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At the clinics special attention is paid to the education of
mothers, individual instruction is given in general hygiene of
childhood, correct methods of feeding and management of children.
Mothers are encouraged to bring their children for
periodical medical examination so that any deviation from the
normal physiological state has a chance of being detected early,
so that defects and incipient disease can be treated in the earlystages.
Preventive centres are not dispensaries for the treatment ol
sick children, but seek to maintain the health of the healthy child,
and to afford guidance towards its normal and successful upbringing.
Yet, while this is so, many departures from the normal
are discovered at the medical examination of children, and such
cases, medical or surgical, are referred to their own doctor for
treatment, or to hospitals or dispensaries suitable for their conditions.
Simple ailments of infancy in children attending the
centres are treated at the morning clinics at the Central Clinic.
Children under the age of five are frequently referred to the
Infant Welfare Clinics by the Tuberculosis Nurses from homes
in which tuberculosis has occurred, for examination as contacts
by the Medical Officer, and observation, if desirable, at the clinics
themselves.
Five children under the age of five were notified during 1930,
in East Ham, as suffering from tuberculosis.
Tonsils and Adenoids.
Children, under five years of age, who are found to be suffering
from enlarged Tonsils and Adenoids are referred for treatment
to St. Mary's Hospital, Plaistow; Balaam Street Children's
Hospital, Plaistow; East Ham Memorial Hospital, or Queen
Mary's Hospital, Stratford.
During 1930, 187 children have received operative treatment
as compared with 95 in 1929.
In such cases, on the day following operation, a Health
Visitor visits the home and gives the mother general advice as
to after-treatment of the child.
Ringworm.
No cases of Ringworm of the Scalp were referred to the
School X-ray Department for radical treatment.