Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Health and hygiene
The above plan ought only to be adopted if there be _no_ diarrhoea. If
there be diarrhoea, an enema must _not_ be used. Then, provided there
be great wasting away, and extreme exhaustion, and other remedies
having failed, it would be advisable to give, by the mouth, _raw_ beef
of the finest quality, which ought to be taken from the hip bone, and
should be shredded very fine. All fat and skin must be carefully
removed. One or two tea-spoonfuls (according to the age of the child)
ought to be given every four hours. The giving of _raw_ meat to
children in exhaustive diseases, such as excessive long-standing
diarrhoea, was introduced into practice by a Russian physician, a
Professor Wiesse of St Petersburg. It certainly is, in these cases, a
most valuable remedy, and has frequently been the means of snatching
such patients from the jaws of death. Children usually take raw meat
with avidity and with a relish.
254. _If a child be naturally delicate, what plan would you recommend
to strengthen him_?
I should advise strict attention to the rules above mentioned, and
_change of air_--more especially, if it be possible, to the
coast. Change of air, sometimes, upon a delicate child, acts like
magic, and may restore him to health when all other means have
failed. If a girl be delicate, "carry her off to the farm, there to
undergo the discipline of new milk, brown bread, early hours, no
lessons, and romps in the hay-field."--_Blackwood_. This advice is, of
course, equally applicable for a delicate boy, as delicate boys and
delicate girls ought to be treated alike. Unfortunately in these very
enlightened days there is too great a distinction made in the
respective management and treatment of boys and girls.
The best medicines for a delicate child will be the wine of iron and
cod-liver oil. Give them combined in the manner I shall advise when
speaking of the treatment of Rickets.
In diseases of long standing, and that resist the usual remedies,
there is nothing like _change of air_. Hippocrates, the father of
medicine, says--
"In longis morbis solum mutare."
(In tedious diseases to change the place of residence.)
A child who, in the winter, is always catching cold, whose life during
half of the year is one continued catarrh, who is in consequence,
likely, if he grow up at all, to grow up a confirmed invalid, ought,
during the winter months, to seek another clime; and if the parents
can afford the expense, they should at the beginning of October, cause
him to bend his steps to the south of Europe--Mentone being as good a
place as they could probably fix upon.
255. _Do you approve of sea bathing for a delicate young child_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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