The maternal management of children, in health and diseaseBull, Thomas
Science
The maternal management of children, in health and disease
Bull, Thomas
Child care
They consist simply in the following measures:--The careful protection
of the child from cold or damp weather, particularly the north-east
winds of spring following heavy rains. Croup is most prevalent in those
seasons which are cold and moist, or when the alternations of
temperature are sudden and remarkable. If the residence of the child is
favourable to the production of croup, (for instance, near a large body
of water, or in low damp spots,) he should, if possible, be removed to
a healthier situation. Sponging or the shower-bath, with cold water and
bay-salt, with considerable friction in drying the body, should be
commenced in summer, and employed every morning upon the child's rising
from bed. The clothing should be warm in the winter and spring, the
neck always covered, and flannel worn next the skin throughout the
year; but hot rooms, and much clothing when in bed, must be avoided.
The diet must be light and nourishing; no beer or stimulant given; and
the state of the bowels must be carefully watched.
The above precautions are of course particularly necessary to enforce
immediately after a recovery from an attack, for there is a great
tendency to relapse. If the attack takes place during the winter or
spring months, the invalid must be kept, until milder weather, in the
house, and in a room of an equable and moderately warm temperature. If
in the summer, change of air, as soon as it can be safely effected,
will be found very useful.
Sect. X.--WATER IN THE HEAD.
Water in the head is a formidable disease, and not unfrequent in its
occurrence. It is often destructive to life, and the instances are
numerous in which it has appeared again and again in the same family,
carrying off one child after another, as they have successively arrived
at the same age.
But notwithstanding its frequency and fearful character, a mother may
do much to overcome a constitutional predisposition to this disease,
and thus prevent its appearance; as also she may assist greatly in
promoting its cure, when it does occur. Hence it is most important that
a mother should be acquainted with the measures of prevention; and
also, when it does manifest itself, that clear and accurate information
should be possessed, upon what may be said to constitute the maternal
management of the disorder.
ITS PREVENTION.--Whenever there is found to exist in a family a
predisposition to this malady, one or more children having suffered
from it, a mother must make up her mind, and in the strictest sense of
the word, to be the guardian of the health of any child she may
subsequently give birth to. And not only during the period of infancy,
but during that of childhood also, must she continue the same careful
and vigilant superintendence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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