[Report 1936] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich.

  • West Bromwich (England). Council.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/48 (page 25)
    (a) Over tlie whole ag*e-period 5-14 years^ the height and weig'ht gains among the free milk hoys and girls are much more uniform, from year to year, than among the normal hoys and girls. The uniformity in the height and weight gains of the free milk gronp is striking. (h) Free Milk ’’ Boys—5-7 years. Gain more, annually, in height and weight than the normal hoys. Free Milk ” Girls—5-7 years. The gains are still greater, rompared with a corresponding gronp of normal girls. These gains take place, it should he noted, in spite of the fact that the free milk children are all of snhnormal nutrition, and, therefore, at an initial disadvantage in this respect in relation to the normal children. (c) Between ages 7-10 years, in hoth sexes, the annual height and weight gains of free milk children and of normal children are approximately the same. This suggests that hetween 7-10 years the subnormal child can, hy means of free milk, just keep pace with the normal child, hnt no more. (d) Between ages 10-12 years, free milk hoys gain dis¬ tinctly more in height and weight than normal hoys. Free milk girls in the same age-gronp gain little more in height, and no more in weight, than normal girls. The above findings show, on the whole, that free milk is most benehcial to these subnormal elementary school children, particularly to hoth sexes hetween 5-7 years, and to hoys aged 10-12 years. Three issues related to the supply of free milk may, perhaps, be raised here : — (i) The lack of satisfactory means of heating the milk in school during the winter months has been found to reduce its popularity in cold weather. (ii) A large number of infants aged 5-7 years have con¬ siderable difficulty in consuming at school so large a quantity as one pint per day (this amount being issued to each child under the Free Milk Scheme).