A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two PartsCrumpler, Rebecca Lee
Science
A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts
Crumpler, Rebecca Lee
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene; Women -- Health and hygiene
A child may drool or throw up its food at any time, yet be quite
healthy. If a babe is sucking, and the mother indulges in a mixed or
meat and vegetable diet too early, the first passages after it is taken
sick will show signs of heat, fermentation and inflammation; they will
either be of a deep yellow, or more or less green, and slimy. In such
instances it is always advisable to take the infant from the breast for
a while and feed it on arrow-root boiled in water, till the acidity is
corrected; then in milk, no sugar being added, alternating with
gum-arabic water. The mother, or wet-nurse, having been put under strict
diet for a week, might with propriety resume nursing. Robust, perfectly
developed children are apt to exhibit considerable vitality through the
different phases of the disease; but as far as my experience has been,
they succumb to the worst more quickly than the more delicate-appearing.
As the disease progresses the little sufferer will thrust its fingers in
its mouth, as if to intimate hunger or dryness, and gag, as though
something was sticking in the throat. The hands and arms are the most
active. The lower extremities are seldom moved from one position; and
when moved by any one, they are quickly reversed. Every movement of the
body, in bathing or changing, is followed by a discharge from the
bowels. These discharges vary in consistence even before any medicine
has been given. After the bowels have been purged, as is recommended by
most physicians to begin with, the discharges from the bowels may run
off frequently, and in small quantities, depositing in the napkin a
whitish, frothy fluid, which settles down to a chalky substance, giving
out the smell of lime. If such emissions continue, they will effect a
rapid destruction; or they may have the same appearance from the
beginning if the internal organs have been previously rendered weak from
starvation, or rather where the food has been but little better than
water sweetened; and, too, these frothy emissions greatly chafe the
parts if they are allowed to remain soiled.
The tongue is dry and stiff, as a general thing, throughout the disease.
The body, with the exception of the belly, is dry and cool. The mouth is
apt to be hot from the beginning, a sign remarked by mothers who have
suckled babes with cholera; in the last stage, the disposition to sleep,
but start at the least noise; the mouth lying half open, the intelligent
attempts to suck; the decrease of the discharges from the bowels; the
cessation of retching; the sinking in of the features; the nervous
grasping, as if to catch some passing object; jerking of the body, and
moaning, may be looked upon as unfavorable signs.
It is a great mistake to conclude that infants will have cholera if
weaned early, or if they are to be artificially nursed. The fear comes
from persons having been so educated within the last half century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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