[Report 1919] / School Medical Officer of Health, Stockport County Borough.

  • Stockport (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1919] / School Medical Officer of Health, Stockport County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    More could be accomplished, if it were a rule that the hair, if not kept short should be tied back or plaited. Many children, whose parents have the time and means, are not sent to school as clean or as tidy as they should be. The teachers need to have power to enforce where at present they can only suggest, The percentage of very dirty heads is 1*2 and of pediculosis of the body is *09. . The percentages have decreased from the previous year. The condition occurs repeatedly in a comparatively small number of families. Cleanliness is effected temporarily after the inspection, but the condition recurs after a short interval. These cases would not occur if measures were taken with the parents for allowing the child to be in a verminous condition, and not merely if the child is not cleansed after repeated warnings. Any bad case seen by the School Doctors is excluded from school, and onlv re-admitted after a certificate of cleanliness has been given. Forty-eight such cases have attended at the School Clinic, but no system of compulsory cleansing is yet in operation. NUTRITION. In 491 children or 7‘9 per cent, of the routine cases, the nutrition is below normal. It will be seen in the tables of heights and weights given in the appendix, that while the average height of the cliildren is only a little below normal, the average weight is far below the standard, this deficit being larger in the children of 8 or 12 years of age than in children of 5 years of age. ENGLARGED TONSILS AND ADENOIDS. * -a 6'2 per cent, of the routine cases were found to suffer from enlarged tonsils, and 4'73 from adenoids. Except for defective vision, tonsils and adenoids with the subsequent mouth-breathing and deafness form the greater part of the special cases. Mouth-breathing also occurs without any obstruction being present. The breathing exercises practised at school, in which nasal breathing is taught, are invaluable in remedying the condition. It is not always realized by the parents that operation is only part of the treatment for nasal obstruction , and that breathing exercises, properly performed, form a most important after- treatment. Cases are referred to their own doctors and to the Stockport Infirmary. * EAR DISEASE AND DEAFNESS, Deafness, as a result of chronic ear disease, is prevalent and causes dullness and backwardness in school. It results from untreated Tonsils and Adenoids, and from acute earache too often left unnoticed and untreated until the child has a “ running ear ” and some permanent loss of hearing. TEETH. The condition of the teeth continues to be very unsatisfactory; only in a very few cases is dental treatment obtained by the parents. In 39*6 of the children examined four or more carious teeth were present. At the Voluntary Dental Clinic at Tiviot Dale, valuable work has again been done for the children