Mother's Remedies, Thomas Jefferson Ritter [reading well .TXT] 📗

cross. The eruption is bright red in color, and appears in blotches or wheels.

Treatment.—Give the child a laxative like magnesia or citrate of magnesia, or epsom salts and cream of tartar, of each two ounces. Dose, one-half teaspoonful in water every three hours until the bowels move freely. (One-year-old).

To relieve the itching.—Sop the spots with warm water, and a little soda, or an entire bath can be given of this if the eruption is extensive.

RUPTURE in a Baby. (Navel).—Take a strip of oxide of zinc adhesive plaster about one and one-half inches wide and long enough to reach three-fourths around the baby's body. Fasten one end of this to one side of the abdomen and with the other hand gently push the rupture back; bring the skin on either side of the navel together so that it will meet and hold the rupture. Bring the plaster tightly across the abdomen, across the navel and attach it firmly to the other side; change this dressing every few days and continue treatment until healed.

COLDS in Babies.—Many babies seem to take cold without any cause. It is often due to the fact that the room is too warm, or they are clothed too warmly; they get easily overheated and feel the slightest draught of air. If it is in his nose and it is stopped up, twist a piece of cotton on a small wooden piece like a tooth-pick and dip it into olive oil and put it into the nostrils a short distance. If necessary, buy a nose syringe with a soft rubber tip, and use it twice daily. The following solution is good: one-half teaspoonful of boric acid powder, one ounce of glycerin, and eight ounces of warm water. Mix. Place the child on your lap, head against your chest, bend his head well forward and syringe one nostril and then the other. Camphor cream is a good remedy. For a cough and much wheezing use a mustard plaster. Take one part mustard, six parts flour and mix it into a smooth paste with a little cold water, spread it between two layers of muslin, warm it and moisten with a little water if necessary, and put it on the upper part of the breastbone. Leave it on only long enough to redden the skin (five to six minutes). Put it on just before baby goes to bed. A drop of camphor every three hours is often good for a cold at the beginning. Aconite in small doses is also very good.

[ALL ABOUT BABY 621]

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Colds, Catnip Tea for.—"Give a little sweetened catnip tea, then grease well with camphor and lard." This is a very simple and effective remedy, especially for small babies.

(See "Colds" under General Department for more Mothers' Remedies,)

Early signs of sickness.—When a baby who persistently refuses his food is drowsy at unusual times, fretful, feverish, and is uncomfortable, the mother should look in baby's mouth, for sore throat or tonsils, or on his body for rashes. Undress the baby and put him to bed in a quiet room away from the rest of the family, and if he is hot and restless give him a sponge bath with one teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda to a basin of luke-warm water. Give him also an enema to move his bowels, especially if they are not regular. Dilute his usual food with water or barley water to one-half the usual strength. If he is old enough to eat solid food, stop it. A dose of a teaspoonful of castor oil is safe to give until the doctor comes. Give him water to drink for he is thirsty. Take his temperature.

CARING FOR BURNS, BRUISES, CUTS, WOUNDS, ETC., IN BABY.

For Burns.—Keep away the air from the burn. Dust soda on the burn if the skin is not too much broken, and wrap it up in clean linen. Olive oil, linseed oil, is better, or cream should be put on if it is more severe. Then a layer of clean linen and then a thin layer of cotton wool. It must not be too warmly dressed. An ointment called pineoline is excellent for burns.

For a bruise or bump.—Apply cloths hot or cold,—you can do this with flannel wrung out of very cold or hot water. Ice may be wrapped up in cotton and put on the part.

Cuts.—Wash it with clean cold water, and bind it up with clean linen. If it bleeds much, let it bleed for a few seconds, and then stop it with a pad of clean linen pressed firmly on the part and held there until it stops.

SPLINTERS.—Remove them and dress as for any other wound.

POISONING.—Children will get hold of poison, and mother had better have antidotes, etc., to use in case of necessity. Rat poison, fly poison, matches, etc.

Treatment.—First use emetics; mustard and luke-warm water or one teaspoonful of alum in a glass of luke-warm water; a little salt and warm water; ten to fifteen drops syrup of ipecac, and then warm water. For fly poison, give one-half ounce of olive oil in same amount of lime-water, and repeat it every five or six minutes, for five or six doses, and then white of an egg, and keep child warm. Antidote for arsenic is freshly precipitated, sesquioxide of iron. Go to druggist and tell him to prepare it; tell him what it is wanted for, and give this in doses of an ounce at a time as the oil was given.

For poisoning from sucking matches.—Vomit the child freely, but do not give anything oily, as milk or egg, as this dissolves the phosphorus.

[622 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Oxalic acid is sometimes used for cleaning purposes, and mistaken for epsom salts. Give an emetic and lime-water.

For carbolic acid.—Give an emetic, and then white of an egg and epsom salts.

Overdose of soothing syrup.—Keep baby awake, slap with wet towel, etc.; or walk him about if he is old enough, inject strong black coffee in the rectum. Keep up the strength with stimulants.

PROPRIETARY FOODS.

These foods are sometimes of temporary use. As many of them contain very little fat, they may be used in cases of illness where fat cannot be borne. Some of these contain malt sugar, and when the baby is constipated this kind is useful when added to milk. Others can be made up of water only, and are useful and handy where it is impossible to obtain fresh milk. In cases of diarrhea the flour foods made up with water are very useful. Milk at that time acts as a poison. Some of the best foods on the market are the following—Condensed milk, Mellin's food, Horlick's Malted milk, Nestle's food, Imperial granum, Just's food, Carnrick's soluble food, Ridge's food, peptogenic milk powder, Lactated food, Eskay's, Albumenized food, cereal milk, Borden's food.

For constipation in a child.—One to two teaspoonfuls of Mellin's food, added to each bottle of his usual modified milk formula will often help a great deal. As soon as the bowels move naturally it should be gradually diminished until after four or six weeks, the child can do without it.

Condensed milk and Malted milk.—These can be prepared with water only, and so are best to use on a long journey. Give the baby one or two meals daily a week or two before the journey. Discontinue when at the end of the journey.

Imperial Granum.—This is often useful in acute diarrhea, when milk cannot be given. Mix the proportion as given on the box with water into a smooth paste, then add a pint of boiling water and boil for fifteen or twenty minutes.

Peptogenic Milk Powder.—This may be used for a short time during or after acute illness; you can add it to the formula used as directed on the package.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 625]

NURSING DEPARTMENT
Including
Care of the Sick and the Sick Room

FOODS, FORMULAE, DELICACIES FOR SICK ROOM, HOW TO PREPARE THEM; DIET IN FEVERS AND OTHER DISEASES, SECURED FROM TRAINED NURSES, PHYSICIANS AND HOSPITALS.

Every Phase of Nursing Given in Detail and in Plain Mothers'
Language, including Latest Sanitary Care and Science.

VENTILATION.—The sick room should be ventilated without any draught hitting the patient. The patient's bed should be placed out of the line of air currents. If this is not possible he must be protected by means of screens, the head of the bed being especially guarded. That draughts are dangerous is founded on fact no less than is the modern idea that an abundance of fresh air is necessary and helpful. A nurse has been guilty of gross neglect of duty when the patient contracts pneumonia through exposure to too severe currents of air. A simple way to ventilate a private room is to raise the lower sash of window six inches and place a board across the opening below; the air will then enter between the two sashes and be directed upward, where it becomes diffused and no one in the room is subjected to a draught. In a room where there is only one window a pane of glass may be taken out and a piece of tin or pasteboard may be so placed that the current will be directed upwards; or a window can be opened in an adjoining room which fills with fresh air and the door of the sick room opened afterwards to admit the air; or, the patient may be covered up, head and all, for a few minutes two or three times a day, while all the windows are thrown open, The room should be thoroughly warmed before it is so thoroughly ventilated.

[624 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

TEMPERATURE OF THE ROOM.—This should be regulated by a thermometer suspended at a central point in the room. The temperature should be regulated according to the nature of the disease and the comfort of the patient. In fevers it should be lower, varying from 55 to 60 degrees F., but in bronchial troubles it should be kept about 70 degrees F. The mean temperature should be kept about 60 degrees to 70 degrees. It should be raised or lowered gradually, so that the patient will not be overheated or chilled.

LIGHT.—The patient should have plenty of light and sunshine, but do not let the sun or light shine directly upon the face.

CARE OF THE DISCHARGES (Excreta).—This is very important. Sputa, dirty vessels, soiled dressings and linen are prolific sources of impure air.

Sputum Cups.—These should be of glazed earthenware, without any corners or cracks and provided with a simple moveable cover when in use. They should be sterilized for one hour in every twenty-four hours.

Bed Pans and Urinals.—These should be washed out thoroughly. Allow boiling hot water to run on them for some time before they are put away after being cleansed.

Soiled Dressing and Linen.—These should be received in covered basins or in paper bags and at once carried away and destroyed or disinfected, or put in a metal dressing can and closely covered until the contents can be cared for at the earliest possible time. Vomited matter or the discharges from the bowels and the urine should always be covered in the vessel either with a lid, towel or rubber cloth. The rubber is better than the cloth as it keeps in the odor and can be scrubbed and disinfected.

If the patient is too sick to use a sputum cup, the expectoration can be received in a paper handkerchief or a piece of cheese cloth and placed in a small paper bag and burned at once.

SOILED AND STAINED LINEN.—These should be put away in a covered receptacle that contains enough disinfectant solution to keep them moist. They are removed as soon as possible to the wash room to be cleaned and sterilized.

Sterilization.—This term is usually employed when heat is used to sterilize.

Disinfection.—This is the term used when chemicals are relied upon to purify (sterilize).

Heat and Chemicals are much aided by sunshine, light and fresh air, especially that of high dry climates.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 625]

The germs (bacteria) are destroyed by dry or moist heat, the latter used in the form of steam. Dry heat is not so penetrating and requires a longer time and some goods are destroyed when exposed in it long enough to destroy the germs.

In order to destroy these organisms it is thought to be necessary to expose whatever is to be sterilized to the steam at 200 degrees F. for three successive days for thirty minutes or more each day, and during the interval to keep them in a room with a temperature of 60