Avoid, as you do so, any food difficult of digestion and any vegetable containing coarse fibre. Tea, coffee, pickles, and alcoholic drinks should be avoided.
Chronic Gastritis is accompanied with a thickening of the mucous lining of the stomach. It is usually caused by prolonged use of irritating foods and the regulation of the diet is of utmost importance. Alcohol is a common cause. The difficulty begins gradually and the relief must likewise be gradual.
The stomach needs water. If the drinking of water causes nausea it is well to wash it out with a stomach pump each morning before breakfast.
If not convenient to use the stomach pump the washing may be accomplished by drinking two glasses of water at least an hour before breakfast, followed by stomach exercises, to cause a regurgitation of the water through the stomach. This will be uncomfortable at first, with a very full feeling and one may begin by drinking one glass, followed by stomach exercises, gradually taking another glass within a half hour of the first. This, with the exercises, will wash out the mucus. In many cases as much as a pint of slimy mucus collects in the stomach during the night. Where the stomach cleansing is impossible, in above manner, the stomach tube should be used.
Chronic gastritis, in any of its phases, is frequently accompanied by constipation, and the diet should be so selected as to be as laxative as possible, without irritating the lining of the stomach. The liquid diet assists the intestines, to a certain extent, particularly if the stomach be cleansed by the water in the morning, as indicated under Mucous Gastritis below.
Fruit in the morning and just before retiring aid the intestines. Two prunes chopped up with one fig or a bunch of grapes or an apple just before retiring assist the action of the intestines and the kidneys.
Almost all fruits contain acid, which increases peristalsis, and the resultant flow of gastric juice. Cooked pears, stewed or baked apples, prunes and dates are mild fruits which may be used if they agree with the patient. The juice of an orange upon first arising may be used, except in case of a diminution, or absence, of hydrochloric acid.
Peptonized milk is an excellent food both for chronic and acute cases especially in severe cases. This is prepared by putting “pancreatin,” a pancreatic ferment, (trypsin), into fresh milk. Preparations of “pancreatin” are sold in the drug stores. The peptonized milk does not form curds and readily passes through the stomach for digestion in the intestine. This may be given for a few days, followed by milk and limewater, barley and toast water, kumyss, oatmeal gruel, meat juices, scraped meat (raw, boiled or roasted), broths thickened with thoroughly cooked cereals, ice cream, egg lemonade, gelatins and whipped cream, custards, raw oysters.
After one week gradually assume the regular diet of easily digested foods. All cereals should be thoroughly cooked. The white meat of chicken is readily digested. As the solid food diet is assumed, regularity of food, in small amounts, and thorough mastication are important. If the patient imagines he is chewing it will help him to keep chewing until the food is reduced to a pulp.