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33
self, to enable her to continue nursing where the baby is being breastfed.
Many of the babies were wasting and insufficiently nourished
owing to extreme poverty. Where the instructions have been carried
out the improvement has been very marked. There is something
futile, however, in advising these mothers to give their babies so much
milk per day, or to feed them upon dried milk with cream, or other
suitable fat, when it is quite impossible for them to provide it.
Dr. Campbell provided various foods, etc., which were in some
cases, where the children were in urgent need of proper food and the
mother too poor to provide it, given to the mothers. Dried milk,
which is much cheaper in actual use than the fresh article, can be provided
at a cost of 5d. per lb. for full cream milk, or 3id. per lb. for
skimmed milk, if bought wholesale, but it cannot be procured at the
ordinary chemist's shop.
The dried skimmed milk is a most excellent food for the pregnant
and nursing mothers at a cost of only one penny per day.
A knitting club was formed, and instruction given to the mothers
in the making of simple woollen vests, by Mrs. Day, who kindly
volunteered her services. The needles and sufficient wool to make one
vest were given to each mother who wished to learn, and when one
vest was completed a further supply of wool was provided, for which
the mothers pay at the rate of one penny per week, each vest costing
about threepence. The knitting has so far proved popular and
successful.
A cradle made from a banana case has been provided by Miss
MacColl, at a cost of 1/3½, which includes a mattress or bed, and a
pillow. This is used for demonstrating the need for a separate bed or
cot, and the cheapest and simplest method of providing a clean and
healthy cradle.