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84
In infant visiting attention is not wholly restricted to the latest
baby. The condition of the older children, especially those
under school age, is noted. It is very common to find children
suffering from various ailments for whom no medical advice
has been obtained. Such neglect has now been made a penal
offence. The condition of the children of two years of age and
upwards is often the best guide to the advice one should give
the mother about the new baby. It is not at all uncommon
to find a mother with a healthy baby at the breast, and older
children looking pale and sickly, and perhaps suffering from
rickets. A little questioning generally elicits the fact that they
have been prematurely weaned, and fed upon starchy food or
condensed milk; or they may have been breast-fed for nine
months or so, and then put straight away upon practically an
adult diet. One endeavours then to see that the same thing
does not happen with the latest baby. I have been impressed
by the frequency with which it happens, that those families
where I have had most trouble on accouut of the improper
feeding of the baby are just those where the help of the Invalid
Children's Aid Committee has been sought on behalf of one or
more older children suffering from rickets, debility, or other
ills. The aim of health-visiting is not only to prevent deaths
of infants, but also the permanent injury of the survivors which
may result from unwise treatment in infancy.
One side of the work has developed very much during 1908.
This is the weekly weighing of infants and advising mothers at
the Milk Depot on Thursday afternoons. It is open to any
mother, who promises to attend regularly, to bring her child to
be weighed, and to obtain any advice she may need as to its
rearing. The Depot on Thursday afternoons thus serves the
purpose of an "Infant Consultation," an institution that is very
popular on the Continent, and of great service in the saving of
infant lives.