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52
INFANT WELFARE SERVICES.
HOME VISITING BY THE HEALTH VISITORS.
The foundation of the child welfare services is the work undertaken
by the health visitors. Their activity in the first place was the supervision
of the child under one year. This was later extended, in the one
direction, to embrace the child up to the age of five, and in the other
direction, to include the expectant mother.
The district is divided into 18 areas, with roughly equal populations,
each health visitor undertaking all the maternity and child welfare
duties in her section.
The following is a summary of the number of visits paid by the
health visitors during the year :
(a) To children under one year of age... ... First visits 3,695
Total visits 8,362
(b) To children between the ages of one and
five years... ... ... ... ... Total visits 12,167
In addition, visits were paid to 257 cases of measles, and 41 cases of
whooping cough in children under five years of age.
INFANT WELFARE CENTRES.
About half the time each health visitor devotes to maternity and
child welfare work is spent at the clinics. Those dealing with children
under five are either infant welfare centres or toddlers' clinics.
At the end of the year, in all, 21 weekly infant welfare sessions were
being held in 13 separate premises.
The average weekly attendance at all the infant welfare centres was
1,209. The highest rate of attendance was for the five weeks' period
ending 2nd November, when the average was 1,408.
The following is a summary of the attendances at the infant welfare
centres during the year :
Total attendances at all centres :
(1) By children under one year of age 43,721
(2) By children between the ages of one and five years 14,962
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 3,091
(2) Between the ages of one and five years 427
Total number of children under 5 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 3,863
(2) Over one year of age 5,027
TREATMENT.
The following are particulars of the various treatment facilities
available :—
Dental Treatment: This is undertaken by the staff of the Middlesex
Education Committee, who treat patients in five clinics in the
district. General anaesthetic sessions are held as required. The
number of children under 5 treated during 1946 was 176.