Mix and shake before applying to the skin.
CONVULSIONS. FITS. SPASMS
Convulsions are quite common in children, especially those under three years of age.
A convulsion in an infant immediately, or within three months, after its birth is the result of injury, either at birth or later (a fall for example) which seriously affects the brain itself. After the third month the cause of fits or convulsions is, in a very large percentage of the cases, to be found in errors of diet resulting in disturbances in the stomach or bowels—eating of articles of food difficult to digest, as green or overripe fruit, salads, fresh bread, pickles, cheese, etc. Children of a nervous temperament are more liable to convulsions than are others. Females are more frequently victims of fits than are male children.
In infants convulsions often result from changes in the mother's milk. Mental excitement, deep emotion, anger, frights, severe affliction and distress will so affect a woman's milk that it will cause convulsions in her child if she nurses it while under the influence of any of these conditions.
Convulsions may result from any condition that disturbs the nutrition of the child, as, for example,—exhaustion, anemia, intestinal indigestion, blood poison, and general weakness resulting from some severe sickness, especially those of the digestive organs.
Various forms of brain disease cause spasms and fits; the most common are meningitis, tumors, hemorrhage, abscesses and injuries. Convulsions may accompany certain conditions, as, the presence of worms, teething, severe burns, foreign bodies in the ear, whooping cough, pneumonia scarlet fever, malaria, sometimes measles, typhoid fever, and diphtheria. Children who are badly nourished and who live constantly in unsanitary surroundings are more apt to have convulsions than those who are well nourished and who live hygienically. One attack renders the patient more liable to another, and when the "habit" is established any trivial cause may incite a convulsion; persistent and systematic efforts should therefore be taken to prevent the attacks. The best preventives are:
1st. To regulate the diet and the bowels.
2nd. Remove adenoids and worms, if they exist.
3rd. Avoid the use of alcohol, coffee, tea, fresh bread, pastries, candies and all improper foods.
4th. Guard the child against catching cold, infectious diseases and all fevers. In other words, save the child from the cause and the convulsion will not take place.
By regulating the bowels we mean that everything the child eats must be seen by the mother, must be with the mother's permission, and must be suited to the child's age. If there is any question about the latter it will be advisable to have a physician write out a list of articles suitable to the child. It is generally necessary to eliminate meats, pastries, candies, sugar to a large extent, gravies, salads, sauces, and all the extras of the table, as pickles, mustard, relish, etc., as well as coffee, tea, cocoa, and alcohol.
The child should live in the open air as much as possible; a daily warm bath, followed by a quick, cold sponge, is a necessity.