TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA
Simple diarrhea in the older child of two or three years is treated as follows: Take away all solid foods. Give a big dose of castor oil, thoroughly wash out the bowel by warm water containing a level teaspoon of salt and a level teaspoon of baking soda to the pint, and put the child to bed in a quiet room. Boil all milk for ten minutes and thicken it with flour that has been browned in the oven; feed this to the child at five-hour intervals. After each bowel movement, no matter how often they come, the colon should be washed out with the salt and soda enema as before mentioned.
Bear in mind that the child is losing liquids, and so, after the bowels have moved, boiled water should be given by mouth, or a cupful of water can often be retained if it is introduced into the rectum slowly under very low pressure. Twenty-four or forty hours should clear up a case of simple diarrhea, and on returning to food it should be dry toast and boiled milk. For the younger baby, withhold all milk and give barley water or rice water for the first twenty-four hours, returning to milk very gradually and slowly.
For the more severe types, such as the dysentery containing mucus and blood, everything that has been done for the simple diarrhea should be done; the baby should be kept very quiet, while castor oil should be promptly administered. Food is withheld and the bowels are carefully irrigated after each movement with the salt and soda solutions. After the bowels have moved from the castor oil, then bismuth subnitrate, which has been dissolved in two ounces of water, should be given—one or two teaspoons every three hours. This will naturally turn the bowel movements dark.
Under no circumstances should any other medicines be given without the physician's knowledge, as it is at such times as this that many "would-be friends" advise laudanum, paregoric, and other opiates. The skin must be kept warm, and fluids must replace those that have been carried off in the many stools. Water may be given by an enema, by water drinking, and in such rare cases as cholera infantum, when water cannot be retained on the stomach, it often becomes necessary to inject it under the skin (hypodermoclysis) so that it may go at once to the wasted tissues and perhaps save the baby's life.
Give the baby ten days or two weeks to return to normal condition, and under no circumstances hurry the feeding of milk, as a second attack may occur much more readily than the first; may more profoundly overcome the baby and result in death.
RUPTURE
A protrusion of a loop or portion of intestine through a weakened abdominal muscle—which grows larger when baby cries and smaller when he is lying down in a relaxed condition—is known as rupture or hernia, and is of common occurrence in infancy. It is often seen at the navel and sometimes in the groin as early as the second week.
Hernia is always dangerous and should never be neglected. The physician will protect the navel by a special support with adhesive plaster which is carefully renewed twice a week, and if worn for several months usually entirely corrects the condition. A comfortable truss made from skeins of white yarn will amply protect a groin hernia. The condition should always be taken seriously and receive immediate treatment.