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Page 56
DIARRHOEA
_In case a child is taken with diarrhoea, what should be done?_
With a moderate looseness of the bowels in an older child, solid food
should be stopped, and boiled milk given diluted with gruel; the child
should be kept perfectly quiet, as walking about always aggravates
such a disturbance. If the symptoms are more severe and attended by
fever and vomiting, all milk should be stopped at once, and only
broth, barley water, or some thin gruel given. Some cathartic, usually
castor oil, is required with a severe attack.
If the patient is an infant, the milk should be diluted and especially
should the fat be reduced (see page 76). In severe attacks with
vomiting or frequent foul stools, all food should be stopped for at
least twelve hours and all milk for a longer time, and the bowels
freely moved by a cathartic.
_Why is a cathartic necessary if the movements are already frequent?_
Such movements are nearly always due to an irritation in the bowel,
set up by the fermenting food which has not been digested. The
diarrhoea is Nature's effort to get rid of the irritant. Nothing to
stop the movements should be given until the bowels have been
thoroughly cleared by the treatment mentioned.
BAD HABITS
_What are the most common bad habits of young children?_
Sucking, nail-biting, dirt-eating, bed-wetting, and masturbation.
_What do children suck?_
Most frequently the thumbs or fingers, sometimes the clothing or
blanket; often the "pacifier" or rubber nipple.
_When is this habit most frequently seen?_
It begins in quite early infancy, and if not broken may last until
children are six or seven years old.
_Is the sucking habit a harmful one?_
When persisted in it may produce a misshapen mouth or fingers. It
constantly stimulates the flow of saliva and certainly aggravates
disturbances of digestion during which the sucking habit is likely to
be practised. It may lead to thrush or other forms of infection of the
mouth. It is not necessary as a means of quieting a child, though it
may in some degree cover up the consequences of bad feeding or bad
training. On no account should the habit of sucking the "pacifier" be
allowed as a means of putting children to sleep, or of quieting them
while restless from dentition or indigestion.
_How is the sucking habit to be controlled?_
One should be sure in the first place that the constant sucking of
fingers is not due to hunger from insufficient food. Sucking of the
hands may often be controlled by wearing mittens or fastening the
hands to the sides during sleep. In more obstinate cases it may be
necessary to confine the elbow by small pasteboard splints to prevent
the child from bending the arm so as to get the hand to the mouth.
_When are nail-biting and dirt-eating seen, and how are they to be
controlled?_
These habits belong especially to children over three years old. They
are seen particularly in those who are excessively nervous or whose
general health is below par; sometimes in those who develop serious
nervous diseases later in life. Children with such tendencies should
be closely watched, and every means used to break up these habits
early. Dirt-eating is a morbid craving which is rarely seen in a
normal child.
_At what age may a child generally be expected to go without wetting
the bed during the night?_
Usually at two and a half years, if it is taken up late in the
evening. Some children acquire control of the bladder at night when
two years old, and a few not until three years. After three years
habitual bed-wetting is abnormal.
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