Massage or kneading the abdomen lightly sometimes brings relief; but this should never be done immediately after the baby is fed. An hour should be permitted to elapse; and it is still better to massage the abdomen just before feeding. However, massage without correcting the diet is not sufficient.
Constipation must be corrected during infancy, for there is no other evil of the human system that can bring upon men and women a greater number of ailments which make life one long story of aches and pains.
Diarrhea is a symptom of acute illness, and frequently ends in death. It is the most dangerous of all symptoms that babies develop. With all the agencies at work for infant welfare in large cities, during hot weather, more babies die of diarrhea than of all the contagious diseases, like measles, whooping-cough, diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fever, put together. Even in the country, with its pure air and its better facilities for securing clean milk, babies die of diarrhea in shocking numbers.
This dreaded disease of infancy can generally be traced to two causes: improper food, and unclean milk.
One reason why it is more prevalent in summer than in winter is the fact that heat affects milk quickly and unfits it for the baby’s digestion. When the breast-fed baby has diarrhea, the mother must immediately look to her own diet. The mother of the bottle-fed baby must look to the source and care given to the cow’s milk fed to the baby.
In this respect the small-town mother and the farmer’s wife have the advantage over the city mother. They can secure milk from healthy cows, directly the milking is over, twice a day. They can strain it through cheese-cloth, cool it rapidly on ice, and allow no contaminating hand or utensil to touch it. The city mother must pin her faith to certified milk.
So much for the prevention of diarrhea. If, in spite of every precaution, it appears, food of any kind must be withdrawn. Even the breast-fed baby should fast for twelve hours. Cleanse the bowels with either castor-oil or calomel. Try castor-oil first: one teaspoonful for the baby three months old or less. From three months to a year old, the dose may be graduated from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful. If the baby cannot retain the castor-oil, try calomel as prescribed for vomiting—one-tenth of one grain every half-hour until one-half grain has been taken—for the baby up to four months. After that, and up to one year, the quantity may be increased, one-tenth of one grain every half-hour until two grains have been taken. Boiled water may be given at intervals, but not in any quantity, especially if the diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting. If the diarrhea does not yield to this treatment within twenty-four hours, a physician should be called in.
CHAPTER VII
TEETHING AND WEANING
TEETHING A NATURAL PROCESS—PUTTING THE BABY IN SHAPE TO TEETHE EASILY—DENTITION TABLE—CARE OF THE FIRST TEETH—GRADUAL WEANING IS SIMPLE PROCESS—ALTERNATE BREAST AND BOTTLE FEEDING—EVILS OF DELAYED WEANING—DIET TABLES FOR CHILDREN FROM NINE MONTHS TO THIRTY-SIX MONTHS
One of those dear women who never master the art of taking comfort out of life as they go along remarked to me recently: