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Angus Bethune of the Morning Chronicle, reported in 1849 that:
Out of every hundred deaths in Manchester more than 48 take place under 5 years
of age, and more than 51 under 10 years of age. In some of the neighbouring
towns the proportion is still more appalling, out of the whole number of deaths,
57% were those of children under 5 years of age. He attributed this undue
proportion of infant deaths to the neglect of mothers who were compelled to
leave their young children at home while they worked in the mills.
He also found evidence to suggest that while the mothers were out working in the
mills many young children were drugged with a sweetened preparation of laudanum
which kept them quiet and made them easier to look after.
An intelligent male operative in the Messrs. Morris's Mill in Salford stated
that he and his wife put out their first child to be nursed. The nurse gave the
baby 'sleeping stuff' and it died in nine weeks'
A female worker in the mill at Chorlton described to the journalist the effects
of the drugging:
The child seemed to be always asleep and lay with its eyes half open. Its head
got terribly big and its fingernails blue .... it died very soon after.
He also found evidence to show that some of the mothers drugged their own
children.
In most working class families, money was too short to afford extra food during
pregnancy. Many women were seriously undernourished and this affected the health
of the baby.
By the end of the century the infant mortality rate was still high, even
in areas considered to be quite healthy . The following is taken from the Annual
Report on Health in Beckenham, 1899.
Out of a total of 252 deaths registered, 96 were children under 5 years of age
and no less than 78 of the 96 were amongst infants under the age of twelve
months. In a large proportion of these cases injudicious (unwise) infant feeding
is in great measure responsible and a more correct appreciation of infantile
dietics would lead to a great saving of infant life. In these days (1899) there
is no excuse for popular ignorance concerning this important subject.