From sentiment to science: children's relief organisations and the problem of malnutrition in inter-war Europe.
The transformation of the ethos of children's relief organisations from sentimentalism into science was reflected in the rise of nutritional science, eugenics, child psychology and child guidance. A related transition occurred in the organisational forms of child welfare organisations: with the rise of welfare states, government organisations took an increasing role. Internationally there was a move to expand the scope of charities relieving children in distress to broader strategies promoting child welfare. In this paper I consider these shifts in the case of international measures to relieve child starvation and to promote child welfare between the First and Second World Wars. I examine how health organisations had to move away from relief work and establish programmes seeking to relate the developing scientific understanding of nutrition to a range of factors affecting health.
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK.
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Weindling
D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000266:history*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005060:Europe; D006291:Health Policy / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000266:history* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012066:Relief Work / Q000266:history*; D014857:Warfare