The Opelousas courier., 1892-07-23
THE MOTHER AS DOCTOR.
SOME REMEDIES WHICH SHE
SHOULD HAVE AT HAND.
Gases Where an Ounce of Prevention
is Better Than d Pound Of Cure
What t0 Have in the House,


What to Havei in the House.
~ VERY mother Of little children
Il, should be, to a certain extent,
VI het own family physician. A
- woman possessed of an average
share of common sense can hardly nurse
one or more children through the dis
orders incident to babyhood and child
hood without acquiring a good stock of
information as to how to treat attacks OF
slight indisposition. Her domestic
practice should, however, be, restricted
to the administration of e simplest
remedies, Of external applieaaSns and of
preventives rather than ptofessed cures.
Her knowledge should stand her in good
stead in emergencies, and yet be
tempered with the judgment that will
direct her to call in a physician at the
least menace of serious sickness.
A child should be 10 closely watched
by the mother that 40 arrangement of
its system may escape her notice. She
should ascertain for herself that all its
bodily functions are IN proper working
order. Her trained touch should note
in q moment any unusual heat or chilli.
ness of the child's body, the dryness Of
the skin, the o~vee-quickness of the pulse.
She should learn to know at a glance
whether the throat and tongue are in
their normal condition, and her ear
should be schooIed to detect the differ
ence between natural and labored or
shortened respiration. 4 fever Their
mometer should be IA every family
medicine chest, and the mother should
understand how to take her child's
temperature, and thus make herself
absolutely sure whether the patient is
feverish or not. Even when the
symptoms are such as to cause alarm, a
physician is not always at hand, aud
upon the mother there deyclyes the
charge of the little one. 4 few general
hints as to simple modes of treatment
may not be amiss.
Some children have a tendency
towards Group that manffests itself as
night approaches in feverishhess, hoarse-
ness and a barking cough. Such synp-
toms must not he disregarded. The
child's feet must be we'll heated before it
goes to bed, its chest rubbed with cam
phorated oil and covered with a bit of
red flannel spread with vaseline. Aconite
may be given at the rate of half O drop
in a t~easpoonful of water every half hour
fof three or four doses. If the cold ID
a fresh ore this may check it and pro.
duce a gentle respiration. When the un-
pleasant symptoms remain, fifteen drops
of syrup of ipecae may be given every
twenty minutes until the hoarseness is
relieved or the child vomits. Should the
little one waken suddenly from sleep
with a hoarse cough and frightened
breathing, a %teaspoonful of ipecac CON.
tanning as much powdered alum as can
be heaped on a silver dime may be ad-
ministered. If the child does aot vomit
within half an hour, the dose may be re.
peated. A bath in water of about ninety
five degrees is, of course, excellent in
Group, as in congestion or convulsions.
Croupy children should be kept housed
while there is melting on the
ground. The snow air often affects them
even then, and makes thaws anxious sea-
sons for mothers.
. Slight bowel troubles can usually be
regulated better by diet than by drugs.
Children suffering with looseness of the
bowels should be fed with boiled milk,
boiled rice, arrovroot jelly. rice flour
porridge, sage or tapioca and soft toast.
Raw fruit and sweets should be especially
avoided. The regimen is not severe, and
is more attractive than dosing. Children
whose tendency is in the opposite direc-
ton should have a laxative diet, consist
ing of oatmeal, hominy. mush, wheaton
grits, baked potatoes, beef juice, apple
sauce, etc. Sugar of milk may be added
to the food as a gentle corrective, q tea
spoonful three times a day usually being
enough to produce the desired effect.
Pain in the stomach or bowels, or
collie, ID so varied in its manifestations
that it is hard to lay down any fixed
rule of treatment. If the collie springs
from acidity, a t~easpoonful of lime wa
ter, or a pinch of carbonate of soda dis
solved in a little water will often relieve
the patient. Where there is any incli-
nation to s3urness of stomach, lime water
should always be added to the milk
which q child drinks. For pain in the
bowels a %teaspoonful Of anise cordial
mixed with q te~aspoonful Of hot water
often produces a happy effect. Flan-
nels dipped in hot spirits and wrung out
may be laid on the bowels of the sufferer,
and frequently prove very soothing. In
sharp pain laudanum may be added to
the spirits. An old fashioned spice
plaster in excellent remedy. It is made
bymixing a heaping teaspoonful each Of
ground cinnamon cloves, mace and all
spice with two o. .ginger. The mixture
is quilted between two thicknesses of
red flannel about eight inches long by
six wide. The plaster may be applied
dry o. dipped in boiling alcohol and laid
on the little patients abdomen as hot as
he can bear it. In cases Of weakness of
the bowels this plaster may be worn con-
stantly with benefit.
Although an overuse of drugs Is al
ways to be deplored, each home where
there are little folks should be supplied
with its medicine chest or cabinet, kept
locked, and the key in the mothers
possession. In this box or cupboard,
besides the paregoric, ipecac and pep
permint bottles, there should be aconite
for feverishness, linseed oil fer burns,
ammonia tor bee stings, camphor for
inHnenzas. and a vial al brandy for s,d.