For cleaning the mouth, take equal parts of borax and white sugar; rub them together into a fine powder. Of this put a small quantity into the child's mouth, which will be distributed to every part by the motion of its tongue. Repeat this application three or four times a day: if used early, it will keep the mouth free from white specks, and remove the complaint in a few days.
If, on the contrary, it should be neglected, and suffered to extend to the stomach and bowels, gentle emetics ought to be employed, such as the following antimonial emetic: Take of antimonial wine, forty drops; mint-water, two ounces. Mix them together. Dose, a dessert-spoonful every half hour, until it excites vomiting.
This disease rarely occurs in children, who take no other food but the milk of the mother, or foster-parent. It is so far contagious, that if a healthy child be put to the breast of a woman, who is suckling another child, having the thrush, it will contract this complaint.
847. Red Gum requires no farther attention than keeping the bowels gently open, and avoiding an exposure to cold air. It is symptomatic of healthy action, and ought not to be checked.
848. Infantile Jaundice.—The skin of new-born infants is sometimes tinged with bile, and gives the appearance of jaundice; by some it has been named the yellow gum. It seems to be occasioned by the sudden change in the circulation of the blood, immediately on the birth, by which an increased flow of blood is conveyed to the liver, and consequently an increased secretion of bile follows, which from various causes may be prevented from passing off freely into the intestines. It is attended with no danger, and is generally removed by mild purgatives.
The hare-lip, frænum linguæ, or tongue-tied, requires surgical aid.