The diseases herein treated are mainly those for which a physician is seldom called. A few suggestions are also added upon those in which the severity of the attack necessitates attention before medical aid can be obtained.

Aphtha is sometimes the result of scrofula, otherwise it is caused by improper quality or quantity of food, either natural or artificial. In bottle-fed babes it often results from the milk not being sufficiently diluted, or from the use of starchy food. Neglect of general cleanliness in many cases give rise to this ailment. The child is feverish, fretful, and often refuses the breast on account of pain experienced in nursing. Sometimes there is vomiting and thin watery diarrhea. The tongue, gums, palate and inside of cheeks and lips are thickly specked with white flecks; sometimes there is a dirty diphtheritic-like membrane. Aphtha usually runs its course in a few days. Those cases are exceptional which are followed by unpleasant results.

Treatment.—Sometimes the case requires merely the washing of the mouth two or three times a day with a weak solution of borax, ten grains to one ounce of water. The mouth should be cleansed after each meal, as should also the mother’s nipple.

Pulverize thoroughly and put a small quantity into the mouth two or three times a day.

Arsenicum, 3d.—Patches of a dark color; severe, watery, painless diarrhea, thirst and great prostration. Dose, six pellets every three hours.

Merc. Sol., 3d.—Dribbling saliva, offensive breath, greenish diarrhea with pain. Dose, six pellets every four hours.

Excoriation of groin and axilla frequently trouble very fat, scrofulous or bottle-fed babies. The surface becomes raw, inflamed, and often painful.

Bathe frequently in tepid soft water, or what often proves better, milk and water. Dry with a soft linen cloth. Or hold the sufferer over a tub or basin, and from a large sponge squeeze tepid soft water on the affected part. Repeat every two or three hours. This is grateful and healing. The occasional use of cosmoline or of sweet cream in which clover blossoms have been steeped is beneficial. Avoid nursery powders. If the methods advised fail, scorch flour and apply several times a day. Should there be eruptions or ulcers use a powder of the following:

Mix. Apply through a powder bag after washing.

Borax, half a drachm to a pint of soft water, gives relief where great inflammation attends the excoriation. Lay upon the affected part for an hour or two at a time soft cloths wet in the cold lotion. Frequent washing and perfect cleanliness are really the best preventives and cures.

Colic is the torture of babyhood, as well as a constant source of parental solicitude. It is not considered a dangerous disease, but the sufferings of the little one are a great tax upon sympathetic nerves. There is no special age when the infant is subject to colic. It occurs more frequently when it is from two to five months old. However, children may suffer from it before they are two weeks old.

Severe colics are usually the result of derangements of the liver, and when mothers are badly nourished, the child is frequently born with the trouble. The condition is largely due to a deficiency of nitrogenous elements and phosphates in the food. The system is over supplied with carbonates in the shape of starch, fats and sugar, and deficient in elements that build up the tissues, such as gluten, fibrin, albumen, etc. The mother partakes of food that produces an inflammatory condition, and lacks in that which makes muscle, bone and nerve. She should be cautious about eating of mixed dishes and also of greasy and highly seasoned food.

Let her diet be chiefly of barley, wheatlet, rolled wheat, and bread from graham flour, or Lockport entire wheat flour, with the addition of fish, milk and eggs. Fruits can be partaken of freely, avoiding those that are exceedingly acid. It is only when fruit is not eaten all the time, that colic in the child is caused by the mother’s partaking of it. If it has been eaten freely during pregnancy, it will do no harm during lactation. Until the causes of colic can be removed, palliative treatment must be resorted to.

A colicky baby must be kept warm, avoiding all changes in temperature.[2] A rubber bag or bottle filled with hot water and put in the crib will keep the child, once quieted, asleep for hours. During the paroxysms put the child’s feet in a basin of hot water, or place cloths wrung from hot water over its bowels, and if the attack is very severe, a full hot bath will often give relief.[3]

Avoid giving opiates. They constipate the bowels and derange digestion. In acute attacks following their use, the brain and spine are likely to be seriously involved. Nearly all cordials sold for colic contain opium. Analysis reveals morphine, one grain to the ounce, in Winslow’s soothing syrup.

The following from a daily paper only shows that many medicines are the mother’s enemy, instead of the “Mother’s Friend.” “The Tewksbury almshouse horror once more calls attention to the frightful abuse of narcotics for which the medical profession is to a great extent responsible. In the Tewksbury child’s hospital the nurses were provided with morphine in half-pint bottles! No wonder the babies were kept so still that they died at a rate never before heard of. An idea of the extent to which narcotics are given to infants in English manufacturing towns is gleanable from the deposition of a Hanley chemist before a coroner’s jury. He testified that he made up and sold six gallons a day of an article called ‘Mother’s Friend.’ This stuff contains seven and one-half drops of laudanum to the ounce. With this it is customary to dose their babies so that they shall sleep during the time the young mothers are engaged at the factories. Of course the infant mortality of the place is frightful.

“In contradistinction to this practice of barbarously working young mothers, Mr. Schneider, the owner of the great Creuzot iron works in France, compels a mother to stay from work for a few months before and after a child is born. For the carrying out of this humane purpose he has created a fund out of which the wages of the mother during the period of her incapacity are paid.”

Convulsions, brain fever, summer complaint, etc., are often the result of the early use of opiates. I can recall many cases where spasms in summer complaint were caused evidently and directly by the use of opiates employed to check a slight ailment, in itself harmless.

For Colic.—Some diffusible stimulant is preferable to narcotics. In mild cases, a few tea-spoonfuls of hot water suffice, and there is but little objection to the old-fashioned catnip tea.

Peppermint essence.—One drop in six tea-spoons of hot water often affords relief. Feed slowly.

Camphor, tincture.—Pain is severe and cramp-like, knees flexed, hands and feet cold, face livid, especially if there is diarrhea; put one drop on a tea-spoonful of sugar, mix thoroughly, then add six tea-spoons of hot water. Dose—A tea-spoonful every ten minutes.

Chamomilla, 2d.—Stools are green and every diaper is stained. The child is very restless, nurses often, constantly desires change of position and attendants, wants to be carried from room to room. If the homeopathic preparation does not give relief, make an infusion of the blossoms. To six grains of the bloom, pour one gill boiling water. Feed slowly. Four or five tea-spoonfuls are usually sufficient. Any of these preparations, except camphor, should not be sweetened.

Nux Vomica, 3d.—Constipation or undigested curds of milk in the feces. Child starts in its sleep, has short naps and throws its head back when it cries. To one grain add six tea-spoons of warm water, and give every ten minutes in half tea-spoonful doses. For colic of children and grown people, I have found more frequent relief from this remedy than all others. It promotes digestion, equalizes the circulation and feeds the nervous system. The nursing mother should also take it once or twice a day when the child has these symptoms, and an occasional dose taken by both, prevents subsequent attacks. She must remember, too, to take sufficient rest and sleep, using every means to promote her own best health.

Constipation is not a very frequent ailment of infants, but is occasionally met with, and sometimes becomes very obstinate. When a nursing child is thus affected, the mother will usually be found to be suffering from the same conditions. In such a case, she should follow the directions in Chap. V, and through correct habits in her own system, she will doubtless find the child relieved.

Want of regularity in its habits often produces costiveness in an infant. If he is fed or nursed regularly, and held out at the same time of each day, and as he gets older is put upon a chair, he will seldom be troubled with this complaint. It is wonderful how soon the bowels in most cases, by this simple plan, may be brought into a regular habit.

A soap suppository should be used after a day or two, if this method fails. This is a safe, speedy and certain method of moving the bowels. Make it by paring a piece of white castile soap round. Should be about the size of a lead-pencil, pointed at the end, and two inches in length. Moisten in warm water and introduce nearly the whole length. After remaining from one to five minutes it will be expelled and the bowels will be comfortably and effectually relieved.

If the feces are very hard, like little balls, it is better to give an enema of castile soapsuds, to one cupful of which, one tea-spoonful of sweet oil has been added. Squeezing cold or tepid water over the child’s bowels, followed by hand friction, aids to stimulate them to action.

Some advise rubbing the bowels with castor oil, getting thereby the aperient effect, without the irritation of an internal dose.

Do not begin by giving a little baby aperient drugs. Chevasse says: “If you once begin, and continue it for a while, opening medicine becomes a dire necessity, and then woe betide the poor unfortunate child.”

Purgative medicines irritate beyond measure the tender organs of an infant and ordinarily result in constipation.

Diarrhea of infants is nature’s first method of removing obstructions and overcoming derangements of the system, and in nine cases out of ten should not be interfered with.

The natural movements are usually thin, and of a bright orange color. One author describes them as being of the “consistence and color of mustard mixed for the table.” They are nearly devoid of smell, or at least have only a faint, disagreeable odor. Many children at first have from three to six movements in a day. If they should increase to from six to twelve and still not change materially in consistence, color or odor, there is no cause for uneasiness.

Many an attack of sickness is the result of checking a diarrhea with opiates and astringents. If the discharges become watery, green, attended with griping, or streaked with mucus or blood, are of an ashen or chalk color, or if they have undigested curds of milk, then they demand attention. Above all, keep the child quiet and apply heat. The hot water bottle is most excellent. An enema of hot water often gives entire relief without the use of other remedies. I have known large families of children, in which for years no other means was used for the successful control of this disease.

Dysentery is indicated by mucus and blood with straining. It is an inflammation of the rectum and large intestines. Warm flaxseed tea injections after the discharge give great relief. Compresses should be put on the bowels for an hour or two at a time, three or four times a day.

A general pack is exceedingly helpful where fever attends this or other affections.

To pack a child, remove all its clothing, put on its nightdress, lay in the crib on a woolen blanket: wet the nightdress in tepid water, using a sponge, put a hot bottle to the feet.

Wrap the child closely in the blanket and be sure reaction takes place. Let it lie in this one hour, when it should be sponged carefully and wiped dry. This pack is indicated in any disease of children where there is sufficient fever and heat to produce reaction. Remember, the simplest measures are often the most effectual. (The above suggestions are equally valuable in giving packs to adults.)

Summer complaint is an inflammation or irritation of the mucus membrane of the intestines. Owing to dentition and change of food, children are more liable to this affection in their second summer. They are then constantly the subject of anxious solicitude by their parents and friends.

If the discharges are only frequent and yellow, unaccompanied by pain and fever, there is no cause for anxiety. It is simply an effort of nature to restore normal conditions, and should not be interfered with. Too hastily checking this diarrhea is frequently the cause of spasms and other serious affections.

The symptoms of summer complaint proper, are frequent, watery movements; at first may be green but soon become gray, brown and frothy, sometimes having a mixture of phlegm and mucus; frequently are fetid, and, at times, contain undigested food. It may or may not be accompanied by pain. Nausea and vomiting are frequent symptoms, and if severe, constitute cholera infantum. The surface of the body is cold, often in a cold perspiration, while the soles of the feet and palms of the hands are dry and hot. It is usually attended with great thirst, a quick pulse and increased temperature.

Some children are prostrated at once by the attack, losing flesh and strength rapidly, while others keep about many days. Appetite fails, or else there are morbid cravings, often for the very things that increase the irritation. If the disease is not abated, the fever and thirst increase, the tongue becomes dry and brown, pulse is more rapid, the strength fails, great restlessness ensues, the brain becomes affected, coma ensues, and death closes the scene.

Impure air and improper diet are the principal causes of this disease. Sleeping and living rooms not being sufficiently ventilated, the blood becomes poisoned. Children are fed a mixed diet too soon. Rich and highly seasoned food that is even unsuitable for adults, except in a vigorous outdoor life, is given them, and at irregular hours. The delicate organs are overtaxed, and inflammatory conditions produced. When a child is weaned it should be fed upon oat, wheat and corn meal mush, bread and milk, rice, cracked wheat, wheatlet, barley, and ripe fruits. Meats, condiments, tea and coffee, and food containing fats should be avoided. Even most of the vegetables are not adapted to children.

Give them simple but nutritious diet, turn them, like colts, outdoors to run and play, and you will save yourselves anxiety, save doctor’s bills, and best of all, save your children. Blood that is too carbonaceous can be oxygenized by plenty of outdoor exercise, both by adults and children. The less clothing a child wears in hot weather the better, only I would advise that flannel be worn next the skin. This will prevent sudden checking of perspiration. By all means let the little children go barefoot. A child that has a sand pile to play in, and is allowed to run barefoot, must be of a very delicate organization if he can have summer complaint. By direct contact with the earth, superabundance of electricity is carried off, and thus is lessened the possibility of inflammation. The child that spends most of its waking hours outdoors, barefooted, seldom gets summer complaint. He has:

In summer complaint give but little food, and that only in a liquid form. Barley water, rice water, oatmeal gruel, bran jelly, lemon jelly and orange whey, are all good. Milk can be used, if relished and digested. It is ordinarily better to be reduced by adding one-third boiling water. All of these must be given in small quantities and at regular intervals. The best drink is soft water. If there is vomiting, a drink made by steeping whole parched corn, is excellent. Also oatmeal coffee is good. The juice of acid fruits is beneficial, and can be used freely. But on no account allow the pulp, seed or skin to be eaten. Remember, very little nourishment can be appropriated. The child, especially if nursing, often takes food on account of thirst.

A compress wrung from cold water should be applied if there is local heat, and allowed to remain for two or three hours, then removed, and the parts bathed in tepid water. If there is pain, hot fomentations or hot enemas, will be advantageous.

Under all circumstances avoid opiates and astringents. These stop the discharges without removing the cause, and if the disease does not recur in the same form, some other organ is liable to become affected. If the child seems to need nourishment and is not able to take it, an enema of a thin bran tea will prove nourishing without being irritating.

Keep the child quiet, in a well ventilated room, or in the open air. A bed made of the inside corn husks stripped fine, is the best. A new material for bedding made of Florida moss is excellent. A child, sick or well, should not sleep on bed or pillows of feathers. By observing these simple directions most cases of this dread disease can be saved.

Remedies for dysentery and summer complaint.

Arsenicum, 3d.—The discharges are thin, watery, yellow, accompanied by thirst, hands and feet hot. Six pellets every two hours.

Cuprum, 3d.—Discharges green, frequent and small, with much pain. Six pellets every two hours.

Camphor tincture.—Discharges watery, frequent vomiting, coldness of extremities. Prepared and given as on page 221.

Mercury sol., 3d.—Discharges watery, gush out, followed by sinking, have a bad odor. Six pellets every three hours.

Mercury cor., 3d.—Green discharges streaked with mucus or blood, accompanied by straining effort. Six pellets every four hours.

Veratrum Viride, 3d.—Coldness of extremities, head hot, thirst, nausea, vomiting. Six pellets every two hours.

Phosphorus, 3d.—Odorless, clay colored discharges. Four pellets every hour.

Inflammation of the bowels is inflammation of the intestines, involving either all their coats or only their mucus lining. The symptoms are rigors, followed by dry, hot skin; quick, wiry, strong pulse; thirst, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea or constipation; severe pain in the abdomen, especially around the navel, aggravated by pressure. Lies on his back with his knees drawn up.

Causes.—Errors in diet, cold, use of drugs, especially of purgatives and strong medicines used to check diarrhea. Remember what is said of diarrhea on page 224, and do not be in haste to check the first symptoms. Use liquid food only. It is seldom necessary to give remedies.

Hot fomentations alternated with cold compresses carefully adjusted, will prove very efficacious. Hot enemas should also be given.

Dentition under natural and proper conditions should not be accompanied by constitutional disturbances. Some law must have been violated to have caused derangements with teething.

The symptoms of the disorders of dentition are hot, swollen gums, accompanied by feverishness and restlessness, starting, as if in fright, or interrupted sleep, increased flow of saliva, various eruptions on the head or body, derangements of the digestive organs. Summer complaint is the most frequent of the ailments peculiar to teething, which see page 225.

The most prevalent and serious cause for these ailments is to be found in the adoption of a mixed diet at too early an age. A teething infant cannot with impunity be thus fed. This is sufficiently proved by the lack of a full complement of teeth needful for mastication. Disturbed conditions of the mother, as worry, anger, over-heating, and fatigue often result in serious effects on the nursing child.

Let the gums be bathed frequently in cold water. Lancing is seldom necessary.

Starchy foods and sweets should be avoided. It has been proven that the love for sweets often manifested by children is an unnatural appetite. It is doing injury to the teething infant to cultivate this taste by universally sweetening its food. Supplement the milk diet with graham mush, wheatlet, granula, or bread of the fine flour of the entire wheat.

Keep the child much in the open air. See that the head is cool and the feet warm. Bathe daily in cold water, and keep a flannel band or shirt about the abdomen.

Chamomilla, 2d.—An excellent medicine for most cases of disordered dentition, especially in the absence of fever. Also when there is bilious purging, intestinal irritation, cough, nervousness and fretfulness. Six pellets every hour.

Aconitum, 2d.—Feverishness, restlessness, inflamed gums. Ten drops in half a glass of water, teaspoonful every half hour. A cloth wet in this preparation given to a child to hold in its mouth will alleviate heat and pain in the gums, and will be highly appreciated by the little one.

Calcarea Carb., 3d.—Slimy diarrhea in scrofulous patients. Six pellets every three hours.

Arsenicum, 3d.—Thirst, hot hands and feet, great emaciation. Six pellets every hour.

Bell., 3d.—Flushed face, nervous irritability, uneasiness in sleep. Six pellets every hour.

Pod., 2d.—Diarrhea with pain of an intermitting character, prolapsus ani. Six pellets every three hours.

Silicea, 6th.—Perspiration about the head upon falling asleep. Six pellets three times a day.