Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

Cow’s milk should be dispensed with in artificially fed children, and broths substituted to which a portion of a fresh egg is added, previously thoroughly beaten with an egg beater; in very young children the yolk alone should be used. A little whisky is always good for this class of patients, either in their broth, or given as a toddy in teaspoonful doses for the children are generally always thirsty and feverish. When children lose their appetites and refuse nourishment they must be coaxed and even forced to take food at regular intervals, otherwise they cannot rally and will perish from inanition. The medicine that I recommended for diarrhœa is also very useful for dysentery.

(d) Colic is the result of an abnormal accumulation of gas, flatulency, in the small intestine. There is always more or less gas in both stomach and bowels, but usually this passes off and there is no pain felt from it. It is when the quantity increases so as to distend the bowels that the walls of the intestines become the seat of pain. The pain comes on in paroxysms, or fits at short intervals, and increasing in violence. Children suffering from colic have the abdomen swollen or bloated, giving rise to that condition termed meteorismus or tympanites. Those who are under one year old are the most liable to colicky pains, for it is during this period of life that digestive disturbances are the most frequent, and these constitute the chief cause. Whenever the vermicular motion of the intestines becomes lessened or suspended, the gas is not expelled from the anus, and the accumulation causes the characteristic pains under consideration. In perfectly healthy digestion there is always more or less gas developed, and even then there may be colicky pains. The same pains originate with every diarrhœa that is due to improper food or feeding, and in dysentery too they are generally present. Infants who nurse at their mother’s breasts are less liable, but not altogether exempt, for mothers’ milk is very sensitive to impressions of purely physical exertions, or to emotions of fear or fright, thus her milk may become unhealthy for her child; or through her own digestion, suffering from temporary or permanent derangement, her milk may transmit a similar condition to her child; the mother may have eaten green fruit, or too much of a variety, or it may be too highly seasoned, or too fatty. Many mothers and nurses look upon the colic cry as a hunger cry, and hasten to feed the little one, and sometimes a few teaspoonfuls of milk or broth will relieve the cry for a few minutes, then the pain returns severer than ever, and the baby cries louder than ever. I have seen very nervous children thrown into convulsions from severe colicky pains.

My rule has been for years to nurse infants for the first two months not oftener than once in two hours; after that until they are six months old, every three hours, and from six to twelve months every four hours; between times the babies cry, of course, not because they are hungry, but because they have either pain or are thirsty. The old German household remedy for this is fennel seed tea; there is nothing as useful; it expels the gas and it quenches the thirst from which colicky children suffer, at least while they have the colic. This tea should be given regularly between times, and until they are twelve or fifteen months old; it is soothing, and what is of equal importance, it prevents overfeeding, which is the bane of artificially-fed children. The latter, bottle-fed babies, are all more or less colicky, and for these the fennel seed tea, between bottle time is indeed a balm. If the fennel seed tea does not relieve the child at once, or if the pain seems severe, then add a few drops of paregoric to the fennel seed tea, and give an injection of German chamomile tea, rubbing the bowels at the same time with a mixture of turpentine and sweet oil, and I believe that every case will be relieved. Permanent relief must be sought in ferreting out the cause and removing it. This may be due to improper food, or feeding, to indigestible contents in the stomach or bowels, and indeed, very often to constipation. When the stomach is overloaded, a dose of syrup of ipecac may give relief, and if due to constipation, the Femina laxative syrup is the most appropriate remedy.

(e) Convulsions, or spasms in children have long been well known to the laity, and from their frequent occurrence they make an important class of children’s diseases. If there is one thing more frightful to behold than another, to the young and inexperienced mother, it is to see her baby’s eyes unsteadily rolling, or turned up so as to show only the white of the eyeballs, or may be the eyes steadily fixed in a stare while the child becomes completely unconscious. A painful smile may play over its face, or an expression of fear or anger may distort the facial expression, while the muscles of the face twitch convulsively. The jaws are sometimes set, then again there is gnashing of the teeth, alternating with relaxation of muscles and ligaments. The child cannot swallow, and fluids poured into the mouth flow out again. The other muscles of the body also participate in the spasmodic contractions; those of the back contract and relax, and those of the extremities are involved in lively twitchings, or perform acts of thrashing, striking or twisting. The breathing becomes very irregular, and from the spasms of the muscles of the larynx or throat it may become entirely suspended, and if the spasm does not subside in two or three minutes the child may die. The skin becomes livid or congested and loses its sensibility so that blisters or irritants make no painful impression. Sometimes the child bleeds from the nose or mouth; the latter is generally due to the tongue having been caught between the teeth during the paroxysm. Frothy saliva wells up from the mouth and the urine and stools are involuntarily discharged.

All convulsive attacks have not every symptom above enumerated, some of them are usually absent and an attack may be quite mild, and last only a few moments; if convulsions last longer they are not only dangerous, but indicate serious disease, either of the brain or in which the brain or spinal cord is seriously complicated.

The period of the child’s life at which convulsions are most frequent is from the time they are born up to the completion of the first dentition. Nervous children who had convulsions while they were teething are susceptible to violent attacks at the commencement of various diseases or during the developmental stage of the eruptive fevers. Perhaps the most frequent cause of convulsions in children is the eruption of teeth. The irritation which a growing tooth causes in the gums also irritates its nerve and this irritability is reflected on the brain, and this causes the spasm. An overloaded stomach, worms and digestive disturbances that accompany teething irritate the bowels and from this too convulsions ensue. The treatment for convulsions naturally resolves itself into first giving instant relief during the paroxysm, and secondly, finding out the cause of the attack. The latter is not always easy at first sight, and as the cause may be serious a competent physician should be sent for. But instructions that are serviceable while the convulsion is on are of the greatest importance to mother and child. The old and familiar remedy of giving the child a hot bath as soon as possible is certainly the best thing that can be done. The child should be undressed as quickly as possible so as to relieve it from all constriction and so that nothing can interfere with the respiration and circulation.

A towel wrung out of cold water should be placed over the child’s head and its body immersed in hot water that is not so hot as to scald; the hands on which the child is supported while in the water must be well able to stand the heat. When the spasm has subsided, the child should be transferred to a previously warmed woolen blanket in which it is to be wrapped with its head softly elevated. If the bowels are constipated an enema of warm water and a little castile soap should be administered.

(f) Worms of different species infest the human organism; they get into the system from the outside world, with the food we eat and drink. Their abiding place seems to be the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal with the exception of the trichinæ which penetrate the mucous membrane and make their way to the different muscles throughout the body; the voluntary muscles seem to be their permanent dwelling place. These parasites are peculiar to the meat of the hog and as very young children do not eat this meat, they are so far totally exempt from them.

Tapeworms are rarely found in children under one year of age; it is when they get older and especially when they eat hog’s meat, for this too is the home of the embryo tapeworm, that they become infected.