Better babies and their care

by Anna Steese Richardson

Tight clothing over the stomach and abdomen will cause vomiting; and, for that reason, belly-bands must not be pinned tightly.

If none of the above reasons is present, and the baby vomits habitually, the diet must be changed.

The third form of vomiting is acute and sudden. It may generally be regarded as a symptom of an acute illness, such as measles, pneumonia, scarlet fever. It is safest to send for a physician under such circumstances. He can decide whether the acute vomiting is due to something the mother or child has eaten, or whether other symptoms of a serious ailment are present. Under ordinary circumstances the mother should merely withhold food until the arrival of the doctor. If the doctor cannot be secured for some time, she may safely give the child calomel, one-tenth of one grain every half-hour until one-half of a grain has been taken. The calomel should be carried off by an enema of warm water and sweet-oil. This may prevent serious consequences until the doctor arrives.

Gas on the stomach, with distention and pain, is indicated by belching, sometimes accompanied by a sour, watery fluid. Relief can be given by adding half a grain of benzoate of soda to each ounce of food for the bottle baby; but it is far better for both nursing and bottle baby if the mother will either change her own diet or reduce the quality of the bottle milk. Dr. Holt recommends, for gastric indigestion, two ounces of lime water to each twenty ounces of food.

Colic and flatulence come from the distention of the bowel by gas, and are generally accompanied by constipation. As a rule, if the constipation is relieved, the colic will disappear.

The presence of gas in the intestines generally indicates that either the sugar or the starch in the food is not being properly digested. The mother must reduce the quantity of starch and sweets which she is eating, in order to modify the breast milk. For the bottle-fed baby starch may be omitted from the food, and malto should be used instead of cane sugar.

For constipation in bottle-fed babies, milk of magnesia, which can be purchased at any first-class drugstore, may be added to the modified milk, in the proportion of one-half to one teaspoonful to each twenty ounces of food. The proportion must be according to the age of the child and the stubbornness of the constipation.

Constipation may also come from weak milk; in this case top milk instead of plain milk should be used in preparing the food for the bottle-fed baby.

No baby should be given cathartics nor enemas, except in emergencies. Even castor-oil is not safe, because if constipation springs from the fact that the milk is already too rich in fat, the oil increases the trouble. Enemas given every day weaken the muscles of the lower bowel. Up to the time the baby is six months old the mother should give no cathartic except milk of magnesia. The bottle-fed baby is given some of this at each feeding. It may be given to the breast-fed baby in a little boiled and warmed water, just before nursing. If milk of magnesia and attention to the diet do not correct the trouble, then a physician should be called in.

After six months a child may have orange juice, or orange and pineapple juice, strained; also apples scraped very fine.