Treatment.—Stomach washing and intestinal irrigation carefully given. Restrict diet to barley water containing a few drops of brandy and give hourly for a few days.
Rickets.—A disease of infants, characterized by impaired nutrition of the entire body and alteration of growing bones.
Causes.—Not positively known. Heredity may be a predisposing factor. Another theory given is want of sunlight, impure air, prolonged lactation, and suckling. As it is a constitutional disease it is almost certain to be due to a disturbance of nutrition. It is much less found in the breast-fed than in the artificially fed and more common when the artificial feeding is bad than when it is properly given.
Scurvy is a constitutional disease of metabolism due to a faulty diet. Probably the absence of some constituents in the nature of vitamins. Scurvy and rickets are two distinct diseases, and yet both may be due to impure, improper infant feedings.
Three General Symptoms of Great Importance.—First, a diffuse soreness of the body, so that the child cries when an attempt is made to move it; second, slight fever; third, profuse sweating. Deformities may often be prevented if, in the early stages, constant care is taken that the child is properly held.
Thrush.—Aphthæ.—Small white, furry mouth ulcers developing during the first and second year of infancy.
Cause.—Lack of cleanliness in the care of the mouth, especially after feeding with bottled milk. The patches are tenacious, grow larger, until sometimes they involve the entire gastro-intestinal tract, resulting in acute indigestion and bowel disorders.
The first symptom is usually some evidence of painful distress in the infant’s efforts to nurse; fever, diarrhea and vomiting occur and the trouble may become acute.
Treatment.—Absolute sterile cleanliness in the preparation and administering of the patient’s food. The mouth must be cleansed with warm boric acid solution after every feeding. The patches should be touched gently with the same solution, and the lips anointed with a soothing lotion.
Convulsions.—The principal predisposing causes are infancy conditions affecting the nutrition of the brain and hereditary influences. The brain grows more during the first year than in later life, and this rapidity of growth is in itself an important predisposing cause of functional derangement. After infancy attacks of convulsions are much less frequent, and after seven years they are relatively rare. Death may take place from a single attack in very young infants, especially those who are rachitic.