Add a little more top-milk or cream to each bottle than the formula gives;
do not pasteurize the food unless it is necessary; do not use lime-water,
but bicarbonate of soda in proper strength in its place, as lime-water is
often very constipating. Malted food may be added to each bottle for some
time. If necessary, stimulate the rectum mildly; this can be done by
holding the baby over a small chamber at exactly the same time after a
meal each day and insert into the bowel a small cone of oiled paper, or
use a small castile soap suppository. This may form a habit in a few days.
Suppositories of gluten are very beneficial if used in the morning. The
child should not be allowed to go longer than twenty-four hours without a
passage. A enema made up of one or two tablespoonfuls of sweet oil may be
given with a bulb syringe, or an ounce of warm water to which has been
added one-half teaspoonful of glycerin, or one-half pint of warm
soap-suds. Do not give it every day; massage the baby's abdomen. Your hand
should be warm. Begin at the right side groin and make a series of
circular movements with your fingers, lightly at first, and then press
down harder as the baby becomes accustomed to it; work your way up
gradually to the ribs, then across to the ribs on the left side, and down
to the left groin. This can be done twice daily for eight or ten minutes
at a time, and always at the same time of day, but never soon after a
meal. Olive oil may safely be given for constipation to a baby,--from
twenty drops to one teaspoonful one or two times daily, but castor oil
should not be given for constipation, as after a time it leaves the baby
more constipated than ever. Sometimes inserting your finger, well oiled,
into the rectum, will produce a passage. For older children, decrease the
amount of white bread, toast, potatoes, and give green vegetables,
oatmeal, and graham bread instead, with plenty of proper fruit twice
daily; raw, scraped apples are sometimes the best fruit to use.
[ALL ABOUT BABY 613]
DIARRHEA. (For Older Children).
What shall I do for this trouble? Rid the system of the irritating matter
by giving the baby one teaspoonful of castor oil. Then stop all solid food
and give boiled water if there is only a moderate looseness. Keep the
child perfectly quiet. If the attack is more severe and attended by fever
and vomiting all food and milk should be stopped at once in children of
all ages, and only broth, barley water or some thin gruel given. Castor
oil is required for a severe attack. If the patient is an infant the milk
should be diluted or stopped. In severe attacks with vomiting or frequent
foul stools, stop all food for at least twelve hours and all milk for a
longer time, and the bowels should be freely moved by a cathartic. Give
plenty of water to drink.
Food.--Albumin water is often better than plain water or anything else. To
make it stir the white of an egg into a pint of cold water. See that they
are well mixed, add a pinch of salt and strain. Give baby one teaspoonful
every one-half hour, and if he vomits all other food, give two ounces
every two hours; barley gruel, wheat flour gruel, mutton broth may be
given also.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Inflammation of the Bowels, Poultice of Hot Mush
for.--"Wrap the child in a poultice of hot mush. Place the poultice over
the abdomen." A poultice of this kind retains the heat, and is very good
for inflammation of the abdominal cavity, and would help to take away the
soreness and bloating in the bowels that is always present in this
disease.