DISEASES OF CHILDREN, CONTINUED
Rheumatism—Malaria—Rashes of Childhood—Pimples—Acne—Blackheads— Convulsions—Fits—Spasms—Bed-wetting—Enuresis— Incontinence—Sleeplessness—Disturbed Sleep—Nightmare— Night Terrors—Headache—Thumb-sucking—Biting the Finger Nails—Colon Irrigation—How to Wash Out the Bowels —A High Enema—Enema—Methods of Reducing Fever —Ice Cap—Cold Sponging—Cold Pack—The Cold Bath—Various Baths—Mustard Baths—Hot Pack —Hot Bath—Hot Air, or Vapor Bath—Bran Bath —Tepid Bath—Cold Sponge—Shower Bath—Poultices —Hot Fomentations—How to Make and How to Apply a Mustard Paste—How to Prepare and Use the Mustard Pack—Turpentine Stupes—Oiled Silk, What it is and Why it is Used.
RHEUMATISM
This is a rather common disease of childhood. It occurs most frequently between the ages of nine and thirteen years. Children can have it, however, at any age.
The symptoms of rheumatism in children are much the same, though somewhat milder, as when the disease is present in an adult. Children are not quite as sick, nor is the fever as high, nor is the pain as great as in a grown person. In children the disease does not last as long, as a rule. Sometimes it will jump from one joint to another, and may, as a consequence, become chronic. When a child has once had rheumatism, it has the same disposition to recur that it has in adults. The principal danger of rheumatism in children is its tendency to attack the heart. Even mild attacks of the disease can do serious damage to the heart.
Children who have the rheumatic tendency invariably suffer from inflammatory conditions of the upper respiratory tract. They are prone to have recurring colds, tonsilitis, and sore throats. Treatment of conditions without regard to the underlying rheumatism is never satisfactory. These children complain of indefinite pains, now in one place, now in another. These pains are commonly known as "growing-pains" and, inasmuch as they are rheumatic and not "growing pains," they should be regarded seriously because of the heart damage they might do if ignored, and especially so since the mildest attacks of rheumatism, without any joint symptoms even, frequently leave the heart in very bad shape. As a general rule it will be found that when a child has had a number of attacks of bronchitis or asthma it is rheumatic and should receive treatment for the rheumatic tendency.
Children with the tendency to rheumatism invariably eat too much red meats and sugar,—the latter in the form of candy or as an excess in the food.
Treatment of an Acute Attack.—The child should be put in bed and kept warm. The bowels should be freely opened with citrate of magnesia. The diet should be very light: milk and lime water or milk and vichy water, with a piece of dry toast or zwieback, is all the child needs until the fever is relieved. When a single joint is affected local measures may be taken for its relief. Wraping the joints up with flannel cloths which have been wrung out of true oil of wintergreen, and outside of this oiled silk snugly bandaged on, is an excellent external application. The flannel cloths should be kept moist by adding a little of the wintergreen from time to time as it dries in. This can be done without removing the bandage. This application is kept in place for twenty-four hours and renewed if necessary. Such an external application will aid in the actual cure of the disease and will quickly relieve the patient of the pain. The oil of wintergreen used in this way should be the "true" oil, and should be so specified when bought in the drug store.
Because of the great tendency to attack the heart a physician should take charge of every case of acute rheumatism in a child.
To Treat the Tendency to Rheumatism.—Exclude red meats and sugar in all forms as much as is possible. Give green vegetables freely, potatoes boiled with the skins on, fish, eggs, and poultry. Cereals with milk, especially well cooked Scotch oatmeal, are exceedingly good for these children. By keeping up this diet after the acute attack has passed for a considerable time, it is possible to cure the various other complaints with which the child is afflicted,—tonsilitis, sore-throats, winter coughs, head-colds, bronchitis, asthma, etc.