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64
Total number of children who first attended at the centres
during the year and who, on the date of their first attendance
were:—
(1) Under one year of age 2,138
(2) Between the ages of one and five years 1,252
Total number of children under five years of age who attended
at the Centres during the year and who, at the end of the year
were:—
(1) Under one year of age 1,956
(2) Over one year of age 4,005
The percentage of total notified births represented by the
number of children under one year of age who attended for the
first time was 75.
Although the increase in the total number of children who
attended the clinics during the year for the first time is not very
great, the total attendances paid by children under one year of
age, namely, 37,644, is a marked increase on the corresponding
figure of 28,133 for the previous year, a smaller increase being noted
in the total attendances of those between one and five years,
namely, 21,503 in 1936 compared with 15,067 in 1935. The 4,005
attendances of those who, at the end of the year, were over one year
of age, is a gratifying increase on the figure of 2,797 for the previous
year.
TODDLERS.
In January the Council approved the recommendation of the
Public Health Committee that consent be granted to a request to
the Council of Child Welfare for permission to erect at "Tyneholme"
a nursery school. Later in the year the school was opened,
providing accommodation for forty pupils. To the extent of its
powers, the Council has supported this institution, arranging for
regular medical inspection of all scholars, providing the daily
attendance of a nurse, arranging for the treatment of minor ailments,
and for the daily supply of milk for the necessitous.
In February the Committee considered a report on the question
of day nurseries which dealt with the subject from the various
aspects of such institutions providing facilities at which children
can be left during their mothers' absence from home, in which they
would spend the day in healthy surroundings, at which the children
attending could be assured of correct and sufficient feeding, at
which children would have medical supervision and treatment
and the benefits of the application of preventive measures before or
at the onset of developmental abnormalities or diseases, and at
which cleanliness and good habits could be inculcated.