Part 23
14. SUPERSEDE THE NECESSITY OF TAKING PHYSIC.--Let me again--for it cannot be too urgently insisted upon--strongly advise a nursing mother to use every means in the way of diet, etc., to supersede the necessity of taking physic (opening medicine), as the repetition of aperients injures, and that severely, both herself and child. Moreover, the more opening medicine she swallows, the more she requires; so that if she once gets into the habit of regularly taking physic, the bowels will not act without them. What a miserable existence to be always swallowing physic!
[Illustration]
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Home Lessons in Nursing Sick Children.
[Illustration: HEALTHY YOUTH AND RIPE OLD AGE.]
1. MISMANAGEMENT.--Every doctor knows that a large share of the ills to which infancy is subject are directly traceable to mismanagement. Troubles of the digestive system are, for the most part due to errors, either in the selection of the food or in the preparation of it.
2. RESPIRATORY DISEASES.--Respiratory diseases or the diseases of the throat and lungs have their origin, as a rule, in want of care and judgment in matters of clothing, bathing and exposure to cold and drafts. A child should always be dressed to suit the existing temperature of the weather. {315}
3. NERVOUS DISEASES.--Nervous diseases are often aggravated if not caused by over-stimulation of the brain, by irregular hours of sleep, or by the use of "soothing" medicines, or eating indigestible food.
4. SKIN AFFECTIONS.--Skin affections are generally due to want of proper care of the skin, to improper clothing or feeding, or to indiscriminate association with nurses and children, who are the carriers of contagious diseases.
5. PERMANENT INJURY.--Permanent injury is often caused by lifting the child by one hand, allowing it to fall, permitting it to play with sharp instruments, etc.
6. RULES AND PRINCIPLES.--Every mother should understand the rules and principles of home nursing. Children are very tender plants and the want of proper knowledge is often very disastrous if not fatal. Study carefully and follow the principles and rules which are laid down in the different parts of this work on nursing and cooking for the sick.
7. WHAT A MOTHER SHOULD KNOW:
I. INFANT FEEDING.--The care of milk, milk sterilization, care of bottles, preparation of commonly employed infant foods, the general principles of infant feeding, with rules as to quality and frequency.
II. BATHING.--The daily bath; the use of hot, cold and mustard baths.
III. HYGIENE OF THE SKIN. Care of the mouth, eyes and ears. Ventilation, temperature, cleanliness, care of napkins, etc.
IV. TRAINING OF CHILDREN in proper bodily habits. Simple means of treatment in sickness, etc.
8. THE CRY OF THE SICK CHILD.--The cry of the child is a language by which the character of its suffering to some extent may be ascertained. The manner in which the cry is uttered, or the pitch and tone is generally a symptom of a certain kind of disease.
9. STOMACHACHE.--The cry of the child in suffering with pain of the stomach is loud, excitable and spasmodic. The legs are drawn up and as the pain ceases, they are relaxed and the child sobs itself to sleep, and rests until awakened again by pain.
10. LUNG TROUBLE.--When a child is suffering with an affection of the lungs or throat, it never cries loudly or continuously. A distress in breathing causes a sort of subdued cry and low moaning. If there is a slight cough it is generally a sign that there is some complication with the lungs. {316}
11. DISEASE OF THE BRAIN.--In disease of the brain the cry is always sharp, short and piercing. Drowsiness generally follows each spasm of pain.
12. FEVERS.--Children rarely cry when suffering with fever unless they are disturbed. They should be handled very gently and spoken to in a very quiet and tender tone of voice.
13. THE CHAMBER OF THE SICK ROOM.--The room of the sick child should be kept scrupulously clean. No noise should disturb the quiet and rest of the child. If the weather is mild, plenty of fresh air should be admitted; the temperature should be kept at about 70 degrees. A thermometer should be kept in the room, and the air should be changed several times during the day. This may be done with safety to the child by covering it up with woolen blankets to protect it from draft, while the windows and doors are opened. Fresh air often does more to restore the sick child than the doctor's medicine. Take the best room in the house. If necessary take the parlor, always make the room pleasant for the sick.
14. VISITORS.--Carefully avoid the conversation of visitors or the loud and boisterous playing of children in the house. If there is much noise about the house that cannot be avoided, it is a good plan to put cotton in the ears of the patient.
15. LIGHT IN THE ROOM.--Light has a tendency to produce nervous irritability, consequently it is best to exclude as much daylight as possible and keep the room in a sort of twilight until the child begins to improve. Be careful to avoid any odor coming from a burning lamp in the night. When the child begins to recover, give it plenty of sunlight. After the child begins to get better let in all the sunlight the windows will admit. Take a south room for the sick bed.
16. SICKNESS IN SUMMER.--If the weather is very hot it is a good plan to dampen the floors with cold water, or set several dishes of water in the room, but be careful to keep the patient out of the draft, and avoid any sudden change of temperature.
17. BATHING.--Bathe every sick child in warm water once a day unless prohibited by the doctor. If the child has a spasm or any attack of a serious nervous character in absence of the doctor, place him in a hot bath at once. Hot water is one of the finest agencies for the cure of nervous diseases. {317}
[Illustration]
18. SCARLET FEVER AND MEASLES.--Bathe the child in warm water to bring out the rash, and put in about a dessertspoonful of mustard into each bath.
19. DRINKS.--If a child is suffering with fevers, let it have all the water it wants. Toast-water will be found nourishing. When the stomach of the child is in an irritable condition, nourishments containing milk or any other fluid should be given very sparingly. Barley-water and rice-water are very soothing to an irritable stomach.
20. FOOD.--Mellin's Food and milk is very nourishing if the child will take it. Oatmeal gruel, white of eggs, etc. are excellent and nourishing articles. See "How to cook for the Sick."
21. EATING FRUIT.--Let children who are recovering from sickness eat moderately of good fresh fruit. Never let a child, whether well or sick, eat the skins of any kind of fruit. The outer covering of fruit was not made to eat, and often has poisonous matter very injurious to health upon its surface. Contagious and infectious diseases are often communicated in that way.
22. SUDDEN STARTINGS with the thumbs drawn into the palms, portend trouble with the brain, and often end in convulsions, which are far more serious in infants than in children. Convulsions in children often result from a suppression of urine. If you have occasion to believe that such is the case, get the patient to sweating as soon as possible. Give it a hot bath, after which cover it up in bed and put bags of hot salt over the lower part of the abdomen.
23. SYMPTOMS OF INDIGESTION.--If the baby shows symptoms of indigestion, do not begin giving it medicine. It is wiser to decrease the quantity and quality of the food and let the little one omit one meal entirely, that his stomach may rest. Avoid all starchy foods, as the organs of digestion are not sufficiently developed to receive them.
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A Practical Rule for Feeding a Baby on Cow's Milk.
Cow's milk is steadily growing in favor as an artificial food. Country milk should be used instead of milk purchased in town or city.
RULE--Take the upper half of milk that has stood an hour of two, dilute, not hardly as much as a third, with sweetened water, and if there is a tendency to sour stomach, put in a teaspoonful of lime water to every quart. The milk and water should both be boiled separately. If the baby is constipated, it is best to heat the milk over boiling water and not allow it to boil.
INFANT FOOD FOR 24 HOURS.
Age of Child. Milk. Water. Total.
2 to 10 days 1-1/4 gills 3-1/4 gills 4-1/2 gills 10 to 20 days 1-3/4 gills 4-1/4 gills 6 gills 20 to 30 days 2-1/2 gills 6 gills 8-1/2 gills 1 to 1-1/2 months 3 gills 6-3/4 gills 9-3/4 gills 1-1/2 to 2 months 3-1/2 gills 7 gills 10-1/2 gills 2 to 2-1/2 months 4 gills 7-1/2 gills 11-1/2 gills 2-1/2 to 3 months 4-1/2 gills 7-1/2 gills 12 gills 3 to 3-1/2 months 5 gills 7-1/2 gills 12-1/2 gills 3-1/2 to 4 months 5-1/2 gills 7-1/2 gills 13 gills 4 to 4-1/2 months 6 gills 7-1/2 gills 13-1/2 gills 4-1/2 to 5 months 6-1/2 gills 7-1/2 gills 14 gills 5 to 6 months 7 gills 7 gills 14 gills 6-1/2 to 7 months 7-1/2 gills 6-1/2 gills 14 gills 7 to 8 months 8 gills 6 gills 14 gills 8 to 9 months 8-1/4 gills 6 gills 14-1/4 gills 9 to 10 months 8-1/2 gills 6 gills 14-1/2 gills 10 to 11 months 8-3/4 gills 6 gills 14-3/4 gills 11 to 12 months 9 gills 5-1/2 gills 14-1/2 gills 12 to 15 months 9-1/4 gills 5-1/4 gills 14-1/2 gills 15 to 18 months 9-1/2 gills 5 gills 14-1/2 gills 18 and more months 10 gills 5 gills 15 gills
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HOW TO KEEP A BABY WELL.
[Illustration: A delicate child should never be put into the bath, but bathed on the lap and kept warmly covered.]
1. The mother's milk is the natural food, and nothing can fully take its place.
2. The infant's stomach does not readily accommodate itself to changes in diet; therefore, regularity in quality, quantity and temperature is extremely necessary.
3. Not until a child is a year old should it be allowed any food except that of milk, and possibly a little cracker or bread, thoroughly soaked and softened.
4. Meat should never be given to very young children. The best artificial food is cream, reduced and sweetened with sugar and milk. No rule can be given for its reduction. Observation and experience must teach that, because every child's stomach is governed by a rule of its own.
5. A child can be safely weaned at one year of age, and sometimes less. It depends entirely upon the season, and upon the health of the child.
6. A child should never be weaned during the warm weather, in June, July or August.
7. When a child is weaned it may be given, in connection {320} with the milk diet, some such nourishment as broth, gruel, egg, or some prepared food.
8. A child should never be allowed to come to the table until two years of age.
9. A child should never eat much starchy food until four years old.
10. A child should have all the water it desires to drink, but it is decidedly the best to boil the water first, and allow it to cool. All the impurities and disease germs are thereby destroyed. This one thing alone will add greatly to the health and vigor of the child.
11. Where there is a tendency to bowel disorder, a little gum arabic, rice, or barley may be boiled with the drinking water.
12. If the child uses a bottle it should be kept absolutely clean. It is best to have two or three bottles, so that one will always be perfectly clean and fresh.
13. The nipple should be of black or pure rubber, and not of the white or vulcanized rubber; it should fit over the top of the bottle. No tubes should ever be used; it is impossible to keep them clean.
14. When the rubber becomes coated, a little coarse salt will clean it.
15. Babies should be fed at regular times. They should also be put to sleep at regular hours. Regularity is one of the best safeguards to health.
16. Milk for babies and children should be from healthy cows. Milk from different cows varies, and it is always better for a child to have milk from the same cow. A farrow cow's milk is preferable, especially if the child is not very strong.
17. Many of the prepared foods advertised for children are of little benefit. A few may be good, but what is good for one child may not be for another. So it must be simply a matter of experiment if any of the advertised foods are used.
18. It is a physiological fact that an infant is always healthier and better to sleep alone. It gets better air and is not liable to suffocation.
19. A healthy child should never be fed in less than two hours from the last time they finished before, gradually lengthening the time as it grows older. At 4 months 3½ or 4 hours; at 5 months a healthy child will be better if given nothing in the night except, perhaps, a little water.
20. Give an infant a little water several times a day.
21. A delicate child the first year should be oiled after each bath. The oiling may often take the place of the bath, in case of a cold.
22. In oiling a babe, use pure olive oil, and wipe off thoroughly after each application. For nourishing a weak child use also olive oil.
23. For colds, coughs, croup, etc., use goose oil externally and give a teaspoonful at bed-time.
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HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH AND LIFE OF YOUR INFANT DURING HOT WEATHER.
[Illustration: FOUND UPON THE DOOR STEP.]
_BATHING._
1. Bathe infants daily in tepid water and even twice a day in hot weather.
If delicate they should be sponged instead of immersing them in water, but cleanliness is absolutely necessary for the health of infants.
_CLOTHING._
2. Put no bands in their clothing, but make all garments to hang loosely from the shoulders, and have all their clothing _scrupulously clean_; even the diaper should not be re-used without rinsing. {322}
_SLEEP ALONE._
3. The child should in all cases sleep by itself on a cot or in a crib and retire at a regular hour. A child _always_ early taught to go to sleep without rocking or nursing is the healthier and happier for it. Begin _at birth_ and this will be easily accomplished.
_CORDIALS AND SOOTHING SYRUPS._
4. Never give cordials, soothing syrups, sleeping drops, etc., without the advice of a physician. A child that frets and does not sleep is either hungry or ill. _If ill it needs a physician._ Never give candy or cake to quiet a small child, they are sure to produce disorders of the stomach, diarrhoea or some other trouble.
_FRESH AIR._
5. Children should have plenty of fresh air summer as well as winter. Avoid the severe hot sun and the heated kitchen for infants in summer. Heat is the great destroyer of infants. In excessive hot weather feed them with chips of ice occasionally, if you have it.
_CLEAN HOUSES._
6. Keep your house clean and cool and well aired night and day. Your cellars cleared of all rubbish and whitewashed every spring, your drains cleaned with strong solution of copperas or chloride of lime, poured down them once a week. Keep your gutters and yards clean and insist upon your neighbors doing the same.
_EVACUATIONS OF A CHILD._
The healthy motion varies from light orange yellow to greenish yellow, in number, two to four times daily. Smell should never be offensive. Slimy mucous-like jelly passages indicate worms. Pale green, offensive, acrid motions indicate disordered stomach. Dark green indicate acid secretions and a more serious trouble.
Fetid dark brown stools are present in chronic diarrhoea. Putty-like pasty passages are due to acidity curdling the milk or to torpid liver. {323}
[Illustration]
_BREAST MILK._
7. Breast milk is the only proper food for infants, until after the second summer. If the supply is small keep what you have and feed the child in connection with it, for if the babe is ill this breast milk may be all that will save its life.
_STERILIZED MILK._
8. Milk is the best food. Goat's milk best, cows milk next. If the child thrives on this _nothing else_ should be given during the hot weather, until the front teeth are cut. Get fresh cow's milk twice a day if the child requires food in the night, pour it into a glass fruit jar with one-third pure water for a child under three months old, afterwards the proportion of water may be less and less, also a trifle of sugar may be added.
Then place the jar in a kettle or pan of cold water, like the bottom of an oatmeal kettle. Leave the cover of the jar loose. Place it on the stove and let the water come to a boil and boil ten minutes, screw down the cover tight and boil ten minutes more, then remove from the fire, and allow it to cool in the water slowly so as not to break the jar. When partly cool put on the ice or in a cool place, and keep tightly covered except when the milk is poured out for use. The glass jar must be kept perfectly clean and washed {324} and scalded carefully before use. A tablespoonful of lime water to a bottle of milk will aid indigestion. Discard the bottle as soon as possible and use a cup which you know is clean, whereas a bottle must be kept in water constantly when not in use, or the sour milk will make the child sick. Use no tube for it is exceedingly hard to keep it clean, and if pure milk cannot be had, condensed milk is admirable and does not need to be sterilized as the above.
_DIET._
9. Never give babies under two years old such food as grown persons eat. Their chief diet should be milk, wheat bread and milk, oatmeal, possibly a little rare boiled egg, but always and chiefly milk. Germ wheat is also excellent.
_EXERCISE._
10. Children should have exercise in the house as well as outdoors, but should not be jolted and jumped and jarred in rough play, not rudely rocked in the cradle, nor carelessly trundled over bumps in their carriages. They should not be held too much in the arms, but allowed to crawl and kick upon the floor and develop their limbs and muscles. A child should not be lifted by its arms, nor dragged along by one hand after it learns to take a few feeble steps, but when they do learn to walk steadily it is the best of all exercise, especially in the open air.
Let the children as they grow older romp and play in the open air all they wish, girls as well as boys. Give the girls an even chance for health, while they are young at least, and don't mind about their complexion.
[Illustration]
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Infant Teething.
[Illustration]
1. REMARKABLE INSTANCES.--There are instances where babies have been born with teeth, and, on the other hand, there are cases of persons who have never had any teeth at all; and others that had double teeth all around in both upper and lower jaws, but these are rare instances, and may be termed as a sort of freaks of nature.
2. INFANT TEETHING.--The first teeth generally make their appearance after the third month, and during the period of teething the child is fretful and restless, causing sometimes constitutional disturbances, such as diarrhoea, indigestion, etc. Usually, however, no serious results follow, and no unnecessary anxiety need be felt, unless the weather is extremely warm, then there is some danger of summer complaint setting in and seriously complicating matters.
3. THE NUMBER OF TEETH.--Teeth are generally cut in pairs and make their appearance first in the front and going backwards until all are complete. It generally takes about {326} two years for a temporary set of children's teeth. A child two or three years old should have twenty teeth. After the age of seven they generally begin to loosen and fall out and permanent teeth take their place.
4. LANCING THE GUMS.--This is very rarely necessary. There are extreme cases when the condition of the mouth and health of the child demand a physician's lance but this should not be resorted to, unless it is absolutely necessary. When the gums are very much swollen and the tooth is nearly through, the pains may be relieved by the mother taking a thimble and pressing it down upon the tooth, the sharp edges of the tooth will cut through the swollen flesh, and instant relief will follow. A child in a few hours or a day will be perfectly happy after a very severe and trying time of sickness.
5. PERMANENT TEETH.--The teeth are firmly inserted in sockets of the upper and lower jaw. The permanent teeth which follow the temporary teeth, when complete, are sixteen in each jaw, or thirty-two in all.
6. NAMES OF TEETH.--There are four incisors (front teeth), four cuspids (eye teeth), four bicuspids (grinders), and four molars (large grinders), in each jaw. Each tooth is divided into the crown, body, and root. The crown is the grinding surface; the body--the part projecting from the jaw--is the seat of sensation and nutrition; the root is that portion of the tooth which is inserted in the alveolus. The teeth are composed of dentine (ivory) and enamel. The ivory forms the greater portion of the body and root, while the enamel covers the exposed surface. The small white cords communicating with the teeth are the nerves.
[Illustration]
{327}
HOME TREATMENT FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN.
[Illustration]
1. Out of the 984,000 persons that died during the year of 1890, 227,264 did not reach one year of age, and 400,647 died under five years of age.
What a fearful responsibility therefore rests upon the parents who permit these hundreds of thousands of children to die annually. This terrible mortality among children is undoubtedly largely the result of ignorance as regarding to the proper care and treatment of sick children.
2. For very small children it is always best to use homoeopathic remedies.
_COLIC._
1. Babies often suffer severely with colic. It is not considered dangerous, but causes considerable suffering.
2. Severe colic is usually the result of derangement of the liver in the mother, or of her insufficient or improper nourishment, and it occurs more frequently when the child is from two to five months old. {328}
3. Let the mother eat chiefly barley, wheat and bread, rolled wheat, graham bread, fish, milk, eggs and fruit. The latter may be freely eaten, avoiding that which is very sour.
4. A rubber bag or bottle filled with hot water put into a crib, will keep the child, once quieted, asleep for hours. If a child is suffering from colic, it should be thoroughly warmed and kept warm.
5. Avoid giving opiates of any kind, such as cordials, Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, "Mother's Friend," and various other patent medicines. They injure the stomach and health of the child, instead of benefiting it.