Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

For further information on this important subject see the 3d edition of Counsel to a Mother (being the companion volume of Advice to a Mother), on the great importance of desisting from irritating, from injuring, and from making still more costive, the obstinate bowels of a costive child,—by the administration of opening medicine,—however gentle and well-selected the aperients might be. Oh, that the above advice could be heard, and be acted upon, through the length and the breadth of the land, how much misery and mischief would then be averted!

96. Are there any means of preventing the Costiveness of an infant?

If greater care were paid to the rules of health, such as attention to diet, exercise in the open air, thorough ablution of the whole body—more especially when he is being washed—causing the water, from a large and well-filled sponge, to stream over the lower part of his bowels; the regular habit of causing him, at stated periods, to be held out, whether he want or not, that he may solicit a stool. If all these rules were observed, costiveness would not so frequently prevail, and one of the miseries of the nursery would be done away with.

Some mothers are frequently dosing their poor unfortunate babes either with magnesia to cool them, or with castor oil to heal their bowels! Oh, the folly of such practices! The frequent repetition of magnesia, instead of cooling an infant, makes him feverish and irritable. The constant administration of castor oil, instead of healing the bowels, wounds them beyond measure. No! it would be a blessed thing if a babe could be brought up without giving ham a particle of opening medicine; his bowels would then act naturally and well: but then, as I have just now remarked, a mother, must be particular in attending to Nature's medicines—to fresh air, to exercise, to diet, to thorough ablution, &c. Until that time comes, poor unfortunate babies must be, occasionally, dosed with an aperient.

97. What are the causes of, and remedies for, Flatulence?

Flatulence most frequently occurs in those infants who live on artificial food, especially if they be over-fed. I therefore beg to refer you to the precautions I have given, when speaking of the importance of keeping a child for the first five or six months entirely to the breast; and, if that be not practicable, of the times of feeding, and of the best kinds of artificial food, and of those which are least likely to cause "wind."

What to do.—Notwithstanding these precautions, if the babe should still suffer, "One of the best and safest remedies for flatulence is Sal volatile,—a tea-spoonful of a solution of one drachm to an ounce and a half of water" [Footnote: Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author Since Sir Charles did me the honour of sending me, for publication, the above prescription for flatulence, a new "British Pharmacopoeia" has been published in which the sal volatile is much increased in strength it is therefore necessary to lessen the sal volatile in the above prescription one half—that is to say, a tea spoonful of the solution of half a drachm to an ounce and a half of water.] Or, a little dill or aniseed may be added to the food—half a tea-spoonful of dill water Or, take twelve drops of oil of dill, and two lumps of sugar, rub them well in a mortar together, then add, drop by drop, three table-spoonfuls of spring water, let it be preserved in a bottle for use. A tea-spoonful of this, first shaking the vial, may be added to each quantity of food. Or, three tea-spoonfuls of bruised caraway-seeds may be boiled for ten minutes in a tea-cupful of water, and then strained. One or two tea-spoonfuls of the caraway tea may be added to each quantity of his food, or a dose of rhubarb and magnesia may occasionally be given.

Opodeldoc, or warm olive oil, well rubbed, for a quarter of an hour at a time, by means of the warm hand, over the bowels, will frequently give relief. Turning the child over on his bowels, so that they may press on the nurses' lap, will often afford great comfort. A warm bath (where he is suffering severely) generally gives immediate ease in flatulence, it acts as a fomentation to the bowels. But after all, a dose of mild aperient medicine, when the babe is suffering severely, is often the best remedy for "wind."

Remember, at all times, prevention, whenever it be—and how frequently it is—possible, is better than cure.

What NOT to do—"Godfrey's Cordial," "Infants' Preservative," and "Dalby's Carminative," are sometimes given in flatulence, but as most of these quack medicines contain, in one form or another, either opium or poppy, and as opium and poppy are both dangerous remedies for children, ALL quack medicines must be banished the nursery.