All irritating foods as coarse vegetables, pickles, acid fruits and fruits with coarse seeds, candies, beer, wines and salads should be omitted.
Chronic Enteritis has the same general cause as Acute Enteritis, though its onset is slow and it takes a correspondingly longer time to correct.
Dysentery, if acute, demands complete rest in bed. The diet in both Acute and Chronic cases must be confined to easily digested foods, such as peptonized milk (see page [244]), boiled milk, pressed meat juice, and the white of egg, beaten and served with milk. Blackberry brandy, and tea made from wild cherry bark, tend to check the inflammation.
During convalescence, care must be taken not to over-feed. Begin a more liberal diet with a more liberal allowance of beef juice, gradually adding tender beef steak, roast beef, fish, white meat of chicken, eggs, custards, wine jelly, dry toast, blancmange, well boiled rice and other easily digested food. The beef and egg are particularly valuable, because of the anaemia occasioned by the loss of blood.
Rectal Feeding
is sometimes necessary in cases of ulcer, cancer, or tumor, along the digestive tract. Since food is not absorbed in the large as readily as in the small intestine, the strength cannot be fully maintained through rectal feeding. In cases where the stomach is not able to digest the food, it is the best expedient, however, until the functioning of the stomach is re-established.
The rectum should be prepared about an hour before the feeding by a full injection of water, to thoroughly cleanse the intestine. Place the patient on his side with the hips elevated. If for any reason he cannot lie on his side, let him lie on his back and elevate the foot of his bed. After the water cleansing, inject two or three ounces of water in which a small pinch of salt (6%) has been added and let it go high up into the rectum.
Two to three ounces four to five hours apart is the desirable quantity of rectal nutrition for an adult. The white of egg, beef juice, and milk, all peptonized, are the best foods. The pancreatic trypsin, sold in preparations of “pancreatin” is best. Unless milk is peptonized the casein will be difficult to absorb. The food should always be salted, as salt aids the absorption.