[Report 1935] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Suffolk County Council.

  • West Suffolk (England). County Council.
Date:
1935
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1935] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Suffolk County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    these 6.8 per cent, had excellent nutrition, 54.7 per cent, had normal nutrition, 34.1 per cent, were slightly sub-normal, and 4.4 per cent, were bad. Note. —In this group of children, 61.5 per cent, were found to be either excellent or normal, while 38.5 per cent, were found to be either slightly sub-normal or bad. In the third Age-group (routine inspection), 1198 children were examined; 13.5 per cent, had excellent nutrition, 55.4 per cent, had normal nutrition, 28.5 per cent, were slight]}'- sub-normal, and 2.6 per cent, were bad. Note.—In this group of children, 68.9 per cent, were found to be either excellent or normal, while 31.1 per cent, were found to be either slightly sub-normal or bad. In summary, 3810 children were examined routinely with the following result: — Excellent Nutrition ... Normal Nutrition Slightly Sub-normal Bad . General Note. (1) It will be seen that in these routine examinations:—- (a) Roughly 68 per cent, of the children are in a satisfactory condition. (1b) Some 29 per cent, of the children are slightly below normal, and (c) 3.1 per cent, of the children have bad nutrition. (2) From the return, the position of maximum trouble is in the second Age-group (Intermediates) where only 6.8 per cent, had excellent nutrition and where 4.4 per cent, had bad nutrition. (3) A hopeful aspect of the table is that in the Entrant Group in 1935 11.6 per cent had excellent nutrition and only 2.2 per cent, had bad nutrition. (4) Finally, from the table the Leaver children appear again to be better, with 13.5 per cent, with excellent nutrition and with only 2.6 per cent, with bad nutrition. The Table is still in its experimental stages, but I believe it is a most useful one and it will be interesting to compare the Tables of subsequent years. In the normal way of things one could justifiably express the hope that the good batch of Entrant children will improve the subsequent Intermediate and Leaver children, always providing that no serious intercurrent infectious diseases lay hold of them in these subsequent years. There is just one other factor which may act against this theory— namely, can we be sure that the early school years do- not tax the Entrant children in such a way that they drop in their nutrition, and that when they become acclimatised or hardened, they once again tend to increase in their nutritional state. This is a point of great interest and one worthy of some care and attention in an endeavour to prove or to explode it. (□) MILK IN SCHOOLS SCHEME. It will be remembered that this Scheme of the Milk Marketing Board came into force on October 1st, 1934. The Scheme was put into operation in this County on a voluntary basis and this basis has continued. The Authority takes no financial responsibility for any milk supplied under this Scheme. 1 he conditions which govern the Scheme are: — (1) The Scheme to be a voluntary one having the support of the County Council and the Education Committee. (2) No milk to be supplied under the terms of the Scheme to any school unless the producer and the milk are covered by a certificate of approval from the County Medical Officer. The following is the method which I employ in issuing certificates of approval; in every application which I receive, I cause investigations to be made concerning the premises and methods of the producer, and, after these have been carried out, I obtain a covering certificate from the Agricultural Department. In addition, the milk is sampled bacteriologically, and it must comply with the present standard for Grade “A” milk. If these two investigations are satisfactory, and, generally, this means that the producer is on the County Accredited Register, I issue a certificate of approval to the producer [0.9 per cent. ] 16.9 per cent J '.g. 1 per cent. 1 67.8 per cent. 32.2 per cent.