London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Bromley 1944

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bromley]

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49
weight, as prematurity, delayed development, diseases, such as
recurrent bronchitis, asthma, etc.
Even if we assume that all under-weight children, whose
development I was not able to trace, belong to the group of
children who failed to gain 50 per cent. of their weight as intermediates,
we should have left only 33 children who did not show
a normal development. Thus, we can state that at least 95 per
cent, of the leavers have fulfilled the first condition of sufficient
nutrition to guarantee a normal development. In comparing the
school children of Bromley with those of London's Elementary
Schools, the intermediates as well as the leavers in Bromley
are taller and heavier than those of London in the same age
group.
It is more difficult to prove that the second condition is fulfilled,
namely, to give the children the best protection against
diseases. So far as I could judge from my observations in the
School Medical Examinations and at the School Clinics, I could
not detect any deterioration in the resistance towards diseases
caused by lack of one or the other foodstuff. Surely there have
always been children who need a bigger amount of a certain
foodstuff, especially of one or another vitamin, than the average.
But I have not found any increase of diseases which we now
attribute to a lack in the nutrition.
Conclusion.
I was able to prove that the intermediates as well as the
lavers in the past two years did not show any signs of deterioration
compared with the boys and girls in 1939. Judging from
the figures found in the boys, we can conclude that the
nutritional standard is a little higher in the last two years than
in 1939. These good results are partly due to the provision of
school meals and milk, and also to the fact that the mothers
have become more food-conscious.
SECTION B TREATMENT.

The number of treatments for minor ailments under the local Authority's scheme during 1944 compared with those for 1943:–

1944.1943.
Skin Diseases349732
Minor Eye Defects87214
Minor Ear Defects123155
Miscellaneous757794
1,3161,895
1944.1943.

Total attendances of children at
the School Clinic for treatments 10,602 14,357