CHAPTER XIV
NURSERY EMERGENCIES
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES: SYMPTOMS, TREATMENT AND QUARANTINE—CROUP AND ITS TREATMENT—CONVULSIONS—WHEN PALLS ARE DANGEROUS—BURNS AND CUTS—POISONS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES
The modern mother is prepared to meet emergencies in the nursery far more capably than was your mother or mine. The open discussion, in the public press, of contagion and of accidents and their treatment, has educated the modern woman to cope with them. Thus women are learning how to provide against emergencies, how to protect their children from contagion, and how to guard against accident.
Most of us can look back to the day when the child was expected to “catch” a certain number of contagious diseases; it was part of normal development, like the cutting of teeth and the learning to walk; and the sooner they had them and got over them the better for all concerned. We have learned that a child can grow up without having a single contagious disease, and that men and women live and thrive and attain a ripe old age without contracting measles, scarlet fever, whooping-cough, any more than they must necessarily have pneumonia or typhoid.
Contagious disease is not a normal feature of a child’s growth. It is an emergency, and as such it is placed in this chapter. With each disease under consideration I am giving the period of quarantine prescribed by the Health Board of New York City. Every mother should respect these tables, whether she lives in a city, where quarantine is enforced, or in the country districts where it is not even recognized. None of us has the right to spread disease just because we have had it in our own household.
Immediately a mother discovers symptoms of contagious disease in her child she must quarantine the little patient, no matter what sacrifice this may entail on herself or on other members of the household. The room should be located in a remote corner of the house, provided this is one of the big, old-fashioned homes which are peculiar to the suburban or country town. In a smaller house or in an apartment it should be the most quiet room and the one farthest removed from family activities. This insures quiet for the patient, and less danger of contagion for the other members of the family. The room should be sunny and well ventilated.
For some contagious diseases it is not necessary to strip the room to what may be termed hospital conditions. Doctors hold that measles and whooping-cough cannot be carried on fabrics; but the germ of scarlet fever has been known to live in hangings, rugs, and clothing for many months, even years. So, after all, as the change involves little trouble, it is just as well to take up carpets, and remove the hangings and curtains. Washable rugs may be used. The bureau should be stripped of fancy fittings to make room for the practical equipment required by the nurse. There should be no upholstered furniture, especially with scarlet fever; and the cushions used on wicker or wooden chairs should be covered with washable material.
There should be a screen to surround the bed while the room is being aired; and, above all things, the bed must be so placed that the sun will not strike in the child’s eyes at any time. There should be a comfortable cot for the mother or trained nurse or member of the family assigned to the care of the invalid. No visitors or other members of the family should be admitted. Their presence cannot lessen the danger of the child, and it may endanger their lives and the lives of other people.
If possible, there should be separate dishes, and a complete outfit for rinsing out clothing in this room. If the room is small these conveniences should be placed in an adjoining room which, like the sick room, should be barred to other members of the family. Remember that some contagions can be carried on cotton clothes. The mother’s or the nurse’s outer garments, aprons, towels, and bedding, all should be soaked in a solution of carbolic acid—one-half ounce to each gallon of water—before they are sent any place else to be laundered. After they have been soaked in this solution they can be washed by any one without danger of contagion. Nevertheless, it is better to have all the laundry work done separately.
The three most common contagious diseases in the nursery are whooping-cough, measles, and scarlet fever. In infancy the most dreaded disease is whooping-cough. A normal, healthy baby under six months of age can hardly survive this disease; and there is nothing more pitiful than to see the family baby, who has caught this racking ailment from older children, slowly but surely choke up as it becomes too weak even to cough. I regard it as nothing short of criminal to expose a healthy baby to whooping-cough. As many babies die of whooping-cough, in New York City, as from measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria combined. Never allow any child with a cough to come near your baby.