View report page

a pint, according to income. Babies requiring special feeding, i.e., Cow & Gate, or Ostermilk
instead of National Dried Milk, were supplied through the Council's clinics. National
Cod Liver Oil, Orange Juice and Vitamin tablets are also supplied under the Ministry of
Food scheme, and can be obtained at the clinics during the usual clinic session hours.
There were 90 applications granted during the year, as follows :—

Dental Treatment
By arrangement between this Council and the County Education Authority, expectant
and nursing mothers and children under five years of age attending the Maternity and
Child Welfare Centres are enabled to have dental treatment and advice, including if necessary
the provisions of dentures.
The number of mothers using these services for themselves and their children
increased greatly in 1945. The number of attendances— 1,153 to 709— an increase of 64%,
and this is a very satisfactory figure, showing that mothers are coming more and more to
realise the importance of the examination and care of their own teeth at a time, as during
pregnancy, when there is a greater risk of permanent damage being caused by the drain of
calcium from the system, and also to realise that the care of temporary teeth is quite as important
as, if not more important than, the condition of permanent teeth of young children.
(For statistics of dental treatment see Appendix, Table XXI. The figures show a
grand total of 1,153 attendances, compared with 709 for 1944.)
Wartime Day Nurseries.
The four wartime day nurseries continued to care for the children of working
mothers and certain mothers in distressed home circumstances. There was all through
the year a considerable waiting list for places in these nurseries.
The day nurseries continue to prove of excellent value as a place for the satisfactory
up-bringing of young children from the tiniest age (babies from two weeks old have been
admitted to these nurseries), for the education of toddlers, for training in manners and
behaviour, for the training of young girls in the care and management of children, and as
the means of constant health propaganda, from the Public Health staff to mothers and also
fathers.
It is noteworthy that while childish infections are not escaped by the children attending
the Southall nurseries, the spread of these in the nurseries themselves is limited, and that
in our experience the risk of contracting infectious disease by a child attending a day nursery
is no greater than in ordinary home life.
During the year, three members of the day nursery staff obtained the diploma of the
National Society of Children's Nurseries.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS AND OTHER
DISEASES.
There was a condiderable increase in the number of cases of measles notified during
the year. The epidemic occurred during the first months of the year, and was rather unexpected,
as there had been a high number of cases of measles occurring in the early part of
1944. Outbreaks of this nature usually show a bi-annual occurrence.
15