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
In all illnesses--and bear in mind the following is most important
advice--a child must be encouraged to try and make water, whether he
ask or not, at least four times during the twenty-four hours; and at
any other time, if he express the slightest inclination to do so. I
have known a little fellow to hold his water, to his great detriment,
for twelve hours, because either the mother bad in her trouble
forgotten to inquire, or the child himself was either too ill or too
indolent to make the attempt.
See that the medical man's directions are, to the very letter, carried
out. Do not fancy that you know better than he does, otherwise you
have no business to employ him. Let him, then, have your implicit
confidence and your exact obedience. What _you_ may consider to be a
trifling matter, may frequently be of the utmost importance, and may
sometimes decide whether the case shall end either in life or death!
_Lice_.--It is not very poetical, as many of the grim facts of
every-day life are not, but, unlike a great deal of poetry, it is
unfortunately too true that after a severe and dangerous illness,
especially after a bad attack of fever, a child's head frequently
becomes infested with vermin--with lice. It therefore behoves a mother
herself to thoroughly examine, by means of a fine-tooth comb,
[Footnote: Which fine-tooth comb ought not to be used at any other
time except for the purpose of examination, as the constant use of a
fine-tooth comb would scratch the scalp, and would encourage a
quantity of scurf to accumulate.] her child's head, in order to
satisfy her mind that there be no vermin there. As soon as he be well
enough, he ought to resume his regular ablutions--that is to say, that
he must go again regularly into his tub, and have his head every
morning thoroughly washed with soap and water. A mother ought to be
particular in seeing that the nurse washes the hair-brush at least
once every week; if she does not do so, the dirty brush which had
during the illness been used, might contain the "nits"--the eggs of
the lice--and would thus propagate the vermin, as they will, when on
the head of the child, soon hatch. If there be already lice on the
head, in addition to the regular washing every morning with the soap
and water, and after the head has been thoroughly dried, let the hair
be well and plentifully dressed with camphorated oil--the oil being
allowed to remain on until the next washing on the following
morning. Lice cannot live in oil (more especially if, as in
camphorated oil, camphor be dissolved in it), and as the camphorated
oil will not, in the slightest degree, injure the hair, it is the best
application that can be used. But as soon as the vermin have
disappeared, let the oil be discontinued, as the _natural oil_ of the
hair is, at other times, the only oil that is required on the head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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