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in many of these cases all that is needed is advice as to regular
feeding and the mother's diet, and breast-feeding can be successfully
carried on.
After a child has started Depot milk, the home is always visited
in order to ascertain that the milk is agreeing, and that proper
use is being made of it.
As a large proportion of the depot-fed infants are delicate,
special modifications have often to be prepared, and the case must
be visited at frequent intervals until the child begins to take the
milk well and to make progress. A few cases have to be specially
watched in order to detect abuse of the milk. There is a tendency
on the part of some of the mothers, to pour the Depot milk into
long-tube bottles ; others want to add solid food in some form or
other to the milk. These practices are as a rule abandoned upon
remonstrance, and it has been found necessary in only two cases
to stop the supply of milk for persistent refusal to keep the rules.
Every Thursday afternoon is devoted to giving advice and
instruction to mothers who bring their babies to the Depot to be
weighed. This gives one of the most favourable opportunities for
proffering advice not only on feeding, but on clothing, cleanliness,
the need of fresh air and management generally.
The time devoted to Depot-fed infants is considerable but it is
spent to good purpose. Real educational work can be done by
frequent visiting at the homes and by interviews on weighing
days. The mothers realize that the Public Health Department is
a reliable source of information on infant rearing and that
application for advice may always be made. A great number of
letters asking for advice of one kind or another, are received in
the course of a year from the parents of Depot-fed children.
Although the infant death-rate of the Borough as a whole is
relatively low compared with that of other places, there are not
lacking in Woolwich instances of a lamentable waste of infant life
which come to light in the routine of visiting after births.