CHAPTER XXII
CONSTIPATION IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN
"It is a greater disgrace to be sick than to be in the penitentiary. When you are arrested it is because you have broken a man-made statute, but when you are ill, it is because you have disobeyed one of God's laws."
Constipation—Regularity of Bowel Function—The Function of the Stomach—Fermentation—Incomplete Constipation—Importance of a Clean Bowel—A Daily Movement of the Bowel Necessary—Constipation in Breast-Fed Infants—Treatment of Constipation in Breast-Fed Infants—Constipation in Bottle-Fed Infants—Treatment of Constipation in Bottle-Fed Infants—Constipation in Children Over Two Years of Age—Diet List for Constipation in Children—Bran Muffins in Constipation—Treatment of Obstinate Constipation—Oil Injections in Constipation.
CONSTIPATION. REGULARITY OF BOWEL FUNCTION
The most frequent cause of ill health and inefficiency in the human race is inattention to regulation of the bowel function. Good health depends upon many causes of which good blood is an absolutely necessary requisite. Good blood depends upon what feeds and sustains it. There are other contributing factors, such as the proper kind of exercise, the proper amount and quality of fresh air, the method of living, etc., but these are all food in a sense. The food we take in is acted upon by the various digestive juices until everything is extracted from it that contributes to the building up of the body. Whatever is left, whatever the body does not want, is immediately, or within a reasonable time, passed out in the form of a movement of the bowels.
If any part of the digestive function is deficient, impaired health, or mental and physical inefficiency expressed in the form of indigestion, is the result. If the bowel is at fault, constipation is the usual consequence. A perfectly healthy living machine must maintain a perfect digestion and regular bowel movements.
The Function of the Stomach is to mix and churn the food, and to add certain ingredients to the mixture so that before it is carried into the intestines it is (as far as it is the stomach's duty to render it) ready to be absorbed into the system. Before it reaches that part of the intestine which absorbs, it is acted upon again and certain other ingredients are added to it by certain other digestive organs. In time it is in shape to be used and it is sent along on its way. As it passes onward the little sucking glands in the wall of the bowel suck up all the liquid element in the mass of food. The liquid element in the mass is the food itself, rendered liquid by the stomach and other digestive organs and juices. The remaining solid mass is that part of the food which the body cannot use and does not want. By the time the liquid element is absorbed, the solid mass (always kept moving by the bowel wall) has reached the rectum, ready to be passed out at once, or very soon, provided—and upon this provision depends the success of the entire process,—it has all been done within a certain time. If the stomach takes too long to do its work we have indigestion. If the bowel takes too long to do its work we have constipation.
Fermentation.—Now let us consider the matter from another standpoint. If food stays too long in the stomach it begins to ferment. When anything ferments it makes and evolves gas. You, no doubt, have noticed many times how the cork pops out of a bottle if its contents are "working," or fermenting. If you watch that bottle you will notice that it is quietly or actively evolving air bubbles. That is gas,—gas manufactured by the process of fermentation. This is exactly the process that goes on in the stomach or bowel of a dyspeptic, and it is this collection of foul, poisonous gas that causes the distress and bloated feeling which every dyspeptic suffers from after eating,—if it is this "flatulent" type of indigestion which is present.
The Significance of Constipation.—If the food takes too long to pass through the bowel it causes, as we have stated, constipation. What is the real significance of constipation? It means that in passing through the bowel the food has given up all its liquid element (which is all its nourishing element), but the bowel has been too slow in passing it along. Consequently it is not ready to be expelled while it is yet a harmless semi-solid mass. It stays in the bowel too long—it begins to putrefy, bacteria attack it, and it is soon a semi-liquid, foul, rotting mass. The sucking glands in the intestinal wall continue to suck—that is their duty. They cannot discriminate between what is good and what is bad—they simply go on absorbing whatever is there to absorb. So there are absorbed into the system liquid and gaseous products which are poison.