The Dependent Child i8i 



competent to deal with them. The children are 

 kept indefinitely until digestion and assimila- 

 tion have improved sufficiently to result in a 

 peimanent increase in weight and strength. 



Efforts are made to train in each neighbor- 

 hood a number of foster mothers, who, by 

 natural aptitude under instruction and by con- 

 stantly taking infants and young children into 

 their homes, become fairly expert in handling 

 them under conditions totally unlike those of- 

 fered by institutions and far superior to them. 

 We thus try to carry on an important educa- 

 tional work among the families taking our chil- 

 dren. The constant oversight of our doctor and 

 nurse is aimed to help each foster mother in the 

 care of her own children as well. The homes 

 in which the children are placed are helped 

 financially by the board paid, and morally by 

 the good advice and watching of the trained 

 observers. 



Thus the simple machinery that endeavors to 

 really and permanently help the abandoned and 

 ailing child will, at the same time, assist in edu- 

 cating each community in which it operates in 



