A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECTION IX
Cod Liver Oil and Fruit Juices
An Inquiry made by the Wartime Social Survey for the Ministry of Food
Interviewing: 26th August to 11th Sept., 1942
The purpose of this inquiry was to find out what proportion of mothers took advantage of these schemes, and the reasons way some mothers do not take advantage of them.
SUMMARY
36% of the mothers entitled to cod liver oil and 54% of the mothers entitled to fruit juices, took advantage of these schemes.
25% of those entitled to cod liver oil and 11% of those entitled to fruit juices, did not take these products because they thought their child did not or would not like it, or that the products did not suit the child.
Of those who took the products about three-quarters took the full quantity, about 19% took less, and in other cases the amount was unspecified.
In both cases more than half obtained the products from clinics, less than half from Food Offices, about 3% only from District Nurses.
It was found that mothers who used clinics for other purposes took the vitamin products more frequently than mothers who did not use clinics.
(ii) Cod Liver Oil
The mothers were asked first whether they took the Ministry of Food's cod liver oil for their children.
| % of Mothers | |
| Took cod liver oil for 1 child or more | 35.9 |
| Did not take it for any children | 64.1 |
| SAMPLE | 828 |
Where there was more than one child aged under 5, inquiries were made as to whether all the children or only some took the cod liver oil.
The 826 mothers interviewed altogether 1105 children, and information was obtained in the case of 1085 of these.
Those rather more than a third of the mothers took cod liver oil for their children, and the same proportion of children included in the sample received it.
Nearly two-thirds of the mothers did not take the advantage of the scheme, and the same proportion of children did not receive cod liver oil.
Those mothers who did not take cod liver oil for one or more of their children were asked whether they had ever taken it for these children.
| % of mothers who did not take it (for every child) | |
| Had taken it | 50.1 |
| Had never taken it | 49.9 |
| SAMPLE | 535 |
Those who had at one time taken it, but did not at the time of interview were asked the reason why they had given up taking it. These were as follows:-
Difficulty in obtaining cod liver oil was due to such reasons as being able to go to the Food Office or to clinics at times that these were open, or living a long way away from these. Some of the mothers were at working the day.
Those who did not understand the scheme thought that their children were now too old to receive it, though under 5, or that it had to be paid for, and they were unable to afford it.
It will be seen that over half the reasons for giving it up were connected with the tastes or other characteristics of the child.
Those mothers who had never taken cod liver oil for a child were asked why they had not done so.
The reasons for giving up cod liver oil and for not taking it are in many cases similar, In the table below these are expressed as percentages of the whole sample.
% of all mothers interviewed
Thus about 25% of all the mothers interviewed thought that their children did not or would not like cod liver oil, or that it did not suit them. A further 12% did not think it necessary.
Mothers who took cod liver oil were asked about the quantity taken. This information was expressed by the housewives as “so many bottles” every “so many weeks”, and the amounts taken were compared with the number and age of the children under 5 (whether under or over 6 months). Thus information was obtained as to whether the full quantity or less than the full quantity was taken. It was not in all cases possible for interviewers to obtain precise information as to the quantity taken. Where this was the case answers were classified as “unspecified”.
| % of mothers who took cod liver oil | |
| Full quantity taken | 73.4 |
| Less than the full quantity | 18.5 |
| Quantity unspecified | 8.1 |
| SAMPLE | 289 |
In addition mothers were asked “Is this all you are entitled to?” Replies were as follow:-
The number taking less than the full amount (55) was not large enough to give reliable statistical information as to whether this was due to ignorance of the amount of the entitlement or to other reasons. Of the 53 mothers who took less, a half knew that they could have had more, a quarter said they did not know whether or not it was the full quantity, and the remaining quarter thought that they were taking all they were entitled to.
Informants were asked where they obtained their supplies of cod liver oil.
| % of mothers taking cod liver oil | |
| From clinic | 58.7 |
| From District Nurse | 3.7 |
| From Food Office | 37.6 |
| SAMPLE | 298 |
Thus the majority obtained cod liver oil from clinics.
In the case of 782 of the mothers, information was obtained as to whether they used clinics for other purposes. It was found that 28.7% did so.
Analysis showing the incidence of taking cod liver oil among mothers who used clinics for other purposes, and mothers who did not, shows that cod liver oil is taken more frequently by those who use clinics in any case.
(iii) Fruit Juices
The same questions were asked about fruit juices as were asked about cod liver oil, to mothers of children under 3.
| % of mothers with children under 3 | |
| Took fruit juices for 1 child or more | 53.7 |
| Did not take them | 46.3 |
| SAMPLE | 538 |
The proportions of children taking the different sorts of fruit juices and not taking any, were as follows:-
The mothers who did not take fruit juices for one or more of their children were asked whether they had ever done so.
Reasons for giving it up were as follows:-
It will be seen that a lower proportion of children did not like it than is the case with cod liver oil, and that a higher proportion did not understand the scheme or had difficulty in obtaining the fruit juices. About the same proportion of mothers said that fruit juices did not suit their children as was the case with cod liver oil.
The following reasons were given by mothers who had never obtained fruit juice for their children.
Expressed as percentages of all mothers who were entitled to fruit juices, these results are as follows:-
Amounts taken were as follows:-
| % of mothers who took fruit juices | |
| Full quantity taken | 75.7 |
| Less than full quantity | 19.8 |
| Quantity unspecified | 4.5 |
| SAMPLE | 289 |
The mothers were asked whether they took their full entitlement.
Rather more thought they were taking the full quantity than were actually doing so.
Of those who took less than the full amount (57) about two-fifth thought that they were getting all that they were entitled to, about the same proportion knew that they were getting less than this, and the remainder said they did not know.
The mothers obtained their supplies of fruit juices from clinics, District Nurses and Food Offices in the following proportions.
| % of mothers who took fruit juices | |
| From Clinic | 55.9 |
| From District Nurse | 2.8 |
| From Food Office | 41.3 |
| SAMPLE | 288 |
As in the case of cod liver oil, mothers who used clinics for other purposes more frequently obtained the fruit juices than mothers who did not.
THE SAMPLE
These questions were asked at the same time as the questions on Sweets Rationing. Details of the sample are given at the end of the Sweets Rationing report.
However the questions on cod liver oil and fruit juices were asked only of the mothers of children of the appropriate ages contracted in this sample.