No soap should be used while the baby has prickly heat and after the bath he should be patted thoroughly dry and powdered with some such soothing powder as the following:
- Powdered starch one ounce
- Oxide of zinc one ounce
- Boracic acid powder 60 grains
As we look back over these pages of somewhat detailed description of the case of the baby, it is borne in upon us that the nursing of this unfailingly delightful and interesting little patient has special adjustments and adaptations for different seasons and circumstances; but that on the whole the care of all babies the year around resolves itself into the observation of a few general principles, namely: proper feeding; fresh air; regularity in his daily routine; cleanliness of food, clothing and surroundings; maintenance of an equable body temperature and conservation of his forces.
If the nurse fixes these principles firmly in her mind and acts upon them, she will do a great deal to give her baby patient a fair start on his life’s journey.
CHAPTER XXIII
COMMON DISORDERS AND ABNORMALITIES OF EARLY INFANCY
The common ills of early infancy are due largely either to errors in feeding or to infection or both. Of the nutritional disturbances, rickets and scurvy were discussed in the chapter on nutrition, but the obstetrical nurse will sometimes see also, malnutrition, marasmus, inanition, diarrheal diseases, acidosis, colic, constipation and vomiting.
All of these disorders are practically preventable through suitable feeding, good care and hygienic surroundings. The nurse’s part in this prevention consists in giving the painstaking care which was described in the preceding chapter.
The terms malnutrition, marasmus, and inanition designate different forms and degrees of starvation, and are characterized by loss of weight, prostration, feeble powers of assimilation, general weakness and arrested growth. The temperature is likely to be low, but in acute inanition, a rapid loss in weight may be accompanied by a sudden rise in temperature. (Charts [6], [7], and [8].)
These so-called “wasting diseases” are frequently seen in children who have congenital nervous instability and those born of tuberculous, syphilitic or otherwise delicate parents. The treatment is suitable food; fresh air and sunshine; an abundance of fluid by mouth, rectum, subcutaneously or intraperitoneally; clean surroundings and good nursing care.