When attacks of colic occur, the pain usually may be relieved by giving half of a soda-mint tablet in a little warm water and an enema of about eight ounces of soap-suds or salt solution at 110° F., given through a small catheter inserted about six inches. The baby will experience almost immediate relief through the expulsion of gas and feces and he may be made still more comfortable by placing a hot-water bag at his cold feet; rubbing his abdomen with vaselin and applying hot stupes. Sometimes the first feeding which falls due after an attack is omitted and a little warm water or barley water is given instead, in order that the digestive tract may rest.
Constipation is very common among young infants and may be manifest by the stools being too small, too dry or too infrequent. The commonest causes are:
- 1. Faulty diet—possibly too much protein or too little fat or sugar.
- 2. Intestinal atony, due to undernourishment, rickets or anemia.
- 3. Anal fissure which makes the baby unwilling to empty his bowels because of pain.
- 4. Absence of habit of emptying the bowels regularly.
The prevention of this very troublesome condition lies largely in suitable food; constant fresh air; regularity in the daily routine and training the baby to empty his bowels at the same time every day.
When constipation is due to insufficient fat in the food, cod-liver oil is sometimes given, 15 to 30 drops three or four times a day; or a teaspoonful of olive oil two or three times a day. Maltose, malt soup, malted milk, milk of magnesia, liquid petrolatum, oatmeal-water and orange juice are all found among the remedies for constipation; while soap sticks, suppositories and enemata of oil or soap-suds sometimes have to be resorted to.
Fig. 186.—Giving an enema. The baby lies comfortably on a pillow which reaches to the bed pan, the latter being covered with a diaper where the baby rests upon it. He is well protected to prevent chilling.
In giving an enema to relieve constipation, the baby should be protected from chilling, laid on a pillow and the pan so placed that he will be comfortable and not inclined to move, and from 100 to 300 cubic centimetres of soap-suds, at 105° F., given with a small hard-rubber nozzle. (Fig. [186].) When warm olive oil is given at night (1 to 2 ounces through a catheter introduced about 6 inches), it is very often retained and the feces so softened that the baby empties his bowels freely the next morning with little or no assistance.
Abdominal massage will often help to increase the intestinal tone and make peristalsis more vigorous. The abdomen should be rubbed with a circular stroke, beginning in the right groin and following the course of the colon up to the margin of the ribs, across to the left side and down to the groin. This is often given for about ten minutes every day, preferably at night but never just after a feeding.
Constipation is sometimes entirely cured by a suitable dietary; an abundance of drinking water; an out-of-door life; massage, and above all, the unremitting effort to establish a regular habit. The latter is the nurse’s responsibility and she should exercise the greatest patience in trying to accomplish the desired end.