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
There are usually just two reasons for diarrhea--uncleanliness and bad
milk. During the hot summer days flies multiply greatly and all manner
of bacteria and germs grow in warm, moist, shadowy places, so that
usually before the milk leaves the dairy farm it is seriously
contaminated with disease-producing germs. If the milk is not kept at
a temperature of 35 or 40 F. (which is just above the freezing point),
these bacteria, particularly the manure germ, grow at such a rate that
by the time the milk gets to the infant it is teeming with bacteria,
and diarrhea is the sure result.
Another form of diarrhea is cholera infantum, where the stools soon
become watery and colorless. The vomiting is almost incessant and
there is high fever. Fortunately it is a rare disease, but when once
seen it is never forgotten. One beautiful baby weighing nearly thirty
pounds was reduced to sixteen within forty-eight hours, and when death
came he could hardly be recognized because of the wasting from this
most dreaded of infant diseases.
Another form of diarrhea is seen in an acute inflammatory condition of
the intestine itself. The stools contain more or less mucus and blood.
The bowel movements, which are very frequent, are accompanied by a
great deal of pain and straining. This form is often seen in the more
severe types of summer dysentery. We wish to impress upon the reader's
mind that these diarrheas may all be avoided if the baby's food is
clean and free from germs, if the apple or pear is not only washed,
but thoroughly scrubbed before paring during the summer months. If all
the bottles, nipples, water, toys, etc., are adequately clean, no
summer diarrhea, no dysentery, no other infection due to dirt, will
attack the baby. Of paramount importance is the pasteurization of milk
during the summer months, as mentioned elsewhere.
TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA
Simple diarrhea in the older child of two or three years is treated as
follows: Take away all solid foods. Give a big dose of castor oil,
thoroughly wash out the bowel by warm water containing a level
teaspoon of salt and a level teaspoon of baking soda to the pint, and
put the child to bed in a quiet room. Boil all milk for ten minutes
and thicken it with flour that has been browned in the oven; feed this
to the child at five-hour intervals. After each bowel movement, no
matter how often they come, the colon should be washed out with the
salt and soda enema as before mentioned.
Bear in mind that the child is losing liquids, and so, after the
bowels have moved, boiled water should be given by mouth, or a cupful
of water can often be retained if it is introduced into the rectum
slowly under very low pressure. Twenty-four or forty hours should
clear up a case of simple diarrhea, and on returning to food it should
be dry toast and boiled milk. For the younger baby, withhold all milk
and give barley water or rice water for the first twenty-four hours,
returning to milk very gradually and slowly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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