The Mother and Her ChildSadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Science
The Mother and Her Child
Sadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Child care; Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene; Pregnancy
We deplore the use of the water enema as a regular daily procedure; in
its place we suggest the use of the enema of oil or the introduction
into the rectum of a gluten suppository or in obstinate cases a
glycerine suppository. Abdominal massage should be daily administered.
With a well-oiled hand, begin on the right abdomen and proceed upward
to the lower border of the right ribs and across to the left side and
down. This should be repeated many times at a regular hour each day.
The mother should select an hour for the bowels to move, preferably
after the forenoon feeding, and if the child is too small to sit upon
the toilet chair, a gluten suppository may be placed into the rectum
before the forenoon feed and some time during the middle of the day
the bowel movement will be found in the napkin.
For the older child, before a certain meal each day, a well-vaselined
piece of cotton may be inserted in the rectum; this often produces a
bowel movement immediately after the meal. Laxative foods, such as
bran, stewed figs, stewed prunes, or a raw apple, should be used
faithfully--as repeated medication never corrects the difficulty, but
usually prolongs it.
To immediately flush out the bowel, a soapsuds enema or a plain water
enema may be allowed to flow into the lower colon, or a glycerine
suppository inserted into the rectum will quickly bring a bowel
movement. These methods are only of temporary value; a regular habit
should be formed, if possible, to bring about a natural, normal bowel
movement. When necessary to resort to drugs--such remedies as cascara
sagrada, milk of magnesia, or syrup of rhubarb, are satisfactory, as
well as our old stand-by--castor oil. Regular habits must be insisted
upon, and if the mother pays attention to regularity at stool in early
childhood very little trouble will be met later on in adolescence and
adult life.
Chronic constipation often produces abnormal conditions about the
rectum such as fissures, hemorrhoids, or prolapse, which may be of
serious import.
DIARRHEA
Diarrhea is a symptom of an acute illness, or it may be associated
with a chronic condition such as chronic intestinal indigestion,
tuberculosis of the bowel, or may occur alternately with constipation
in colitis. It is the most dangerous of all symptoms that babies
develop, and in spite of all the instruction given to mothers at the
present time, in spite of all the welfare stations in large cities,
and in spite of all the efforts put forth by the commissioner of
health, with his corps of visiting nurses--even yet, more babies die
of diarrhea each summer than from any other single cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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