Symptoms
There is loss of appetite and malaise. The pulse becomes rapid and in some cases there is slight temperature. There is usually headache and excessive thirst. During the attack of vomiting there is extreme retching and great distress. The symptoms are similar to migraine in adults. This condition must be differentiated from tubercular meningitis in which there is vomiting without apparent cause. The course of the symptoms will soon enable a positive differentiation. In acute indigestion there is vomiting, but the history of the case reveals the fact that the attack was brought on by undigested food. It is very easy to distinguish this type of vomiting from that of appendicitis, since in appendicitis there is marked tenderness at McBurney’s point, also pain and the characteristic rigidity and muscular contraction. In intussusception the symptoms are usually more severe and there is blood and mucus in the stool.