Summer complaint is an inflammation or irritation of the mucus membrane of the intestines. Owing to dentition and change of food, children are more liable to this affection in their second summer. They are then constantly the subject of anxious solicitude by their parents and friends.
If the discharges are only frequent and yellow, unaccompanied by pain and fever, there is no cause for anxiety. It is simply an effort of nature to restore normal conditions, and should not be interfered with. Too hastily checking this diarrhea is frequently the cause of spasms and other serious affections.
The symptoms of summer complaint proper, are frequent, watery movements; at first may be green but soon become gray, brown and frothy, sometimes having a mixture of phlegm and mucus; frequently are fetid, and, at times, contain undigested food. It may or may not be accompanied by pain. Nausea and vomiting are frequent symptoms, and if severe, constitute cholera infantum. The surface of the body is cold, often in a cold perspiration, while the soles of the feet and palms of the hands are dry and hot. It is usually attended with great thirst, a quick pulse and increased temperature.
Some children are prostrated at once by the attack, losing flesh and strength rapidly, while others keep about many days. Appetite fails, or else there are morbid cravings, often for the very things that increase the irritation. If the disease is not abated, the fever and thirst increase, the tongue becomes dry and brown, pulse is more rapid, the strength fails, great restlessness ensues, the brain becomes affected, coma ensues, and death closes the scene.
Impure air and improper diet are the principal causes of this disease. Sleeping and living rooms not being sufficiently ventilated, the blood becomes poisoned. Children are fed a mixed diet too soon. Rich and highly seasoned food that is even unsuitable for adults, except in a vigorous outdoor life, is given them, and at irregular hours. The delicate organs are overtaxed, and inflammatory conditions produced. When a child is weaned it should be fed upon oat, wheat and corn meal mush, bread and milk, rice, cracked wheat, wheatlet, barley, and ripe fruits. Meats, condiments, tea and coffee, and food containing fats should be avoided. Even most of the vegetables are not adapted to children.
Give them simple but nutritious diet, turn them, like colts, outdoors to run and play, and you will save yourselves anxiety, save doctor’s bills, and best of all, save your children. Blood that is too carbonaceous can be oxygenized by plenty of outdoor exercise, both by adults and children. The less clothing a child wears in hot weather the better, only I would advise that flannel be worn next the skin. This will prevent sudden checking of perspiration. By all means let the little children go barefoot. A child that has a sand pile to play in, and is allowed to run barefoot, must be of a very delicate organization if he can have summer complaint. By direct contact with the earth, superabundance of electricity is carried off, and thus is lessened the possibility of inflammation. The child that spends most of its waking hours outdoors, barefooted, seldom gets summer complaint. He has:
“Sleep that wakes in laughing day;
Health that mocks the doctor’s rules;
Outward sunshine; inward joy;
Blessing on thee, barefoot boy!”