COMMON AILMENTS OF CHILDREN.
Little Ailments.—Nursing Babies Affected by Condition of
Mother.—Sleep and Health.—The Baby’s Food.—Why Babies are
Restless when Nursed from the Right Breast.—Children’s Symptoms
often More Grave than the Ailment.—Illustrations.—Fevers
and Teething.—Vomiting.—The Cause of Rash.—Pallid
Children.—Chafing.—Babies do not Cry without Cause.—Need
of Water and Fresh Air.—Sleeping in open Air.—Relief in
Constipation.—Important Suggestions.
I speak of ailments of children not diseases, since this is in no sense
a “Doctor Book.” In the common ailments every mother should be so well
informed that she may not distress herself at a trifling indisposition,
neither show no concern when marked symptoms of disease are present.
There are many ailments to which the most healthy child is susceptible,
and for which no alarm need be felt, as they are trifling and usually
last but a few hours.
In nursing babies, the child is very apt to be affected by the condition
of the mother. If the mother is quiet, well balanced, free from worry,
not subject to fits of anger, does not overdo, does not eat stimulating
food, keeps early hours; in short is quiet, self-contained and healthful,
the probability is that her children will be well, easily managed
children. On the other hand, if she be easily disturbed, unbalanced,
constantly going beyond her strength, eating forbidden things, keeping
late hours, and thus using or rather wasting her energies, she has not
the vital force to give to her children, and they suffer proportionately.
Here again is exemplified the truth that what the mother is that will her
child be.
Sitting down when tired and overheated or excited to nurse your little
one, do not wonder if you have a cross, fretful, and many times, feverish
child as the result. When under a fit of anger, the mother’s milk has
many times produced in the child very alarming symptoms, and sometimes
even caused death. This, in an exaggerated way, shows us what the effect
is upon the delicate nervous temperament of the child, if the mother is
not in healthful tone herself.
A healthy, well-trained baby, should in the first weeks, sleep twenty out
of the twenty-four hours. The sleep should be quiet and natural, and the
baby will in the remaining four hours eat and stretch itself and grow.
Regularity of feeding in the first few weeks will not be as possible
as later, for the little one will sleep over its feeding times. Do not
imagine from this that when it does eat it should have a double quantity,
for the stomach has not expanded in its sleep, and will hold no more than
when fed each two hours. It is estimated that a newborn baby’s stomach
will hold but three or four tablespoonfuls, and this should regulate the
quantity of food at each feeding, if the baby is bottle fed. If a nursing
baby, nature regulates the quantity, if regularity of habit is observed,
as no more is secreted than is needed, as a rule.
In tiny babyhood the child’s liver is very large in proportion to its
size, and the size of the other organs, hence it will sometimes make
trouble when the child is nursed on the right side; as the weight of the
liver pressing on the full stomach causes distress. When you observe that
the child fusses after nursing the right breast, hold it as when nursing
the left breast with the feet under the right arm, and when laying it
down lay it on the right side, and you will relieve the difficulty.
Every mother should know that “in early childhood there is no relation
between the intensity of the symptoms, and the material lesion, or
derangement. The most intense fever with restlessness, cries and
spasmodic movements, may disappear in twenty-four hours without leaving
any traces. The intense nervous excitability in a robust child will often
communicate a false appearance of gravity, to a trivial ailment.”
I quote from Eustace Smith, M.D., this comforting thought: “With regard
to the temperature of children, it may be noted that we must not allow
ourselves to be deceived by sudden and rapid rise of temperature into
the belief that the patient must necessarily be suffering from serious
disease. Very slight causes will in infants produce a remarkable increase
of heat; and during natural dentition, just before the passage of the
tooth through the gum, a temperature of one hundred and four or one
hundred and five degrees Fahrenheit, even in the morning is not at all an
uncommon circumstance. Besides, the normal temperature of young children
is rather higher than that of the adult. In a perfectly healthy child of
three or four years old the thermometer will often register a morning
temperature of ninety-nine and one-half. The pulse of infants can seldom
be counted except during sleep.”
We must remember also that children breathe more quickly than adults.
About thirty respirations a minute for children under two years, or
nearly twice as many as in adult life. Also in a slight degree of
indisposition the respirations may be quickened materially without cause
for alarm.
The tongue, if white, usually indicates fever, dyspepsia and intestinal
irritation. A red, dry, hot tongue points to inflammation of the mouth or
stomach.
An intense fever may be occasioned in a child as the result of
overfeeding or allowing indigestible things.
My experience has been that a child fed properly, and allowed to rest
sufficiently, will have very slight or no difficulty when teething. I
do not agree wholly with the author quoted in the foregoing as to the
cause of the fever in teething. At this period of life the brain of the
child is developing remarkably, and if the stomach is not doing its work
properly, or if more is imposed upon it than should be, the result is an
irritation of the brain, and the whole system, and consequent fever. When
we consider that the brain of the child in proportion to the size of the
body, is as one to eight, while that of the adult is as one to forty or
fifty, we can see how a little disturbance may affect the child at this
time.
Vomiting, unless long continued, is of slight consequence in the baby;
since it is usually relieving an overloaded stomach, or throwing up the
food that has been churned unnaturally while the little one is tossed
about by an overzealous relative. Rocking vigorously is not a good thing
for the child, as it not only disturbs the stomach, but irritates the
brain, from the jarring.
A rash may appear on the child and be of no more moment than to remind
you that you are feeding it improperly, that its food is not agreeing
with it, or that teeth are about to appear.
If the child is thin and pale and does not grow, it is not assimilating
its food and the cause should be looked into at once. It may be that
a change is desirable. In bottle-fed babies, there is not so much of
variety in its food as in a nursing baby, because the mother’s change
of food from day to day, varies the milk somewhat. Changing from one
prepared food to another will often tide them over an indisposition, as
nothing else will.
Chafing usually means that the little one has not been dried well when
changing the napkin, or allowed to go too long after the napkin is
wet. Indigestion, and a consequent acidity of the discharges may cause
excoriation of the skin, and this will need a change in the food or the
proper medicine to correct.
A baby does not cry without cause. It may be spoiled into crying to be
tended, but this is easily distinguished from a sick cry, or a fretted
cry from discomfort.
A baby should have plenty of water and fresh air; two of the “freest”
things and yet we stint the little one in them. It should be given water
every day several times, and it often cries for want of it. It should
be taken out into the fresh air every day when pleasant, and many times
allowed to take its nap in the open air. One of the healthiest, most
robust babies I ever knew, though beginning life as a little puny thing,
was put into its little carriage and wrapped up warmly, and wheeled out
on the front porch for its nap twice daily. A light cover was thrown over
the head of the carriage to protect the child from draughts.
If the baby is bottle-fed and constipated, a small pinch of salt put into
its food at each feeding will often effect a cure.
Dress your little one warmly enough but not too warm, keep it dry and
comfortable, feed it properly, do not toss it about, or disturb its
sleep, and you will be rewarded with a healthy and comfortable child that
will daily be a greater and greater delight and blessing.