VULVOVAGINITIS
Vulvovaginitis is a very contagious disease, and before the days of hospital asepsis, which is so perfectly maintained today in our large institutions, this disease used to go right through a children's ward because of carelessness in the handling of soiled diapers, etc. The sign of this disease is a yellow-white vaginal discharge, while the surrounding skin covering the inside of the thighs and buttocks may be very much reddened. The baby should be taken at once to the physician at the first appearance of these symptoms. Only rigid isolation can possibly prevent other children from getting it—essentials are separate towels, wash towels, soap (in the case of the older children), and, in the case of the baby, separate diapers and rigid scrubbing of the attendant's hands—in this way only can this infection be held in check. The infected child should sleep by herself, and utmost care must be exercised in preventing her fingers from first touching the itching vulva and then placing them to the eyes or to the mother's eyes. A vulva pad must be worn as long as the disease lasts. The physician will give you the proper medicines to be used in these cases, and if no physician is within reach, you are perfectly safe in dropping into the spread apart vulva a few drops of twenty-per-cent argyrol and then applying the vulva pad. After each treatment the hands of the mother or nurse must be most rigidly cleansed.