or j t 
. U5 
no. 2 
Copy 1 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 
11,3, CHILDREN’S BUREAU 
WASHINGTON 
STUDIES OF USE OF MILK BY FAMILIES HAVING LITTLE CHILDREN. 
II. WASHINGTON, 
The babies and little children of Washington are not having enough milk to 
drink. All normal* children are better for at least three cups of milk daily; 
but figures compiled by the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department 
of Labor, from material gathered by the public-health nurses of Washington, 
show that, out of 482 children between 2 and 7 years of age, more than half are 
receiving no fresh milk to drink at all. This proportion (52.7 per cent of the 
total) is higher by 13 points than the proportion of children in the same group 
(39.6 per cent) who drank no fresh milk last year. The increase may be due, in 
part at least, to the advance in the price of milk, and it may be partly ac¬ 
counted for by the fact that the mothers of some of those children who have 
reached their second birthday since last year have not considered it necessary 
to continue to provide milk for them, though they did so as long as the children 
were under 2. 
Though many mothers do not realize the importance of milk in the diet of 
the growing child, most of them know that the babies under 2 should have it. 
Of the 271 babies under 2 in the families studied, only 7.2 per cent of those 
who are not breast fed are drinking no milk at all, and two-thirds of the 90 
babies who are drinking some fresh milk are receiving three cups a day. One 
hundred and seventy-four of the babies are nursed by their mothers, but more 
than 61.4 per cent of these mothers are not drinking any milk, and only 7.6 
per cent of them are drinking at least the three cups a day that physicians 
think necessary for nursing mothers. 
The lack of fresh milk in a child’s diet is liable to have serious consequences. 
Not only is he deprived of the best of all foods for normal growth and develop¬ 
ment, but often he receives injurious substitutes in its stead. In many families 
where the children receive no milk, tea and coffee are used to take its place. 
In the Washington families studied it was found that about 27.6 per cent of 
the 261 children and babies w 7 ho receive no fresh milk to drink are getting some 
milk in combination with other foods; that 43.3 per cent are receiving the regu¬ 
lar family diet, w 7 hich may or may not include tea and coffee, or milk in other 
foods; but that 29.1 per cent are regularly drinking tea and coffee as substitutes 
for milk. 
Two hundred and seventy-two families, averaging about six members each, 
were covered by the survey. All these families have at least two children 
under 8, all but 9.6 per cent have children under 2, and 67.3 per cent have chil¬ 
dren under 1 year of age. While only 19 of these families, as compared with 
23 in 1917, are receiving no fresh milk at all, the figures show that, as a whole, 
families are buying less milk this year than last. The total consumption for 
72483°—18 
Coffee tea set 
