The extreme nervousness of the children is the point upon which most
stress may be laid in the present connection. The association of
albuminuria with neurosis in childhood has been noticed by many
observers. The gastric and intestinal symptoms are especially
characteristic. If the condition of the children is not materially
improved, and if the symptoms, both of the physical defect and of the
nervous disturbance, are not cut short, we may predict that in adult
age their lives will be made miserable by a variety of abdominal
symptoms dependent both on the vasomotor disturbance and upon the
accompanying neurosis. Now that surgery forms so large a part of our
therapeutic proceedings, they may not reach middle life without being
submitted to one or more surgical operations. With good management
both on the physical side and on the moral or psychological side they
can be made into strong and useful members of society.
The treatment of these cases may be summed up as follows:
_(a)_ We must search for any source of infection, a source which is
often to be found in the condition of the tonsils. Enucleation may
then be indicated as the first step in treatment.
_(b)_ Massage and gymnastic exercises calculated to improve the
muscular tone, while every effort is made to secure for the child as
perfect hygiene in the environment as possible.
_(c)_ The stimulating effect of cold douches is often very evident in
improving the vasomotor tone. These children, however, will not stand
well the abstraction of heat from their thin and chilly little bodies,
so that it is a good plan before the colder douche to immerse the
child in a hot bath and to return again to the bath momentarily
afterwards. With these precautions children will often enjoy a cold
spray, the temperature of which may be constantly lowered as they
become used to it. Prolonged hot bathing has a correspondingly
prejudicial effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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