Infantile paralysis is a serious disease of the spinal cord which comes on very suddenly and is a.s.sociated with vomiting, pain in the legs, and a high temperature. After these symptoms have lasted a day or two the paralysis is discovered. There may be convulsions. The paralysis is progressive, and the wasting of the muscles increases until by the end of a couple of months one limb is considerably shorter than the other. Sometimes the baby goes to bed at night in apparent good health and wakes up in the morning paralyzed.
In this disease the attention of the best physician in your community should be called to the case at once, for there are being developed in our large research laboratories special vaccines for this condition as well as for spinal meningitis. But what is done must be done very, very early, so let there be no delay in calling in medical counsel.
There are other forms of spinal paralysis which, a.s.sociated with tuberculosis of the spine and other spinal diseases, result in loss of power to one or more groups of muscles. The only treatment that can be given in the home is to keep all of the paralytic portions of the body very warm by external heat, care being taken to avoid burning, and secure medical advice. Often, later in the course of the disease, by the aid of crutches and braces, the child can be taught to go to school and to get around the house about his little duties.
The slight facial paralysis which is so often seen in babies that have been delivered with forceps, usually clears up in a few days or at the latest in a few weeks or months.
SAINT VITUS" DANCE
Saint Virus" dance (ch.o.r.ea) is a peculiar disorder seen in nervous children, and which usually clears up in a few weeks or months under proper treatment. It is characterized by irregular jerkings pretty much all over the body, so that the child staggers as he walks, drops his food at the table, and executes many other noticeably abnormal movements. The child should be taken out of school at once and removed from a.s.sociation with children who might make sport of him or otherwise annoy him and thus increase these irregular jerkings. He should at once be put under the direction of competent medical authority. Simple food, colon hygiene, more or less complete rest, and freedom from annoying circ.u.mstances, will usually bring about a speedy recovery.
CONGENITAL DISORDERS
_Water on the Brain_ is characterized by an enlarged head due to an increased acc.u.mulation of fluid within the cranium. While the face remains small the head greatly increases in size so that oftentimes it must be braced while the child is compelled to remain in a wheel chair. The mentality is usually fairly normal, but the enormous weight of the head compels the life-long occupancy of a wheel chair.
_Deaf-Mutism._ The child born deaf pays no attention whatever to sounds. An intellectual expression is seen on his face and by six months he is able to do all that a normal baby can do with the exception of hearing. The child should early be taken to an ear specialist in the endeavor, if possible, to correct the defect of hearing. Such little ones who are destined to a life without sound, should be given every opportunity to learn to read the lips and to secure a good education--to be taught a vocation where eyesight is of more value than hearing. Special inst.i.tutions are in existence today which can take these deaf mutes when small and so teach them to make audible sounds that they can make themselves understood--at least partially. Lip reading is a wonderful improvement over the deaf and dumb alphabet, and should be taught early.
_Congenital Blindness._ Perhaps not until the child is six months old can the observer distinguish between blindness and idiocy. The blind child of course will not fix his eyes upon any object; but the general la.s.situde and the inability to hold up its head, while seen in idiocy, is not present in blindness.
_Feeble Mindedness._ A baby that is born with a weak mind is found to be very backward in all the normal developmental attainments of the growing child. A normal baby holds up its head at four months and should be able to sit erect at six months. The weak-minded baby will not do this, and often as late as two years it will not make any attempt to walk or to talk. There is an unnatural expression--a vacant look--to the face, while there is often much dribbling at the mouth.
_Early Training should be Inst.i.tuted._ It is necessary to call the attention of a physician to these facts, that the parents may be instructed in regard to the early training which is so essential in all these weak-minded little folk. In our opinion it is best to remove these children early to special inst.i.tutions, where their education can be superintended by those thoroughly accomplished and accustomed to dealing with this cla.s.s. There are varying grades of feeble mindedness--the backward child who requires a longer time to learn things, and the child who is slow at school and possibly cannot get through more than the fourth or fifth grade--but as soon as weak mindedness is discovered, it is best to transfer the child to some special inst.i.tution.
CHAPTER x.x.xII
SKIN TROUBLES
One of the earliest skin troubles that the average normal child suffers from is p.r.i.c.kly heat--a tiny, red-pointed rash always accompanied by sweating and usually resulting from over-dressing, stuffy rooms, and other conditions that make the child too warm.
p.r.i.c.kly heat produces more or less discomfort but usually little or no itching. Ordinarily, a sponge bath followed by the application of talc.u.m powder is sufficient to give relief in mild cases; but severe or neglected cases should be treated by means of bran baths, a cupful of bran being tied up in a gauze bag and suspended in water until the water a.s.sumes a milky color. Soda baths, two tablespoons to a gallon of water, are also very soothing. A baby should never receive any friction with a towel after such baths, but should be rolled up in a clean linen towel and simply patted dry.
CHAFING
Great care should be exercised in the choice of baby"s soaps. Among a number of soaps that might be mentioned castile soap is, perhaps, as good as any. Frequent sponging is required to wash off the irritating perspiration; cool clothing, plenty of talc.u.m powder, a dose of calcined magnesia, and a regulated diet are necessary to clear up the trouble.
Chafed skin, particularly between the b.u.t.tocks or in other folds and creases, should be kept free from soap. Either the starch or bran bath may be tried, while olive oil should be frequently and lightly rubbed over the chafed part. A bit of sterile cotton placed between the folds to prevent friction is often all that is necessary to correct the difficulty.
Dandruff or milk crust which is often seen on young babies" scalps has been described in detail elsewhere. It should early receive the vaseline rub at night which will often loosen up the hardened crusts.
It may be gently removed in the morning with soap and water unless the case has gone on to great severity. In such neglected cases the mother should not undertake to correct the difficulty alone. Taken early, when the scalp is covered with tiny flakes known as milk crust, it can be quickly relieved.
VULVOVAGINITIS
Vulvovaginitis is a very contagious disease, and before the days of hospital asepsis, which is so perfectly maintained today in our large inst.i.tutions, this disease used to go right through a children"s ward because of carelessness in the handling of soiled diapers, etc. The sign of this disease is a yellow-white v.a.g.i.n.al discharge, while the surrounding skin covering the inside of the thighs and b.u.t.tocks may be very much reddened. The baby should be taken at once to the physician at the first appearance of these symptoms. Only rigid isolation can possibly prevent other children from getting it--essentials are separate towels, wash towels, soap (in the case of the older children), and, in the case of the baby, separate diapers and rigid scrubbing of the attendant"s hands--in this way only can this infection be held in check. The infected child should sleep by herself, and utmost care must be exercised in preventing her fingers from first touching the itching v.u.l.v.a and then placing them to the eyes or to the mother"s eyes. A v.u.l.v.a pad must be worn as long as the disease lasts. The physician will give you the proper medicines to be used in these cases, and if no physician is within reach, you are perfectly safe in dropping into the spread apart v.u.l.v.a a few drops of twenty-per-cent argyrol and then applying the v.u.l.v.a pad. After each treatment the hands of the mother or nurse must be most rigidly cleansed.
ECZEMA
Eczema is a very troublesome disease, particularly in infants; there are so many forms of it that there is neither time nor s.p.a.ce in this volume to describe them individually. This disease may be produced in children by either internal or external causes--from friction on the skin, from coa.r.s.e, rough woolen clothes, or from starched garments, or from lace or starched bonnet strings which rub into the folds of the skin. Irritating soap, the contact of soiled diapers, cheap toilet powders, and discharges from the nose and ears may also be responsible for the disease. The particular internal causes are over-feeding, digestive disturbances, the too early use of starches which create fermentation in the intestinal tract. In the most frequent form of eczema the skin becomes red and then there appear tiny vesicles (water blisters) which soon rupture and "weep." This fluid which oozes from these tiny, ruptured vesicles, in connection with the perspiration and exfoliation of old skin, forms heavy crusts upon the face which are both unsightly and annoying.
Another form of eczema is simply a very badly chafed condition accompanied by intense itching, and commonly known as "dry eczema." A very disagreeable form is the pustular variety. One poor little sufferer that was once brought to us had so many pustules on his head that one could not put a ten cent piece on his scalp without touching a pustule. The treatment of these cases, in order to be effective and leave the child"s head in normal condition, must be administered with the utmost patience every day for weeks. A doctor"s help is always required in combating this sort of skin trouble. If the cause is external, then the clothes should be changed. All irritation should be removed--the clothing must not be allowed to scratch the skin. The child must not scratch himself. If necessary, little splints may be placed on the inside of his arms to prevent his bending the elbows if the eczema is on the face, while the little sleeves may be pinned to the side of the dress to resist the movement of the arms.
ECZEMA TREATMENT
The diet should be most carefully looked into. The nursing mother will earnestly look into every article of food she herself is eating, and carefully avoid all foods that produce fermentation or decomposition.
The mother"s urine should be examined and its acidity noted; if it is above normal she should take some alkalines such as ordinary baking soda or calcined magnesia. If it is a bottle-fed baby, any form of flour should be removed from the food and the quant.i.ty of the milk reduced. All this, of course, is done under the direction of the physician. Repeated doses of castor oil may be given.
The name of the medicinal agents that have been used in the treatment of eczema, is legion. Perhaps one of the most widely used is the early varnishing of the affected skin with ichthyol (one part ichthyol, one part distilled water), which is swabbed on after the skin has been cleansed with olive oil. Allow this to almost dry, and then sprinkle on talc.u.m powder which smooths over the dry varnish of ichthyol. This is worn every night and during the day, in bad cases, even when the eczema is on the face. It is renewed each day, and is preceded by the olive-oil bath. No water or soap is ever used in eczema. Fortunately, the Eskimo has taught us that the skin really can be cleansed with oil as well as with water. In the appendix will be found two prescriptions, number one and number two, that have proved very beneficial in some of the most severe forms of eczema.
HIVES AND FRECKLES
Hives, a crop of little raised red papules closely resembling lesions caused by the sting of a mosquito, may make their appearance upon the skin of the child, remain a few hours, and then disappear. Hives are usually due to digestive disturbances and may be caused by such foods as strawberries, nuts, pastries, pineapple, certain sea foods, mushrooms, etc. A good cathartic, the taking of alkalines, such as baking soda or calcined magnesia, with a bran or starch bath, or possibly a soda bath, will usually correct the difficulty. The same treatment may be used in nettle rash or p.r.i.c.kly heat.
Freckles seem to run in families. Broad-brimmed hats or sunbonnets may be worn, but under no circ.u.mstance should a little girl be bidden to remain in the house and shun the beautiful, sunshiny outdoors just because she freckles easily. Do not apply any lotions to the freckled face without medical advice, for great harm may be done the tender skin of the child.
RINGWORM
Often upon the scalps of young children may be seen circles--rather, patches--which are slightly rough to the touch, and which cause the hair to fall out and the spots to remain bald. They are known as ringworms of the scalp. The affection may likewise appear on the body or the face, presenting a ring of reddened skin with a scaly border.
Ringworm on the scalp is hard to treat and medical help should be secured, for, in spite of all that can be done, the disease often runs its course, leaving round bald spots over the head. Ringworm of the face, taken early, is helped by carefully painting with tincture of iodine. The mother should constantly bear in mind that ringworm is a "catching" disease, so that all handkerchiefs, towels, and clothes are to be kept separate. The disease known as mange which so often attacks dogs, is nothing more than ringworm, and children often contract the disease from dogs. Ringworm, whether it be on children or dogs, may be greatly helped by the use of tincture of iodine and other appropriate remedies.
BOILS
The much poulticing of boils has done an untold amount of mischief.
Many children and adults are in their graves today because of improper treatment of boils. Blood poisoning which so often follows the careless poulticing, as well as the uncleanly opening of boils, can all be avoided. Before touching a boil, the surrounding skin should be thoroughly washed with sterile cotton and laundry soap and then disinfected with alcohol. Then, with a scalpel or a surgeon"s knife which has been either boiled for twenty minutes or allowed to remain in pure carbolic acid two minutes and then in alcohol two minutes, it should be thoroughly opened down to the core so that the pus may come out. It is very much better for the trained hands of a physician to do this than for any member of the family to undertake such an operation--where the danger of blood poisoning is always present. The only treatment of skin eruptions containing pus which is justifiable for the home folks to undertake is to simply paint them with iodine.
Under no circ.u.mstance should poultices be used.
FEVER BLISTERS
It is not at all uncommon for small children to develop a group of fever blisters on the lips when suffering with any disease, or experiencing a high fever. Even a simple cold or a spell of indigestion may be accompanied by fever blisters. They appear not only on the lips but also on the edges of the nose and may even be seen on the chin.
Early in their first appearance they may be treated with spirits of camphor or plain alcohol, which sometimes tends to abort them; but they usually run their course, and when they are fully developed they may be treated with zinc oxide, simple borated vaseline, or ichthyol.
WARTS
Very often children"s hands are disfigured by warts. They appear suddenly, develop rapidly, and many times disappear just about as suddenly as they appeared. Every child suffering from warts usually pa.s.ses through the stage of charms and lingoes which are popularly used to remove these disagreeable growths. We hardly see any efficacy in "bean-ie, bean-ie take this wart away," or any particular virtue in stealing mother"s dishcloth, cutting it up into as many pieces as there are warts on the hand and rubbing each wart with a separate piece of the cloth; but you will find people in every town or village who will a.s.sure you that their warts were driven away by one of these charms or lingoes. Warts are either better left alone or removed by a physician with the high-frequency spark or some other reliable method.