ACUTE GASTRITIS
Dietetic Treatment.—The following dietetic treatment for acute gastritis is advised: As the stomach is the chief seat of disturbance, all unnecessary work must be taken from this region for a certain period:
(1) That any obscure cause may manifest itself and the diagnosis may be rendered more accurately and more quickly.
(2) That by resting the organ the offending materials may pass out of the body and thus prevent further trouble.
Starvation Period.—Twenty-four hours of total abstinence from food may seem extreme, but as a rule in acute cases of gastritis it is the only sane and safe method of instituting a diet and thus beginning to overcome the cause of the disturbance. After the period of starvation the diet is begun with caution.
Fluid Diet.—Fluids should be given first in the form of well-skimmed broths, which may be reënforced with egg or cereal flours when the patient is very thin or anemic. Buttermilk, made with the Bulgarian cultures, koumiss and other fermented milk foods, liquid beef preparations such as peptonoids or panopepton, albumenized orange juice, cereal gruels treated with Taka diastase when it is found necessary, and peptonized milk. These may be given in from four to six ounces at a time, every two hours on the second day.
Increasing the Diet.—On the third day if the attack is slight the diet may be increased by adding toast, softened with peptonized milk, an ordinary serving (3 ounces) of farina, cream of wheat or rice, reënforced meat broth with two crackers, a cup of tea and a slice of toast, and one or two soft-cooked eggs. If the acute symptoms are still present on the third day, the diet advised for the second day must be continued until they disappear.
Convalescent Diet.—On the fifth day, if progress is satisfactory, lightly broiled chicken or a small piece of rare broiled beefsteak may be added to the diet and the meals reduced in number from six to four.
Relapse.—The patient must be warned against overeating or eating any of the articles which are known to cause an acute attack in his individual case, since one attack predisposes to another, and chronic gastritis may develop as the result of the continual gastric disturbance.