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The processes used in drying milk largely reduce the number
of bacteria present, and materially decrease the risk of conveyance
of disease from tuberculous milk, a very common cause of
tuberculosis in children.
Mortality figures showing comparison of death rate between
children fed on Dried Milk and other hand-fed children are strikingly
in favour of the use of Dried Milk.
Scurvy and Rickets are rare in infants fed on Dried Milk,
and their occurrence is probably not attributable to this form of
food.
Full Cream Dried Milk requires to be mixed with about seven
parts by weight of water to give a mixture corresponding to ordinary
milk. Therefore, 5 ozs. of Dried Milk should reconstitute
to correspond to one quart of milk.
Dried Milk is cheaper than liquid milk, and it is sold by the
Council at cost price for the safeguarding of the health of young
children and nursing mothers.
Dried Milk can be obtained from the various distributing centres
by Nursing and Expectant Mothers for their own consumption
or for the use of children under three years of age in accordance
with a Scale adopted by the Council. Dried Milk can also
be obtained for the use of children between three and five years
of age, but in such cases a medical certificate must be supplied
in respect of each child.
Any nursing mother experiencing difficulty in preparing the
milk should send a Post Card to the Medical Officer of Health at
the Town Hall, Stratford, when a Health Visitor will call and give
all the information necessary.
Home Helps.
"Home Helps" is the name given to women who are employed
by the Council to assist in the homes during the lying-in
period of certain necessitous women. These women are visited
and approved as suitable by the Health Visitors before they are
allowed to undertake the work. As an aid to the selection of a
suitable Home Help, a list of such available women is kept at the
Town Hall. The work of these women is closely supervised by
the Health Visitor, and only those women from homes clean and
free from infectious disease are allowed to act as Home Helps.
During the two weeks in which the Home Help attends at the
patient's home, she is visited several times by the Health Visitor,
in order to see that all duties are carried out as required. The
duties of these women are set out in the following form, a copy
of which is handed to each one on her accepting duty. In order
that the Health Visitor may at once get into touch with the case,
the Home Help is required to notify the Medical Officer of Health
not later than the day following the confinement that she has commenced
her duties.
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