Mother's Remedies Part 160

Cloves are warming, cordial and strengthening; they expel wind, and are good for the colic." This treatment has been known to give many a fretful baby a good night's sleep, and will be found very useful in homes where babies have this disease.

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PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT.--Temporary relief is obtained in attacks of colic by emptying the bowels of irritating materials, either by an enema or medicine. Peppermint, anise seed, catnip are effective, but may be harmful if continued long. Gin and whisky, warm, are good when the gas is in the stomach and upper bowel. It is always best to mix them with a solution like the following:

Bicarbonate of soda 40 grains Aromatic spirits of ammonia 30 drops Enough peppermint water to make 2 ounces

Put one teaspoonful in a cup of hot water for a child one year old.

The following is good to move the bowels:

Bicarbonate of soda 40 grains Aromatic syrup of rhubarb 4 drams Syrup of senna 5 drams Syrup of orange 1 ounce

One teaspoonful two or three times daily is needed in sour ga.s.sy stomach, with constipation or foul smelling stools. Fortunately such medicine is not often needed if the mother is careful, or baby is carefully bottle-fed. When there is vomiting with the colic and the stools contain curds the food is too strong. The nursing baby should be given one ounce of warm water before nursing, and the food for the bottle-fed baby should be made weaker by going back one formula. Sometimes peptonizing the food for a short time will do. This is very good when the proteids (curds) are hard for the baby to digest.

EARACHE.

Many young babies suffer from this trouble without the cause being even suspected. It may come after a cold, an attack of bronchitis or pneumonia, and sometimes during teething. It often accompanies scarlet fever and measles. The child screams, presses his head against his mother or nurse, pulls at his ear as if it hurt him. If you press in front of the ear the baby jumps as if in great pain and cries aloud. The pain is likely to be continuous and prolonged.

What can I do for it? Heat is the best remedy. Wash out the ear with a hot solution of boric acid fifteen to twenty grains to the ounce of water, and then apply heat in various ways. Have the child lie with the painful ear against a covered hot water bag or heat a flannel over a lamp and place it against the ear, changing it often to keep it hot. A bag of hot salt or bran is also very good. Laudanum and oil should not be used unless ordered by a physician. As soon as possible after the first attack of pain the baby should be examined by a doctor and unnecessary deafness is often avoided by such action. For a more extended account, see General Department. Fomentations applied are often beneficial, especially of hot water.

(See Earache, Mothers' Remedies, etc. under General Department).

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CROUP.

This disease is treated fully in the general department; only a general outline is given here. This is a disease dreaded by most mothers. It is more distressing than dangerous. Its appearance is sudden and generally at night. The baby may have had a slight cold or have been exposed to a bad wind or it may have come on without any known cause.

Symptoms.--They are known to almost everyone. There is a hard, dry, barking, hoa.r.s.e cough, generally with difficulty in breathing to a greater or less degree with a distressed look.

(For Mothers' Remedies, see General Department.)

Treatment.--If the child has eaten a big supper, it is well to give a simple emetic, such as warm mustard water, alum and mola.s.ses, or goose grease, or melted lard. Wring out pieces of flannel in hot water and put them on the child's throat as hot as he can bear them and change them often to keep them hot. Make a tent by spreading a sheet over an opened umbrella over the crib then place a croup kettle or teakettle close to the crib, directing the steam under the sheet into the tent so that baby may inhale the vapor, taking care not to burn him. This affords much relief.

If necessary give ten drops of syrup of ipecac until vomiting occurs; a teaspoonful of castor oil should also be given and if the baby is constipated, give an enema of soapsuds and water. Keep the child indoors the next day.

CONSTIPATION IN BABIES.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Constipation, Olive Oil Treatment for.--"Rub the abdomen with a firm yet gentle motion from left to right with pure olive oil. This is what the doctor told me to do for my babe of three years."

This treatment will be found very beneficial as the olive oil is very strengthening and the rubbing will always give relief.

2. Constipation, A Pleasant Treatment for.--"One-half teaspoonful olive oil, one-half teaspoonful orange juice, three times a day after feeding."

3. Constipation, Prunes a Medicine for.--"Abate heat and gently open the bowels by the use of prunes. These should be fed to children more often.

This would often prevent sickness. A very useful way of administering prunes as a medicine is to simmer for one-half hour, a few in water enough to cover, with 1/2 oz. senna leaves; remove the prunes, allow to dry and let the child eat them when needed. This is very good."

4. Constipation, Soothing Syrup Made by a Mother in New York for.--"One- half ounce spearmint, one-quarter ounce lady's slipper, one-half ounce rhubarb, one-quarter ounce cinnamon powder; pour one-half pint boiling water on the whole, mix and let stand to boil fifteen minutes, strain and sweeten well with syrup or honey. Give a teaspoonful every half hour, diminishing as the pain subsides." This will be found very beneficial in children, and may be used without any fear whatever, as it is perfectly harmless.

5. Constipation, Figs as a Medicine for.--"Grind up equal amounts of figs and senna leaves, put in closed jar and eat dry when needed." This will be found especially good for children, and most of them like it.

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CONSTIPATION may be caused by many things, inheritance, malformation of the r.e.c.t.u.m and other parts, errors of food in the mother and in bottle-fed babies.

What is the treatment? If the baby is nursed and the mother is constipated, she should at once change her habits and diet. She should exercise in the open air at least two hours every day, and have a movement daily, even if she must take some mild laxative.

What should she drink and eat? She should drink plenty of water, and pure rich milk, cocoa, eat oatmeal and cornmeal gruels. She should not drink tea or coffee. She can eat fruit, most green vegetables and some meat, but not much starchy food. Baby may not get enough residue in his bowels. Give him one or two meals daily of modified milk made up of oatmeal gruel instead of barley, and give him plenty of water between his meals. One teaspoonful of cream in a little hot water given before nursing is often beneficial, or one or two teaspoonfuls of beef juice may be given night and morning, After six months a little orange or prune juice may be added.

BOTTLE-FED BABIES.

Add a little more top-milk or cream to each bottle than the formula gives; do not pasteurize the food unless it is necessary; do not use lime-water, but bicarbonate of soda in proper strength in its place, as lime-water is often very constipating. Malted food may be added to each bottle for some time. If necessary, stimulate the r.e.c.t.u.m mildly; this can be done by holding the baby over a small chamber at exactly the same time after a meal each day and insert into the bowel a small cone of oiled paper, or use a small castile soap suppository. This may form a habit in a few days.

Suppositories of gluten are very beneficial if used in the morning. The child should not be allowed to go longer than twenty-four hours without a pa.s.sage. A enema made up of one or two tablespoonfuls of sweet oil may be given with a bulb syringe, or an ounce of warm water to which has been added one-half teaspoonful of glycerin, or one-half pint of warm soap-suds. Do not give it every day; ma.s.sage the baby's abdomen. Your hand should be warm. Begin at the right side groin and make a series of circular movements with your fingers, lightly at first, and then press down harder as the baby becomes accustomed to it; work your way up gradually to the ribs, then across to the ribs on the left side, and down to the left groin. This can be done twice daily for eight or ten minutes at a time, and always at the same time of day, but never soon after a meal. Olive oil may safely be given for constipation to a baby,--from twenty drops to one teaspoonful one or two times daily, but castor oil should not be given for constipation, as after a time it leaves the baby more constipated than ever. Sometimes inserting your finger, well oiled, into the r.e.c.t.u.m, will produce a pa.s.sage. For older children, decrease the amount of white bread, toast, potatoes, and give green vegetables, oatmeal, and graham bread instead, with plenty of proper fruit twice daily; raw, sc.r.a.ped apples are sometimes the best fruit to use.

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DIARRHEA. (For Older Children).

What shall I do for this trouble? Rid the system of the irritating matter by giving the baby one teaspoonful of castor oil. Then stop all solid food and give boiled water if there is only a moderate looseness. Keep the child perfectly quiet. If the attack is more severe and attended by fever and vomiting all food and milk should be stopped at once in children of all ages, and only broth, barley water or some thin gruel given. Castor oil is required for a severe attack. If the patient is an infant the milk should be diluted or stopped. In severe attacks with vomiting or frequent foul stools, stop all food for at least twelve hours and all milk for a longer time, and the bowels should be freely moved by a cathartic. Give plenty of water to drink.

Food.--Alb.u.min water is often better than plain water or anything else. To make it stir the white of an egg into a pint of cold water. See that they are well mixed, add a pinch of salt and strain. Give baby one teaspoonful every one-half hour, and if he vomits all other food, give two ounces every two hours; barley gruel, wheat flour gruel, mutton broth may be given also.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Inflammation of the Bowels, Poultice of Hot Mush for.--"Wrap the child in a poultice of hot mush. Place the poultice over the abdomen." A poultice of this kind retains the heat, and is very good for inflammation of the abdominal cavity, and would help to take away the soreness and bloating in the bowels that is always present in this disease.

2. Bowel Trouble, a Good Tonic for.--

Powdered rhubarb 1 heaping teaspoonful Soda 1/4 teaspoonful Sugar 1 teaspoonful Peppermint essence 1/2 teaspoonful Hot water 1/2 cup (scant)

Dose:--One-half teaspoonful every hour until bowels show signs of right color.

The soda and the peppermint will tone up the stomach and relieve any trouble present there, while the rhubarb will act on the bowels and carry off all impurities.

3. Bowel Trouble, Rhubarb and Licorice for.--"Compound tincture of rhubarb one ounce bicarbonate of soda 1 dram, fluid extract of licorice 1 dram, pure water 6 ounces. Give from one to two teaspoonfuls according to the age of the child." This will be found a very good treatment for this trouble, and one that has been thoroughly tried.

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RICKETS.