The Times of April 25th contained a letter to the editor written by Dr. A. H. MacDonald, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Barnardos Homes, in which we read under the heading “Raw Milk for Children”:.
“Mr. Sprawson, the dental surgeon in charge of the teeth at the two largest depots of the organisation from whose headquarters I write, noticed that shortly after the introduction of raw milk as part of the daily food at one of these depots, there was a reduction, practically to vanishing point, of new dental caries after admission, whereas previously such new work had been common and large in amount.
“This aroused in him the curiosity to know if effects comparable to these would be found in children who had been brought up from their earliest years on raw milk, which he defines as milk which as at no time been heated to more than a few degrees above body temperature. Children brought up in this manner are not common in this country, and when he approached me as to whether I knew of any such children I was able to refer him to our Babies Castle at Hawkhurst, where we had at that time (August, 1931), fifty-three children aged up to five-and-a-half years, and to another branch where we had seventeen others similarly brought up.
He examined them, and reports that seventy-eight of them had no trace of dental caries, and that the minimum of dental caries present in the other two was present before they were admitted. These children get a considerable amount of cereal food, including oatmeal, in their dietary, and at Hawkhurst are regularly given one or two sweets after their dinner.
“I may also mention that the ratios of increase in growth and weight and resistance to infection are so much more favourable in children brought up in this manner that, in so far as our finances allow of it, we are making a daily raw milk ration as universal as we can to all the children under our care.”.
