The Physical Training of ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
The Physical Training of Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene
_In the third stage_, that is to say, when the complaint has lasted a
month, if by that time the child is not well, there is nothing like
change of air to a high, dry, healthy, country place. Continue the
nitric acid mixture, and either the embrocation or the liniment to the
back and the chest, and let him continue to almost live in the open air,
and be sure that he does not discontinue wearing the flannel until he be
quite cured, and then let it be left off by degrees.
If the hooping-cough have caused debility, give him cod-liver oil, a
teaspoonful twice or three times a day, giving it him on a full stomach
after his meals.
But, remember, after the first three or four weeks, change of air, and
plenty of it, is for hooping-cough the grand remedy.
_What_ NOT _to do_.—Do not apply leeches to the chest, for I would
rather put blood into a child laboring under hooping-cough than take it
out of him—hooping-cough is quite weakening enough to the system of
itself without robbing him of his life’s blood; do not, on any account
whatever, administer either emetic tartar or antimonial wine; do not
give either paregoric or syrup of white poppies; do not drug him either
with calomel or with grey powder; do not dose him with quack medicine;
do not give him stimulants, but rather give him plenty of nourishment,
such as milk and farinaceous food, but _no_ stimulants; do not be
afraid, after the first week or two, of his having fresh air, and plenty
of it—for fresh, pure air is the grand remedy, after all that can be
said and done, in hooping-cough. Although occasionally we find that if
the child be laboring under hooping-cough and is breathing a pure
country air, and is not getting well so rapidly as we could wish, change
of air to a smoky, gasladen town will sometimes quickly effect a cure;
indeed, some persons go so far as to say that the _best_ remedy for an
_obstinate_ case of hooping-cough is for the child to live the great
part of every day in gas-works!
231. _What is to be done during a paroxysm of Hooping-cough?_
If the child be old enough, let him stand up; but if he be either too
young or too feeble, raise his head, and bend his body a little forward;
then support his back with one hand, and the forehead with the other.
Let the mucus, the moment it is within reach, be wiped with a soft
handkerchief out of his mouth.
232. _In an obstinate case of Hooping-cough, what is the best remedy?_
Change of air, provided there be no active inflammation, to any healthy
spot. A farm-house, in a high, dry, and salubrious neighborhood, is as
good a place as can be chosen. If, in a short time, he be not quite
well, take him to the sea-side: the sea breezes will often, as if by
magic, drive away the disease.
233. _Suppose my child should have a shivering fit, is it to be looked
upon as an important symptom?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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