The maternal management of children, in health and diseaseBull, Thomas
Science
The maternal management of children, in health and disease
Bull, Thomas
Child care
The child of a strumous habit may be greatly benefited by sea bathing,
united with a few years' residence on the coast. Indeed, by carefully
following up a course of sea bathing, a suitable diet, and a judicious
mode of living, the very temperament of the individual may be all but
changed, and a power and activity imparted to the system, productive
eventually of comparatively strong and robust health. A parent will do
wisely, therefore, to send a child of such a habit to a school on the
coast. Great caution, however, must be observed when bathing is
commenced, lest the shock be too powerful for the energies of the
system, and be not followed by the necessary degree of reaction. It
will be prudent to begin with the tepid bath (85 degrees to 92
degrees), and gradually reduce the temperature until the open sea can
be resorted to without fear. The measures already mentioned for
promoting reaction--exercise previous to immersion; the immersion at
first only momentary, and followed by strong friction--must be
diligently regarded in such a case.
In the child of a delicate and feeble habit, much out of health, whose
general debility is dependent on some organic disease, sea bathing is
not only improper, but dangerous. Instead of being strengthened, such a
child will be rendered more weak and debilitated. On the other hand,
when the child is of a weak and relaxed habit, but free from organic
disease, the cold bath will be highly useful, provided sufficient power
of reaction exist in the system. In this case the skin and flesh of the
child is relaxed and flabby; there is a great tendency to warm
perspirations in bed, capricious appetite, confined or relaxed bowels,
indisposition to exertion, and weariness from the slightest effort.
THE SHOWER BATH.
The effects of the shower bath are, on the whole, similar to those of
the plunge bath of the same degree of temperature, except that the
immediate shock of the shower bath is in general felt to be greater
than that from simple immersion. This, however, may be met by putting
warm water into the bottom of the bath in sufficient quantity to cover
the ankles of the individual taking the bath, which tends at once to
lessen the shock, and to increase the reaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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