
sufficient quantity is a combination of financial circumstances and
skilful buying. One mother will cater for a growing family
successfully on a low income, whilst another mother will fail
hopelessly. The art of wise buying is one which might be
developed in school education.
Milk Marketing Board Scheme.
During 1935, by arrangement with the Milk Marketing
Board, milk was supplied to schools in bottles containing onethird
of a pint at a cost of ½d. per bottle. Some 12,000 bottles of
milk were consumed per day, a decrease of 4,000 bottles a day.
All the milk supplied is Pasteurised milk, and the sources
of supply are subject to constant supervision by the Medical
Officer of Health, through the Sanitary Inspectors. Any falling
off in quality or cleanliness is enquired into as soon as detected,
and should any source prove consistently below standard, the
supply from this source would be suspended.
Heights and Weights.
Table III. gives the results of an enquiry made to ascertain
the average heights and weights of all children examined at
routine inspections of 1935. The full value of this Table wiii not
be obtained until similar records for ten consecutive years have
been analysed; when this is completed the rate of growth can be
followed, so far as Crovdon children are concerned, throughon;
school life.