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
Infantile paralysis is a serious disease of the spinal cord which
comes on very suddenly and is associated with vomiting, pain in the
legs, and a high temperature. After these symptoms have lasted a day
or two the paralysis is discovered. There may be convulsions. The
paralysis is progressive, and the wasting of the muscles increases
until by the end of a couple of months one limb is considerably
shorter than the other. Sometimes the baby goes to bed at night in
apparent good health and wakes up in the morning paralyzed.
In this disease the attention of the best physician in your community
should be called to the case at once, for there are being developed in
our large research laboratories special vaccines for this condition as
well as for spinal meningitis. But what is done must be done very,
very early, so let there be no delay in calling in medical counsel.
There are other forms of spinal paralysis which, associated with
tuberculosis of the spine and other spinal diseases, result in loss of
power to one or more groups of muscles. The only treatment that can be
given in the home is to keep all of the paralytic portions of the body
very warm by external heat, care being taken to avoid burning, and
secure medical advice. Often, later in the course of the disease, by
the aid of crutches and braces, the child can be taught to go to
school and to get around the house about his little duties.
The slight facial paralysis which is so often seen in babies that have
been delivered with forceps, usually clears up in a few days or at the
latest in a few weeks or months.
SAINT VITUS' DANCE
Saint Virus' dance (chorea) is a peculiar disorder seen in nervous
children, and which usually clears up in a few weeks or months under
proper treatment. It is characterized by irregular jerkings pretty
much all over the body, so that the child staggers as he walks, drops
his food at the table, and executes many other noticeably abnormal
movements. The child should be taken out of school at once and removed
from association with children who might make sport of him or
otherwise annoy him and thus increase these irregular jerkings. He
should at once be put under the direction of competent medical
authority. Simple food, colon hygiene, more or less complete rest, and
freedom from annoying circumstances, will usually bring about a speedy
recovery.
CONGENITAL DISORDERS
_Water on the Brain_ is characterized by an enlarged head due to an
increased accumulation of fluid within the cranium. While the face
remains small the head greatly increases in size so that oftentimes it
must be braced while the child is compelled to remain in a wheel
chair. The mentality is usually fairly normal, but the enormous weight
of the head compels the life-long occupancy of a wheel chair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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