The Physical Training of ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
The Physical Training of Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene
(1.) A rupture of the navel is sometimes occasioned by a meddlesome
nurse. She is very anxious to cause the navel-string to separate from
the infant’s body, more especially when it is longer in coming away than
usual. She, therefore, before it is in a fit state to drop off, forces
it away. (2.) The rupture, at another time, is occasioned by the child
incessantly crying. A mother, then, should always bear in mind that a
rupture of the navel is often caused by much crying, and that it
occasions much crying; indeed, it is a frequent cause of incessant
crying. A child, therefore, who, without any assignable cause, is
constantly crying, should have his navel carefully examined.
A rupture of the navel ought always to be treated early—the earlier the
better. Ruptures of the navel can only be _cured_ in infancy and in
childhood. If it be allowed to run on until adult age, a _cure_ is
impossible. Palliative means can then only be adopted.
The best treatment is a Burgundy pitch plaster, spread on a soft piece
of wash-leather about the size of the top of a tumbler, with a properly
adjusted pad (made from the plaster) fastened on the center of the
plaster, which will effectually keep up the rupture, and in a few weeks
will cure it. It will be necessary, from time to time, to renew the
plaster until the cure be effected. These plasters will be found both
more efficacious and pleasant than either a truss or an elastic bandage;
which latter appliances sometimes gall, and do more harm than they do
good.
20. _If a child has a groin rupture (an inguinal rupture), can that also
be cured?_
Certainly, if, soon after birth, it be properly attended to. Consult a
medical man, and he will supply you with a well-fitting truss, _which
will eventually cure him_. If the truss be properly made (under the
directions of an experienced surgeon) by a skillful surgical-instrument
maker, a beautiful, nicely fitting truss will be supplied, which will
take the proper and exact curve of the lower part of the infant’s belly,
and will thus keep on without using any under-strap whatever—a great
desideratum, as these under-straps are so constantly wetted and soiled
as to endanger the patient constantly catching cold. But if this
under-strap is to be superseded, the truss must be made exactly to fit
the child—to fit him like a ribbon; which is a difficult thing to
accomplish, unless it be fashioned by a skillful workman. It is only
lately that these trusses have been made without under-straps. Formerly
the under-straps were indispensable necessaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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