A reference hand-book for nursesBeck, Amanda K. (Amanda Kathryn)
Science
A reference hand-book for nurses
Beck, Amanda K. (Amanda Kathryn)
Nursing
=Diet.=—During the first twelve hours the patient should be kept on
liquid diet. On the second day, butter toast, milk toast, oyster stew,
and chocolate may be added. On the third day, if the bowels move
freely, soups, with rice or barley, and cereal foods may be given.
Stewed fruits (omitting those strongly acid) may be included. After the
fourth day, fresh fish, a chop, chicken, and pigeon may be given. Even
after ordinary diet is ordered, heavy meats and rich pastry should be
avoided for a while.
=Bowels.=—The bowels are usually constipated for the first few days.
A dose of castor oil may be given, to be followed in six hours by a
saline enema. The patient should be encouraged to drink freely of pure
water, to secure proper elimination of the kidneys. If the patient can
not urinate, after the different methods to produce urination have been
tried, she may be catheterized. The urine should be measured for some
days to ascertain if the quantity is sufficient.
=Colostrum.=—The first secretion in the breasts contains no
nourishment, but is a laxative for the child. The baby should be put to
the nipple as soon as the mother has had some sleep and feels rested.
Nursing assists the uterine contractions, preventing hemorrhage from
the torn placental vessels and cleansing the organs from secretions
still being discharged at intervals.
=Breast and Nipples.=—The nipples should be cleansed after each nursing
with warm boric solution. If they are cracked and sore a lubricating
ointment should be applied and a nipple shield should be used. If the
breasts become distended they should be massaged gently every two or
three hours, and they may be pumped if necessary. In this state the
patient must not have regular liquid diet, and the bowels must be kept
freely open with saline laxatives. A compressed binder is comforting
and beneficial. If the child, for some reason, does not nurse, the
secretion may be dried by an application of belladonna in the form of a
plaster, permitting the nipples to protrude through an opening cut into
the center of it. The belladonna ointment is good but very unclean.
Atropin may be given internally.
=Conditions During which the Child Should Not Nurse.=—Depressed or
cracked nipples; inflammation of the breasts; poor health of the
mother; marked anemia; kidney or heart disease; nervous or general
febrile afflictions; tuberculosis; syphilis.
_Menstruation._—If the return flow of the menses occur during the
nursing period the milk becomes impure, and the child may suffer from
the effects of it. If menstruation takes place normally and the child
does not become ill, it is because the mother is strong and can endure
the drain upon her system with no other bad result than losing flesh.
In such a case it is best to wean the baby, especially after it is nine
months old.
CARE OF THE BABY.
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