The maternal management of children, in health and disease

by Thomas Bull

Common water, five pints;
Vinegar, two pints;
Nitre, eight ounces;
Sal ammoniac, four ounces.

THE WARM BATH.

The warm bath judiciously prescribed is one of the most valuable remedial agents we possess; but although powerful for good, when misapplied, it is equally powerful for mischief. For instance, in active inflammatory affections, before the loss of blood, the use of the warm bath would greatly aggravate the disease; and yet, for an infant with active inflammation of the respiratory organs, it is continually resorted to. Again, nothing is more common than for a child, when attacked with convulsions, to be put immediately in the warm bath; and, generally speaking, it is extremely beneficial in this class of diseases; but it is sometimes no less prejudicial, when applied without due examination of the peculiarities of individual cases. For, in plethoric and gross children, the local abstraction of blood from the head, and the complete unloading of the alimentary canal, are often necessary to render such a measure beneficial, or even free from danger. In convulsions, however, and particularly when arising from teething, a parent may, without hesitation, at any time immerse the feet of the infant in water as warm as can be borne, at the same time that cloths wet with cold water are applied to the head and temples.

As a preventive, where there is a tendency to disease, the warm bath may be employed without scruple, and will be found most serviceable. Its value in this point of view is very great, and it is to be regretted that it is not sufficiently appreciated and used. For example, a severe cold has been taken, and inflammation of the air- tubes is threatened: only put the child into a warm bath, and, with the common domestic remedies, a very serious attack may be warded off. Again, in the commencement of a diarrhoea, a warm bath, and discontinuing the cause of the attack, will alone suffice to cure; and, more-over, in the protracted diarrhoea attendant upon teething, where, after various remedies have been tried in vain, the child has lost flesh and strength to an apparently hopeless degree, Recovery has been brought about by the simple use of the warm bath.

In the treatment of scrofulous children, warm and tepid bathing is of great value. In such cases, a course of warm sea bathing, with active friction over the whole surface after each bath, will at once relieve that abdominal fulness which is generally present, improve the functions of the skin, and give tone and vigour to the whole system. Towards the termination of such a course of baths, their temperature must be gradually reduced till they become tepid (85 degrees to 92 degrees).

The opinion that warm baths generally relax is erroneous: they are, no doubt, debilitating when used by persons of a weak and relaxed constitution, or when continued too long; but, on the contrary, they invariably give tone when employed in the cases to which they are properly applicable.

A partial warm bath, such as the foot-bath, is of much service in warding off many complaints. If a child get the feet wet, plunging them into warm water will often prevent any ill consequences; and even when the first chill and slight shiverings which usher in colds, fevers, and other inflammatory complaints, have been complained of, the disease may be cut short by the use of a foot-bath, continued till free perspiration occurs.

RULES FOR THE USE OF THE WARM BATH.

TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER.—When the warm bath is used as a measure of hygeiene, as a general rule, any degree of temperature may be chosen between 92 degrees and 98 degrees, which appears to be most agreeable to the child; but on no account must 98 degrees be exceeded. When ordered as a remedial measure, the temperature will of course be fixed by the medical attendant.

The same degree of temperature must be kept up during the whole period of immersion. For this purpose the thermometer must be kept in the bath, and additions of warm water made as the temperature is found to decrease. These additions of warm water, however, must be regulated by the indications of the thermometer, and not by the feelings of the child.