Intertrigo, or chafing, is a form of eczema due to moisture, bluing in the diapers or uncleanliness. The child should be cleaned with oil instead of water, and well powdered with stearate of zinc or zinc ointment may be used. Talcum powder which contains boric acid is contraindicated.
Pemphigus neonatorum is an eruption of blisters or blebs which seem to follow infection from the maternal passages or to be communicated by other babies who have the disease.
From three to fourteen days after birth, the blebs develop on the abdomen, neck or thighs, and show a tendency to spread to other parts of the body. The vesicles vary in size from one-fourth of an inch to two inches in diameter, and contain a serous, purulent, or bloody fluid. Other signs of general sepsis may appear.
In diagnosis care must be used to exclude syphilis, which also exhibits blebs, but usually on the soles of the feet or the palms of the hands. Besides, a nonsyphilitic child is generally better nourished. The prognosis is unfavorable if the child is weakly, if the blebs spread rapidly over a large area, or if the infection attacks the umbilicus.
Treatment.—A rigid quarantine must be enforced. In the hospital no new cases can be admitted. The alimentation must be increased, the blisters evacuated, and the surfaces cleaned and covered with a 25 per cent ointment of ichthyol, or an ointment of ammoniated mercury 2 per cent.
Strophulus, red gum, or miliaria rubra are names applied to an inflammation of the sweat glands when their secretion is retained. It is a “sweat rash” characterized by an eruption of scattered red papules or small vesicles which commonly appear on the cheeks or neck of young infants, or where skin surfaces come in contact. It is due to excessive clothing or heat. It is really a prickly heat. The treatment consists in the removal of the cause, and a generous use of stearate of zinc powder or rice powder.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CARE OF THE CHILD (Cont’d)
Constipation in the newborn may come from many causes. The amount of food may be so inadequate that no residue is left, and the bowels move only once in forty-eight hours. Over-stimulation of the bowel by castor oil or colonic flushings in the early weeks of life to correct colic may diminish its sensitiveness and produce atonic constipation. In the artificially fed infant too much fat in the food is a very common cause of the trouble.
Treatment.—Correct the amount of fat in the milk. If the child is breast-fed, the mother’s diet should be non-nitrogenous and vegetables should preponderate. Drugs should not be given until all else has been tried. Gluten suppositories will furnish a mild irritation to the rectum. Orange juice and prune juice may be given, or Mellin’s food or oatmeal water added to the milk. Milk of magnesia ½ to 1 teaspoonful, or Husband’s magnesia, in same dosage, may be given daily. Senna is also efficacious.
Diarrhœa is generally significant of an error in diet which is usually a plain indigestion, though there may be too much sugar in the food.