Worms—Thread or pin worms and round worms are most common. Thread-worms are about half an inch in length, white in color, and move rapidly. They are found in the anus or lower part of the rectum.

Thread-worms give rise to restlessness and itching about the anus, especially in the evening after first falling asleep. Give with a child’s syringe a small injection of a tablespoonful of raw linseed oil. In some instances annointing externally with the oil or with cosmoline will give relief. Keep the parts well cleansed, using suds of carbolic soap. The round-worm is from six to fifteen inches long, resembling the common earth-worm, but of a paler color. It is supposed to feed on the chyle, and lives generally in the small intestines, but it sometimes passes upward into the stomach, and is expelled by vomiting, or downward, and is ejected with the evacuations.

The presence of the round-worm may be indicated by indigestion, swelling of the abdomen, restlessness, grinding of the teeth in sleep, convulsion, etc. It is the result of a mixed diet, and is rarely found when the child has been fed on the product of the grains.

Santonine, 1st.—Grain doses, three times a day for three days. Follow this on the fourth day by a copious enema, one pint of water, to which one tea-spoon of salt has been added. After three days, if the symptoms still continue, repeat treatment.

Incontinence of Urine.—This annoying ailment is common among children. Mothers and nurses often deal impatiently with the unfortunate child, believing it to be a habit, which may be easily overcome. It is more often a malady than a habit. In neither case is it ever cured by scolding. If a habit, a promised reward is more effective than harsh treatment. Give the child a light supper devoid of liquids. Take him up once or twice in the night to urinate. Bathe the spine at bedtime with equal parts of alcohol and ammonia, followed by hand friction.

Retention of Urine.—The child is restless, uneasy and unable to pass water, beyond perhaps a small quantity, though there is frequent urging. It may be caused by cold, injuries or acute disease. A full hot bath, or hot fomentations nearly always produce relief.

Aconitum, 3d.—Retention from cold, fever, or inflammation, hot, dry skin, thirst, etc.

Cantharis, 3d.—Frequent urging, with total suppression; or the discharge, with pain, of a few drops of bloody urine.

Croup is liable to attack a child any time from the age of one month, until nine or ten years old. The attacks occur most frequently when about two or three years of age. Nothing will more quickly make a mother’s heart stand still with alarm and terror than to hear the hoarse, whistling, sonorous breathing of croup. A few directions will be of service until medical attendance can be obtained.

Authors recognize two varieties, the spasmodic and membranous, and recently some speak of diphtheritic croup. In the first, the inflammation does not run so high, and the hoarseness may be simply nervous. It runs its course rapidly. Usually the child goes to bed all right and awakens about 11 or 12 o’clock with a loud ringing or rasping cough, and some difficulty of breathing. The attack relieved, will seem all right through the following day, unless an occasional cough. Usually recurs three or four successive nights, is seldom fatal.

In membranous croup, there may be a slight hoarseness and difficulty of breathing several days before the attack becomes severe. The mucus membrane of the throat becomes red and inflamed, with a thick ropy exudation that forms in a membrane, covering the entire fauces. Fever may or may not be present. Symptoms remain much the same, day and night. Duration of the disease from two to fourteen days.

The following are a few of the symptoms to aid in distinguishing between the different forms of croup:

TRUE OR MEMBRANOUS CROUP

FALSE OR SPASMODIC CROUP.

DIPHTHERIA.

Many cases of spasmodic croup are relieved entirely by using promptly a compress of ice cold water; should be worn day and night, and kept well covered with a woolen cloth. Apply to the throat only. Renew in one or two hours, if the first application does not give relief. Many families never resort to any other means for croup, being confident that this will give certain relief.

The following remedy I have used for years with the happiest result. Families that have croupy children keep it in the house, and I seldom have to be called out at night for croup by regular patrons. It can be put up at any homeopathic pharmacy. Do not try to get it at the drug store, as the ordinary drug clerk has no inkling of homeopathic trituration.

Mix. Dry out, triturate half an hour. Put six grains in twelve tea-spoons of water, and give in tea-spoonful doses every ten or fifteen minutes. It is not necessary that the emetic effect of the drug should be secured. It has a specific action upon the air passages, and is an invaluable remedy in many of the acute affections of throat and lungs. Aconite alone gives relief frequently, and many physicians use no other remedy. The two together in the above preparation have seldom failed me, and as an old friend I recommend it. During the day following the attack give a tea-spoonful of the remedy once in two hours. Keep the child on a light diet and free from exposure.

In membranous or diphtheritic croup, the services of a physician will always be secured if possible.

Proto-iodide of mercury is my “sheet anchor” for both these affections. Of this I give the second trituration in grain doses every two hours. Often give the prescription recommended for spasmodic croup at the same time, a tea-spoonful every twenty or thirty minutes. Other remedies, such as iodine, bromine, nitrate of amyl, bichromate of potassa, phosphorus, etc., are used as the symptoms indicate; but the proto-iodide or bin-iodide of mercury will meet the exigencies of more cases than any other one known remedy. Of course hot baths, hot fomentations and cold compresses must be brought into requisition. I have seen great relief, even where the disease seemed in the last stages, from a poultice of fresh phytolacca (pokeroot), applied to the throat. This is made by pounding the root and mixing it with hot flaxseed or meal poultice. Not being able to procure the root, fluid extract can be used.

Diphtheria is now considered an infectious disease, produced by bacteria or infusoria that inoculate the patient. Many claim to be able to cure the disease by local means only, while the invasion is only local, before the entire system is poisoned. A child in robust health will usually resist the infection. The following methods of treatment are highly vaunted for their efficacy. Both of the drugs recommended are invaluable in destroying infusoria, and are used in the hands of eminent practitioners with success:

Sulphur.—Put a teaspoonful into a wine glass of water and stir it with the finger instead of a spoon, as it does not readily amalgamate with water. When well mixed, it is to be given to the patient to gargle. When the fungus is too nearly closing to allow the gargling, the sulphur should be thrown through a quill into the throat, and after the fungus has shrunk to allow it, then the gargling. If the patient cannot gargle, take a live coal, put it on a shovel, and sprinkle a spoonful of flour of brimstone upon it; let the sufferer inhale it by holding the head over it, and the fungus will die. Sulphur kills every species of fungus in man, beast and plant, in a few minutes. At one time at Princess Mary’s Cottage Home, London, an outbreak of diphtheria attacked fifty of the inmates. One of the lady nurses cured them all by causing the patients to gargle with sulphur, and to take it internally.

Permanganate of potassium.—Take ten grains and mix with one ounce of cold water. As soon as dissolved it must be applied with a rag or sponge, mop or swab, to the whitish places in the tonsils and other parts, on which is seen the diphtheritic membrane. Do this very gently, but thoroughly, every three hours until better; then every six hours until well. It does not give pain but is rather nauseous to the taste. In the stinking form of diphtheria this solution soon destroys all odor, and in most cases it destroys the membrane without leaving any bad effect behind.

The following is given if the tongue is coated white.

Mix. Give a teaspoonful every one to three hours.

If the tongue is not coated,

Tea-spoonful doses every one to three hours.

The phytolacca is the common poke-root, and as it loses its strength by drying and age, the tincture should be from the fresh root, or it is worthless.

Contagious diseases common to infants usually need cause no apprehension. Under favorable conditions they run their course in a few days. Ordinarily, the danger, and ailments following these diseases are the result of the prevailing drug treatment. Give the patient light, fresh air and all the water he wants, with frequent bathing, and in most cases the physician will not be required. This is especially true of measles. The prevailing custom of confining the patient in heated and darkened rooms, smothering him with blankets, and dosing him with hot teas will bring about the very conditions to be avoided.

Give him no food unless he craves it, then for a few days liquids only. Remember that all eruptive diseases are only the expression of existing conditions, and if not interfered with will leave the child in a better state of health. If the intelligent mother has given birth to a healthy child, she need not fear to encounter these affections in their simple form. Indeed, children most in harmony with nature escape them altogether.

Scarlet fever, or scarletina is more liable to assume a malignant form than any other eruptive fever. When this threatens, the case should be placed in the hands of a competent physician. It spreads by infection rapidly and insiduously. The rash first appears on the breast, then on neck, face, body and limbs. This is preceded by a sore throat, with the usual symptoms of fever. Thorough and abundant ventilation is a most vital point in the treatment. Use carbolic acid freely. Keep a sheet wet in a solution of it hanging in the room. The patient should be frequently sponged. If the throat is troublesome apply a wet compress, and occasionally inhale steam. The wet pack, as prescribed on page 225, is most valuable, if administered by an experienced person. An eminent physician testifies that he never lost a case of scarlet fever in which he used the wet pack.

In suppression of the eruption a hot bath or pack is efficacious in bringing it out.

Diet.—New milk and hot milk (reduced one-third). Milk is a good antidote for poison, and lessens the virulence of the fever. Grapes, oranges and fruit juice are excellent.

Whooping cough is both epidemic and contagious. It is usually mild in a healthy child, but severe and sometimes fatal in others. The younger the child the more dangerous the disease. The cough is generally worse at night. Even after apparent recovery it may be brought back by exposure to cold, by improper food, or by want of careful nursing. A reasonable amount of outdoor exercise is conducive to the favorable progress of the malady. Dampness should be avoided, as the skin is generally sensitive to cold, especially after a fit of coughing. Infants should be carefully watched, day and night, that they may be placed in a favorable position during the paroxysms.

Light, digestible food in moderate quantities should be given frequently. Hot milk is especially soothing and nutritious, particularly during the first days of the attack, and may well take the place of all other food.

Convulsions rarely attack very young infants, unless from malformation of the heart. Convulsions usually accompany teething, indigestion, whooping cough, fevers, worms, indeed any disease that causes a reflex action upon the brain. Occasionally a child has a convulsion without any premonitory symptom, but usually there will be a restlessness in sleep, a rolling of the head, twitching of the limbs, with clenched fists, stertorious breathing, and heavy, lethargic sleep. From this condition there is suddenly involuntary muscular contractions, rolling of the eyes, frothing at the mouth, and the head drawn backward. Whatever is to be done must be done quickly, and generally before medical aid can be summoned. First, the mother and attendants must command themselves. Nothing is more frightful than to see a little one in convulsions, but upon no occasion is self-possession more needed. Remember children rarely die in the first paroxysm.

Get the child into hot water as soon as possible. Don’t wait to remove its clothing; put into a foot-tub or child’s bath having the water as hot as can be borne, supporting it on two hands. And from time to time as much hot water as the hands will bear. It should remain in the bath until relaxation is produced, and then be wrapped in thoroughly heated blankets.

If there is not sufficient warm water in the house for a bath, it is often quite as effectual to take a pitcher of hot water, turn the child upon its face, hold it over a pail, and pour the water on the back of the neck. This is more easily managed than a bath, and often is all that is requisite to bring about relaxation. A bag of hot salt laid to the back of the neck will prevent a return. If there is constipation or irritation in the bowels, give a copious enema of warm soft water. If worms are suspected, add salt, a tea-spoonful to one pint of water.

For further treatment, as there are so many different things that will cause spasms, one should better depend upon medical advice.

In closing these brief hints upon diseases of children, I wish to impress upon the parent’s mind the fact that in nine cases out of ten children need no treatment for their ailments. Their natural recuperative power gives them ability to throw off disease in a marvelous manner.

Too much care and nursing is quite as harmful as too little. It is ordinarily better to make light of their ailments, and teach them the power of self-resistance to the encroachments of disease. A cheerful, hopeful manner, accompanied by the encouraging word, is quite as helpful in sickness of children as in that of adults.

Do not discuss their ailments before them. Avoid hinting that sickness is possible, or anticipating it for them as results of certain conduct. Keep it from your own mind also. Never allow yourself to say: “If you go out in the cold you will get sick.” “Don’t sit by the window you will take cold.” “Now do get out of that draft.” “You must not eat so much. Now, there, not one mouthful more, you will be sick.” “Do put on your overcoat and rubbers.”

Now, dear mothers, this may be a new thought to you, but this very caution, born of love and solicitude, creates a fear that may make it possible for your children to be sick. Let a child lead an active, rollicking life in harmony with nature, and in himself will certainly be developed power to resist disease.

It is possible to make health contagious.