The maternal management of children, in health and diseaseBull, Thomas
Science
The maternal management of children, in health and disease
Bull, Thomas
Child care
This is the ordinary course of scarlet fever with sore throat; but in
many cases the symptoms run still higher, and the disease is alarmingly
dangerous from its commencement. In some instances, there is an acrid
discharge from the nostrils or ears, often accompanied with deafness;
as also enlargements of the glands in the neck, followed by the
formation of abscesses in their immediate neighbourhood. It is
unnecessary, however, to follow out the symptoms of scarlet fever more
fully; as all that has been attempted here, has been so to sketch out
the more prominent symptoms of this disease, that the directions upon
the parental management may be readily comprehended: they will be very
brief, but a strict attention thereto will be found all-important to
the well-doing and comfort of the child.
CHARACTER OF SCARLET FEVER COMPARED WITH THAT OF MEASLES.--It will be
seldom difficult to distinguish this disease from other acute eruptive
disorders. The one to which it bears the greatest resemblance is the
measles; but from this it is readily distinguished by the absence of
the cough, the inflamed and watery eye, running at the nose and
sneezing, which are the predominant symptoms in the early stage of the
measles; but which do not usually attend on scarlet fever--at least, in
any high degree. In measles, also, there is an absence of that
restlessness, anxiety, and depression of spirits, by which scarlet
fever is peculiarly distinguished.--The rash, too, in measles, does not
appear till two or three days later than that of scarlet fever. It also
differs in its characters. In scarlet fever, the eruption consists of
innumerable minute dots or points, diffused in patches with uneven
edges of various sizes and forms; and gives to those portions of the
skin on which it appears, a diffused bright red colour. In measles, the
rash comes out in irregular semi-lunar or crescentic shaped patches,
distinctly elevated; the spots being of a deeper red in the centre
than in the circumference, and leaving intervening spaces in which the
skin retains its natural pale colour.
MATERNAL MANAGEMENT.--The chief points to which the parent's attention
must be directed, irrespective of a strict attention to the more
immediate medical treatment directed by the physician, are the
following:--
VENTILATION OF THE BED-ROOM.--Even in the mildest cases, the child must
be kept in bed from the first accession of the fever. He must not be
loaded, however, as was formerly the practice, with a quantity of
bed-clothes, in order to encourage the fever and increase the quantity
of eruption. A moderate quantity of clothing is all that is required,
adapted to the heat of skin and feelings of the patient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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