Where the mother’s milk fails, and good cow’s milk can not be insured, there are preparations of Oat-meal and barley-meal that are next best. These may be used when the mother’s milk is injured by ill health. A trial must be made to see which is best. Make a thin gruel, and add half a tea-spoonful of condensed milk, or four great spoonfuls of milk to a coffee-cup of the gruel for a young infant, and a full one for an older child.
In case of diarrhea, walk with the child in arms a great deal in the open air, and give it rice-water to drink.
The warmth and vital influences of the nurse are very important, and make this mode of exercise both more soothing and more efficacious, especially in the open air, the infant being warmly clad.
In case of feverishness from teething or from any other cause, wrap the infant in a towel wrung out in tepid water, and then wrap it in a woolen blanket. The water may be cooler according as the child is older and stronger. The evaporation of the water draws off the heat, while the moisture soothes the nerves, and usually the child will fall into a quiet sleep. As soon as it becomes restless, change the wet towel and proceed as before.
The leading physicians of Europe and of this country, in all cases of fevers, use cool water to reduce them, by this and other modes of application. This method is more soothing than any other, and is as effective for adults as for infants.
Some of the most distinguished physicians of New York who have examined this chapter give their full approval of the advice given. If there is still distrust as to this mode of using water to reduce fevers, it will be advantageous to read an address on the use of cold applications in fevers, delivered by Dr. William Neftel, before the New York Academy of Medicine, published in the New York Medical Record for November, 1868; this can be obtained by inclosing twenty cents to the editor, with the post-office address of the applicant.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN.
In regard to the physical education of children, Dr. Clark, Physician in Ordinary to the Queen of England, expresses views on one point in which most physicians would coincide. He says: “There is no greater error in the management of children than that of giving them animal diet very early. By persevering in the use of an over-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions immediately connected with digestion, and necessary to it, are diminished, especially the biliary secretion. Children so fed become very liable to attacks of fever and inflammation, affecting particularly the mucous membranes; and measles and other diseases incident to childhood are generally severe in their attacks.”
The result of the treatment of the inmates of the Orphan Asylum at Albany is one which all who have the care of young children should deeply ponder. During the first six years of the existence of this institution, its average number of children was eighty. For the first three years, their diet was meat once a day, bread of fine flour, rice, Indian puddings, vegetables, fruit, and milk. Considerable attention was given to clothing, fresh air, and exercise; and they were bathed once in three weeks. During these three years, from four to six children, and sometimes more, were continually on the sick-list; one or two assistant nurses were necessary; a physician was called two or three times a week; and during this time there were between thirty and forty deaths. At the end of this period, the management was changed in these respects: daily ablutions of the whole body were practiced; bread of unbolted flour was substituted for that of fine wheat; and all animal food was banished. More attention, also, was paid to clothing, bedding, fresh air, and exercise.