DEFINITION.--An infantile convulsion corresponds to a chill in an adult,
and is the most common brain affection among children.
CAUSES.--Anything that irritates the nervous system may cause convulsions
in the child, as teething, indigestible food, worms, dropsy of the brain,
hereditary constitution, or they may be the accompanying symptom in nearly
all the {309} acute diseases of children, or when the eruption is
suppressed in eruptive diseases.
SYMPTOMS.--In case of convulsions of a child parents usually become
frightened, and very rarely do the things that should be done in order to
afford relief. The child, previous to the fit, is usually irritable, and
the twitching of the muscles of the face may be noticed, or it may come on
suddenly without warning. The child becomes insensible, clenches its hands
tightly, lips turn blue, and the eyes become fixed, usually frothing from
the mouth with head turned back. The convulsion generally lasts two or
three minutes; sometimes, however, as long as ten or fifteen minutes, but
rarely.
REMEDY.--Give the child a warm bath and rub gently. Clothes wrung out of
cold water and applied to the lower and back part of the head and plenty of
fresh air will usually relieve the convulsion. Be sure and loosen the
clothing around the child's neck. After the convulsion is over, give the
child a few doses of potassic bromide, and an injection of castor oil if
the abdomen is swollen. Potassic bromide should be kept in the house, to
use in case of necessity.
[Illustration]
{310}
Pains and Ills in Nursing.
[Illustration: The City Hospital.--A Homeless and Friendless Mother.]
1. SORE NIPPLES.--If a lady, during the latter few months of her pregnancy,
were to adopt "means to harden the nipples," sore nipples during the period
of suckling would not be so prevalent as they are.
2. CAUSE.--A sore nipple is frequently produced by the injudicious custom
of allowing the child to have the nipple {311} almost constantly in his
mouth. Another frequent cause of a sore nipple is from the babe having the
canker. Another cause of a sore nipple is from the mother, after the babe
has been sucking, putting up the nipple wet. She, therefore, ought always
to dry the nipple, not by rubbing, but by dabbing it with a soft cambric or
lawn handkerchief, or with a piece of soft linen rag--one or the other of
which ought always to be at hand--every time directly after the child has
done sucking, and just before applying any of the following powders or
lotions to the nipple.
3. REMEDIES.--One of the best remedies for a sore nipple is the following
powder:
Take of--Borax, one drachm; Powdered Starch, seven drachms.
Mix.--A pinch of the powder to be frequently applied to the nipple.
If the above does not cure, try Glycerine by applying it each time after
nursing.
4. GATHERED BREAST.--A healthy-woman with a well-developed breast and a
good nipple, scarcely, if ever, has a gathered bosom; it is the delicate,
the ill-developed breasted and worse-developed nippled lady who usually
suffers from this painful complaint. And why? The evil can generally be
traced to girlhood. If she be brought up luxuriously, her health and her
breasts are sure to be weakened, and thus to suffer, more especially if the
development of the bosoms and nipples has been arrested and interfered with
by tight stays and corsets. Why, the nipple is by them drawn in, and
retained on the level with the breast--countersunk--as though it were of no
consequence to her future well-being, as though it were a thing of nought.
5. TIGHT LACERS.--Tight lacers will have to pay the penalties of which they
little dream. Oh, the monstrous folly of such proceedings! When will
mothers awake from their lethargy? It is high time that they did so! From
the mother having "no nipple," the effects of tight lacing, many a home has
been made childless, the babe not being able to procure its proper
nourishment, and dying in consequence! It is a frightful state of things!
But fashion, unfortunately, blinds the eyes and deafens the ears of its
votaries!
6. BAD BREAST.--A gathered bosom, or "bad breast," as it is sometimes
called, is more likely to occur after a first confinement and during the
first month. Great care, therefore, ought to be taken to avoid such a
misfortune. A gathered breast is frequently owing to the carelessness of a
{312} mother in not covering her bosoms during the time she is suckling.
Too much attention cannot be paid to keeping the breasts comfortably warm.
This, during the act of nursing, should be done by throwing either a shawl
or a square of flannel over the neck, shoulders, and bosoms.
7. ANOTHER CAUSE.--Another cause of gathered breasts arises from a mother
sitting up in bed to suckle her babe. He ought to be accustomed to take the
bosom while she is lying down; if this habit is not at first instituted, it
will be difficult to adopt it afterwards. Good habits may be taught a child
from earliest babyhood.
8. FAINTNESS.--When a nursing mother feels faint, she ought immediately to
lie down and take a little nourishment; a cup of tea with the yolk of an
egg beaten up in it, or a cup of warm milk, or some beef-tea, any of which
will answer the purpose extremely well. Brandy, or any other spirit we
would not recommend, as it would only cause, as soon as the immediate
effects of the stimulant had gone off, a greater depression to ensue; not
only so, but the frequent taking of brandy might become a habit--a
necessity--which would be a calamity deeply to be deplored!
9. STRONG PURGATIVES.--Strong purgatives during this period are highly
improper, as they are apt to give pain to the infant, as well as to injure
the mother. If it be absolutely necessary to give physic, the mildest, such
as a dose of castor oil, should be chosen.
10. HABITUALLY COSTIVE.--When a lady who is nursing is habitually costive,
she ought to eat brown instead of white bread. This will, in the majority
of cases, enable her to do without an aperient. The brown bread may be made
with flour finely ground all one way; or by mixing one part of bran and
three parts of fine wheaten flour together, and then making it in the usual
way into bread. Treacle instead of butter, on the brown bread increases its
efficacy as an aperient; and raw should be substituted for lump sugar in
her tea.
11. TO PREVENT CONSTIPATION.--Stewed prunes, or stewed French plums, or
stewed Normandy pippins, are excellent remedies to prevent constipation.
The patient ought to eat, every morning, a dozen or fifteen of them. The
best way to stew either prunes or French plums, is the following:--Put a
pound of either prunes or French plums, and two tablespoonfuls of raw
sugar, into a brown jar; cover them with water; put them into a slow oven,
and stew them for three or four hours. Both stewed rhubarb and stewed {313}
pears often act as mild and gentle aperients. Muscatel raisins, eaten at
dessert, will oftentimes without medicine relieve the bowels.
12. COLD WATER.--A tumblerful of cold water, taken early every morning,
sometimes effectually relieves the bowels; indeed, few people know the
value of cold water as an aperient--it is one of the best we possess, and,
unlike drug aperients, can never by any possibility do any harm. An
injection of warm water is one of the best ways to relieve the bowels.
13. WELL-COOKED VEGETABLES.--Although a nursing mother ought, more
especially if she be costive, to take a variety of well-cooked vegetables,
such as potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, French beans, spinach, stewed
celery and turnips; she should avoid eating greens, cabbages, and pickles,
as they would be likely to affect the babe, and might cause him to suffer
from gripings, from pain, and "looseness" of the bowels.
14. SUPERSEDE THE NECESSITY OF TAKING PHYSIC.--Let me again--for it cannot
be too urgently insisted upon--strongly advise a nursing mother to use
every means in the way of diet, etc., to supersede the necessity of taking
physic (opening medicine), as the repetition of aperients injures, and that
severely, both herself and child. Moreover, the more opening medicine she
swallows, the more she requires; so that if she once gets into the habit of
regularly taking physic, the bowels will not act without them. What a
miserable existence to be always swallowing physic!
[Illustration]
{314}
Home Lessons in Nursing Sick Children.
[Illustration: HEALTHY YOUTH AND RIPE OLD AGE.]
1. MISMANAGEMENT.--Every doctor knows that a large share of the ills to
which infancy is subject are directly traceable to mismanagement. Troubles
of the digestive system are, for the most part due to errors, either in the
selection of the food or in the preparation of it.
2. RESPIRATORY DISEASES.--Respiratory diseases or the diseases of the
throat and lungs have their origin, as a rule, in want of care and judgment
in matters of clothing, bathing and exposure to cold and drafts. A child
should always be dressed to suit the existing temperature of the weather.
{315}
3. NERVOUS DISEASES.--Nervous diseases are often aggravated if not caused
by over-stimulation of the brain, by irregular hours of sleep, or by the
use of "soothing" medicines, or eating indigestible food.
4. SKIN AFFECTIONS.--Skin affections are generally due to want of proper
care of the skin, to improper clothing or feeding, or to indiscriminate
association with nurses and children, who are the carriers of contagious
diseases.
5. PERMANENT INJURY.--Permanent injury is often caused by lifting the child
by one hand, allowing it to fall, permitting it to play with sharp
instruments, etc.
6. RULES AND PRINCIPLES.--Every mother should understand the rules and
principles of home nursing. Children are very tender plants and the want of
proper knowledge is often very disastrous if not fatal. Study carefully and
follow the principles and rules which are laid down in the different parts
of this work on nursing and cooking for the sick.