After the breathing is relieved, still give small doses of syrup of ipecac, or alum, or veratrum, sufficient to keep up nausea for a time. After there is a decided amelioration of the symptoms, give the following: To a teacupful of ginger tea add a teaspoonful of aromatic ammonia, and a teaspoonful syrup of ipecac, and give a teaspoonful every hour.
Veratrum is the medicine upon which you must rely in croupy cases; this disease requires vigorous treatment, but vigorous measures in the start will generally save the life of the patient.
Paregoric is a useful medicine for pain, diarrhœa, cough and restlessness, and may generally be given advantageously when two of these symptoms are present. Opium has some beneficial effect in inflammation, and very generally paregoric can be given where there is febrile excitement. I would never give it when the child is only cross and irritable, as a bad habit may thereby be engendered. There is always danger of giving an overdose of any opiate; and although an adult may sometimes take as much as two ounces of paregoric when he is suffering severe pain, I do not advise that it be given to children often in doses that exceed five drops.
Diarrhœa may be treated in the following manner: To four ounces of ginger tea add one teaspoonful paregoric, one teaspoonful aromatic ammonia, one teaspoonful ess. peppermint, one half teaspoonful spirits camphor, and two ounces of mucilage of gum arabic, and shake the whole together. This is good medicine for all forms of summer complaint, diarrhœa, dysentery, or cholera morbus. One-half teaspoonful of this is a dose, but it can be given efficiently in a larger or smaller dose. It acts by correcting the disordered state of the stomach, and it is upon this usually that these diseases depend.
If the diarrhœa continues for a day or two, some mild astringent may be given; perhaps three drops every two hours of the extract of witch hazel. The diet is important, and it is well in these cases to have some wheat flour boiled. (F. 47.) The flour grated from it and sifted, and made into a gruel, may be profitably used with milk.
A thin solution of gum Arabic with milk affords both food and drink, and is one of the most useful, and safe, and efficient remedies.
Such medicines as F. 74, 77, 79, 80, may be given in almost every case with benefit. The alkalies neutralize the acids in the stomach, and the aromatics have a grateful action. If the pain continues, a warm bath may be given. Should the gums be swollen, they should be cut down to the teeth.
But there are many cases of diarrhœa where my prescription would be the following: Give no kind of food save that of the milk of the mother, and that only once in four hours. Should the thirst require more fluid to satisfy it, give from time to time a teaspoonful of cold water; put flannel on its body, and woolen stockings on its legs; rub the abdomen three or four times a day with the bare warm hand; do not ever wake the child when asleep; when awake give it five drops paregoric every two hours.
In the preliminary stage of CHOLERA INFANTUM, besides giving the diarrhœa mixture with ar. ammonia, I would enjoin absolute rest in the recumbent position, with warmth to the surface and extremities; perhaps total abstention from mother’s and cow’s milk, and would order either condensed milk or arrow root prepared with water. I would also make counter irritation over the abdomen by poultices and sinapisms.
Dysentery when first coming on is attended with more fever than diarrhœa is. It will be distinguished by the character of the pain and the discharges. The patient is tormented by a sensation as if there was some excrement to be dislodged; he goes often to the night chair, and strains to get rid of the irritation; he discharges but little, and what is voided is either a jelly like or bloody mucus; perhaps mixed with films and membranous shreds. The pulse is hard and frequent, the skin hot, the face flushed, and the patient complains of headache and thirst.