If the precautions and simple remedies we have mentioned fail, recourse must be had to the family physician. The drugs which are of benefit are too powerful to be entrusted to any other hands. The hygienic method of cure we have pointed out will, if instituted early, be effectual in all excepting very obstinate cases, which latter indeed sometimes resist for a long time the best efforts of medical skill.
LOOSENESS OF THE BOWELS.
Children under one year of age should have two movements of the bowels in the twenty-four hours, and those from one to three years at least one stool a day.
A slight attack of looseness is often beneficial if it passes away within a day or two. It is easy, however, for such an attack to become hurtful, especially if the food be improper, or the weather warm. A looseness which is of no consequence in the winter may well excite uneasiness during the summer months.
Diarrhœa in a healthy child is ordinarily preceded by vomiting. If the diarrhœa persist long, the little patient is much prostrated by it, and rapidly reduced in flesh. Such an attack should never, therefore, be neglected.
In the case of an infant not weaned, it should be removed from the breast for half a day or more, that the stomach may have little or nothing to do. Barley or rice water, or ordinary water, may be given in small quantities at a time to relieve the thirst. This in many cases will be all the treatment required.
In the case of an elder child, all meat and vegetables should be at once forbidden, and the only food allowed for a day or two must be rice and milk, arrowroot, or milk and water.
The dose of castor oil which is so frequently given by nurses in these cases under the impression that the oil is 'healing,' is only of service when the diarrhœa has been caused by food of improper quality or quantity. It then aids nature in her efforts to get rid of the offending matter, which by its irritation is doing the mischief. In such instances one dose of the oil is quite sufficient. It has no 'healing' virtues, and should not be repeated from day to day.
Children who are teething are frequently affected with looseness. A warm bath every evening, and attention to the gums, will be ordinarily all that is required in these cases, at least during the cold months. It is of the utmost importance, however, during the summer that such patients, if living in the city, should be at once removed into the country; otherwise their lives are in danger.
Looseness of the bowels in children is usually best treated by careful management of the clothing and diet, by attention to all that affects the health, and by avoiding as much as possible the administration of medicines. No case should be allowed, however, to run on without seeking competent medical advice.