KEEPING YOUR BABY WELL IN WINTER
There are certain evils that beset the baby’s way during the winter just as there are seasonal pitfalls in summer, but the truth is that if you care for yourself and him according to the suggestions that have been set down in the foregoing pages, you are doing practically everything necessary to make his way safe and comfortable. A baby who has proper food, plenty of fresh air, is kept clean and whose daily life is regular, is not likely to be ill during the winter or any other time.
The chief baby ills that come with the blustery weather are colds and the troubles that are likely to follow in their wake, such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Colds are infectious, you know, so keep the baby away from sneezy people and out of crowds and dusty places. If he should take cold in spite of you, send for the doctor at once. It may amount to nothing and clear up in a day or two, but if you let it run on, the dreaded bronchitis or pneumonia may result.
RELIEVING COLIC, CONSTIPATION AND CONVULSIONS
I have tried to impress upon you, at every step, that it is very unwise for you to delay in sending for the doctor when your baby seems ill, or to attempt to treat him according to your own ideas or those of your neighbors. But if the baby should begin to scream with colic or have a spasm, you would want to know what to do at the moment, and in case of constipation there are a few simple nursing procedures that you may employ to the baby’s advantage.
Colic is always due to indigestion, whether the baby is breast-fed or bottle-fed, because of the food itself being wrong in some respect or because it is not properly given. The milk may contain too much of the material that forms the curd, or so much starch and sugar that fermentation takes place, the pain itself usually being due to undigested food or gas in the intestines. This condition may also result from the baby’s being fed too rapidly or too frequently, or from his swallowing air while sucking on a pacifier or an empty bottle. Colic may be caused, too, by chilling the baby as this is likely to disturb his digestion.
Most babies have colic at some time during the first year, usually before the fifth month. The attacks may occur several times a day, after feeding, or they may not come on until the late afternoon or evening when the baby is tired. Colic is so common that most people are familiar with the symptoms: violent crying and a flushed drawn face; cold hands and feet; tightly clenched fists and a hard, swollen abdomen. As the pain is cramp-like, the baby stops crying every little while, and then suddenly begins again, drawing up his legs, doubling up his body and then straightening out with a jerk.
For immediate relief, you may give the baby a tablespoonful of hot water in which half a soda mint tablet has been dissolved, and an enema of half a pint of water, at 110° F., containing one half teaspoonful of salt, given through a small rubber tube introduced about six inches. This empties the lower bowel and enables the baby to expel a good deal of the gas that is troubling him so. Rub his abdomen with a little oil and apply a compress of several thicknesses of flannel, wrung from hot water, covering this with a larger piece of dry flannel, and change it every three or four minutes for a while. Place a flannel covered hot water bottle (at 125° F.) at his feet, cover him warmly, darken the room and he will almost certainly go to sleep. It is often a good plan to substitute barley water for one or two feedings, after an attack of colic, in order to give the disturbed digestive tract a rest.
Quite naturally, you must tell your doctor if your baby has colic for the cause may lie in the character of his food. But it may lie in some error on your part. Go over all the details of your share of the baby’s care and see if you can discover anything to correct.
With breast-fed babies, prevention is often accomplished by the mother’s nursing her baby more slowly, lengthening the intervals between nursings and by improving her own hygiene, particularly by relieving constipation and increasing her recreation and out-of-door exercise. Nursing mothers who lead sedentary lives and eat rich food very often have colicky babies as do those who are nervous, irritable and inclined to worry.