Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

99. What occasions Hiccup, and what is its treatment?

Hiccup is of such a trifling nature as hardly to require interference. It may generally be traced to over feeding. Should it be severe, four or five grains of calcined magnesia, with a little syrup and aniseed water, and attention to feeding are all that will be necessary.

100. Will you describe the symptoms of Infantile Diarrhoea?

Infantile diarrhoea, or cholera infantum, is one of the most frequent and serious of infantile diseases, and carries off, during the year, more children than any other complaint whatever a knowledge of the symptoms, therefore, is quite necessary for a mother to know, in order that she may, at the proper tune, call in efficient medical aid.

It will be well, before describing the symptoms, to tell you how many motions a young infant ought to have a day, their colour, consistence, and smell. Well, then, he should have from three to six motions in the twenty four hours, the colour ought to be a bright yellow, inclining to orange, the consistence should be that of thick gruel; indeed, his motion, if healthy, ought to be somewhat of the colour (but a little more orange-tinted) and of the consistence of mustard made for the table; it should be nearly, if not quite, devoid of smell; it ought to have a faint and peculiar, but not a strong disagreeable odour. If it have a strong and disagreeable smell, the child is not well, and the case should be investigated, more especially if there be either curds or lumps in the motions; these latter symptoms denote that the food has not been properly digested.

Now, suppose a child should have a slight bowel complaint—that is to say, that he has six or eight motions during the twenty-four hours,—and that the stools are of a thinner consistence than what I have described,—provided, at the same time, that he be not griped, that he have no pain, and have not lost his desire for the breast:—What ought to be done?Nothing. A slight looseness of the bowels should never be interfered with,—it is often an effort of nature to relieve itself of some vitiated motion that wanted a vent—or to act as a diversion, by relieving the irritation of the gums. Even if he be not cutting his teeth, he may be "breeding" them—that is to say, the teeth may be forming in his gums, and may cause almost as much, irritation as though he were actually cutting them. Hence, you see the immense good a slight "looseness of the bowels" may cause. I think that I have now proved to you the danger of interfering in such a case, and that I have shown you, the folly and the mischief of at once giving astringents—such as Godfrey's Cordial, Dalby's Carminative, &c.—to relieve a slight relaxation.

A moderate "looseness of the bowels," then, is often a safety-valve, and you may, with as much propriety, close the safety-valve of a steam engine, as stop a moderate "looseness of the bowels!"

Now, if the infant, instead of having from three to six motions, should have more than double the latter number; if they be more watery; if they become slimy and green, or green in part and curdled; if they should have an unpleasant smell; if he be sick, cross, restless, fidgety, and poorly; if every time he have a motion he be griped and in pain, we should then say that he is labouring under Diarrhoea; then, it will be necessary to give a little medicine, which I will indicate in a subsequent Conversation.

Should there be both blood and slime mixed with the stool, the case becomes more serious; still, with proper care, relief can generally be quickly obtained. If the evacuations—instead of being stool—are merely blood and slime, and the child strain frequently and violently, endeavouring thus, but in vain, to relieve himself, crying at each effort, the case assumes the character of Dysentery. [Footnote: See Symptoms and Treatment of Dysentery.]

If there be a mixture of blood, slime, and stool from the bowels, the case would be called Dysenteric-diarrhoea. The latter case requires great skill and judgment on the part of a medical men, and great attention and implicit obedience from the mother and the nurse. I merely mention these diseases in order to warn you of their importance, and of the necessity of strictly attending to a doctor's orders.