Mothers should insist on their children eating these muffins. If a child eats only what it likes it will not eat what is good for it. If the mother insists in the right way she will win; if she does not the child will win. If the child wins, the mother is the wrong kind of mother. I do not know of any other single article of diet that is of such value to growing children as these bran muffins. Children who eat them regularly will have less sickness than other children; they will be strong, healthy and full of energy. The bran in itself is not responsible for this list of excellent acquirements, but the regular eating of the bran is. Most ailments of children are of gastro-intestinal origin; bran keeps the entire length of the gastro-intestinal tract sweet and clean; if the child eats a bran muffin with each meal it will not have much desire or much room for any other form of bread or pastry. If white bread or pastry is abstained from the child will not have indigestion, or constipation, and hence it will not be constantly poisoning itself as most children do whose diet is not restricted and whose bowels are more or less constipated.
These muffins should be made of the ordinary unsifted bran. If this is not procurable the sifted bran (Johnstone's) may be employed. This bran may be bought in any good grocery.
Modern milling methods, modern cookery, and modern methods of forced farming, have each contributed their share of rendering food inert and frequently deleterious. The miller has extracted the coarse cellulose from the various flours in the effort to manufacture a product suitable to the super-civilized public demand. This cellulose is absolutely essential to gastric and intestinal digestion, and if children are deprived of it constipation and indigestion are the natural result. Forced farming accomplishes the same effect—the fiber of the vegetable is deficient. Bran is rich in mineral salts, iron, protein, and phosphates, and gives to growing children the ingredients which ordinary food is deficient in. Bran prevents intestinal fermentation and children who eat it are free from intestinal gas and putrefaction. It harmonizes chemically with all other foods. Children should be made to take it every day as a matter of self-preservation and of duty.
Hysterical Children.—Hysteria is not a disease of infancy or of young children. It is seen as a rule after the eight year. Male as well as female children may be the victims to an equal degree. It is much more frequently seen in the offspring of parents who are themselves nervous, or alcoholic, or who suffer from insanity, or have insanity in the family history. If these children in addition to the hereditary influence suffer from stomach or intestinal disease, or general poor health and are overworked at school, they are very apt to become hysterical.
They are capricious, indifferent, and excitable. Their disposition is irritable; they frequently exhibit fits of great excitability of temper and passion. They cry or weep without cause. They often have hallucinations and while asleep have attacks resembling night terrors. They complain of pains in the joints, and are frequently treated for disease that does not exist. Such condition as hysterical cough, spasm of the muscles of the face, mouth, eyes, and of the neck exist and are difficult to diagnose from real disease. These children complain of painful sensations and sensitive areas and exaggerate all symptoms unnecessarily.
The possibility of curing these patients is good, providing the treatment is faithfully carried out. It is less favorable when marked hereditary influences are strong.
Treatment.—In all children of distinctly nervous type and especially those of nervous parents, the first essential duty is to develop their muscular system. Try in every way to make healthy animals of them. Attention and treatment should not be directed toward the nervous system. If the child is made strong by out-door life, good plain, digestible food, early hours, regular sleep in thoroughly aired rooms, regular bathing, and if the school work is conducted with moderation and judgment, the nerves and the nervous temperament will participate in the healthy growth which will follow as a result. Tea and coffee should be forbidden. Exciting books and questionable entertainment as given in picture shows and theaters must not be allowed. If older members of the family, or parents, are excitable and nervous the children should be sent away to the country from them.
They should be put in charge of a person who will exercise firm control over them. It may be necessary to take these patients away from other children, and isolate them under proper control until they are able to control themselves. They should be interested in exercise that compels them to work; they should live and if convenient sleep out of doors; and they should take iron or cod liver oil, or any other indicated tonic. If they complain of pain they should receive cold-water douches, or the cold pack, or the shower bath; and they should be put to bed and treated firmly but kindly. Attention to the bowels is always essential, because these children are as a rule the victims of chronic constipation.
What a Mother Should Know About Cathartics and How to Give a Child a Dose of Castor Oil.—Broadly speaking there are three kinds of cathartics. I will, in a simple way, explain their action so that a mother may know which one to select under certain circumstances. Frequently a mother is told by her physician to "keep the bowels of her child open." Few mothers know how to keep the bowels open, and as this is an important matter, every mother should know the reason why "any" laxative or cathartic is not always suitable.
Castor Oil.—This is one of the oldest and one of the best cathartics we possess for children. It is a mechanical cathartic; it acts in exactly the same way as a street-cleaning machine. It cleans the street by sweeping or pushing everything before it.