Dietetics for NursesProudfit, Fairfax T. (Fairfax Throckmorton)
Science
Dietetics for Nurses
Proudfit, Fairfax T. (Fairfax Throckmorton)
Diet in disease
~Use of Eggs.~--The old method of forcing the patient to eat a dozen
or more raw eggs a day is no longer used, but three or four a day will
be of undoubted value to the patient, provided they agree. There are
patients, however, with whom eggs act almost as a poison, and in these
cases it is decidedly unwise to force them.
~Use of Milk.~--Milk is to be used abundantly. If it should disagree,
it may be peptonized or modified with limewater. At any rate, every
effort should be made to enable the patient to drink at least one
quart a day, and more, if possible.
If it fails to agree even when so treated, it should be abandoned,
since the discomfort caused under the circumstances is more
detrimental to the welfare of the individual than any benefit which he
may gain by the small amount which may be absorbed.
~High Calorie Diet.~--As long as the patient is in bed the diet cannot
be as full as it is made when he is up and about, as the body is then
using more material to provide for the extra exertion and needs more
food to replace that which has been utilized. Consequently the high
calorie diet[105] will be found as a rule sufficient. As soon as the
patient is able to receive more food without incurring digestional
disturbances, it should be supplied, keeping ever in mind the danger
of its upsetting his digestion.
~Advice to Patients.~--The patient must be impressed with the
necessity for living a simple, wholesome life, free from excesses of
all kinds. The need for a regular regime in the beginning must be
strongly emphasized. Too strenuous exercise and the consequent
over-fatigue at times completely overcome all the good which has been
accomplished in weeks or even months of studied effort, so that rest
is an essential part of the tuberculous regime. The patient should
sleep from eight to ten hours out of every twenty-four, and if this
sleep is taken in the open, that is, in a tent or on a sleeping porch,
the benefits derived therefrom are inestimable.
~The Bowels.~--The bowels should move every day, even if some gentle
laxative or an enema has to be used to bring about the desired result.
In a majority of cases, mineral oil or bran muffins, prunes, raisins,
and figs prepared with senna will be entirely sufficient, however, and
these substances are much less harmful than drugs, for the habit of
taking purgatives becomes a fixed one in a short time, and is
especially liable to become so when the patient is forced, by reason
of the sedentary life, to depend on some such measures.
~Massage.~--Massage has been found beneficial in many cases, giving
the needed exercise to the body, which it is otherwise unable to
obtain.
CHRONIC TUBERCULOSIS
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