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
Syrup of poppies is another remedy which is often given by a nurse to
afford relief for flatulence; but let me urge upon you the importance
for banishing it from the nursery. It has (when given by
unprofessional persons) caused the untimely end of thousands of
children. The medical journals and the newspapers teem with cases of
deaths from mothers incautiously giving syrup of poppies to ease pain
and to procure sleep.
98. _What are the symptoms, the causes, and the treatment of
"Gripings" of an infant_?
_The symptoms._--The child draws up his legs; screams violently; if
put to the nipple to comfort him, he turns away from it and cries
bitterly; he strains, as though he were having a stool; if he have a
motion, it will be slimy, curdled, and perhaps green. If, in addition
to the above symptoms, he pass a large quantity of watery fluid from
his bowels, the case becomes one of _watery gripes_, and requires the
immediate attention of a doctor.
The _causes_ of "gripings" or "gripes" may proceed either from the
infant or from the mother. If from the child, it is generally owing
either to improper food or to over-feeding; if from the mother, it may
be traced to her having taken either greens, or port, or tart beer, or
sour porter, or pickles, or drastic purgatives.
_What to do._--The _treatment_, of course, must depend upon the
cause. If it arise from over-feeding, I would advise a dose of castor
oil to be given, and warm fomentations to be applied to the bowels,
and the mother, or the nurse, to be more careful for the future. If it
proceed from improper food, a dose or two of magnesia and rhubarb in a
little dill water, made palatable with simple syrup. [Footnote:
Take of--Powdered Turkey Rhubarb, half a scruple;
Carbonate of Magnesia, one scruple;
Simple Syrup, three drachms;
Dill Water, eight drachms;
Make a Mixture, One or two tea-spoonfuls (according to the age of the
child) to be taken every four boors, until relief be obtained--first
shaking the bottle.) If it arise from a mother's imprudence in eating
trash, or from her taking violent medicine, a warm bath, a warm bath,
indeed, let the cause of "griping" be what it may, usually affords
instant relief.
Another excellent remedy is the following--Soak a piece of new
flannel, folded into two or three thicknesses, in warm water, wring it
tolerably dry, and apply as hot as the child can comfortably bear it
to the bowels, then wrap him in a warm, dry blanket, and keep him, for
at least half an hour, enveloped in it. Under the above treatment, he
will generally soon fall into a sweet sleep, and awake quite
refreshed.
_What NOT to do_--Do not give opiates, astringents, chalk, or any
quack medicine whatever.
If a child suffer from a mother's folly in her eating improper food,
it will be cruel in the extreme for him a _second_ time to be
tormented from the same cause.
99. _What occasions Hiccup, and what is its treatment_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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