The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother Part 26

This subject is one of an importance which demands some attention from us in a work for parents. In the language of Dr. Vogel, 'the effects of this malady are unpleasant, for the psychical development in particular suffers. The repeated punishments which these children undergo blunt their sense of honor considerably; they become cowardly and deceitful, and have no personal spirit. If great and expensive cleanliness is not practised, the bed, and even the whole room, acquires a urinous odor, which contaminates the atmosphere and begets conditions by no means favorable to healthy growth. Such children may be ultimately attacked by indolent ulcers on the nates and lower extremities, the results of urinous excoriations.'

The only _symptom_ ordinarily present is that the child towards morning or in the middle of the night wets the bed without waking. This may happen several times during the sleep, and recur every night. In some cases the act takes place only every other night, but it is rare that there is an interval of more than one night.

The _cause_ of this failing is sometimes very simple and one easily remedied; for it is often the result of neglecting to take young children up once during the many hours they require for sleep. By attention to this matter and to the diet, the habit may be speedily broken. Unfortunately most cases are not so quickly amenable to treatment.

In the _treatment_ of this infirmity, corporal punishment should not be thought of. It is useless, cruel, and unnatural. The child might as well be punished because it squints or has club-foot.

Care must be taken to see that the little patient eats or drinks nothing for several hours before bed-time. The child should also be awakened a little before midnight, and at a very early hour in the morning, and made to empty its bladder. It is of great importance to get the child to sleep upon its side or face, as lying upon the back is sure to increase the trouble. Indeed, it is frequently observed that the child always remains clean when it is prevented from turning upon its back during sleep. The difficulty lies in the prevention. The plan of tying a cloth or towel around the child with a knot over the spinal column, to awaken it by the pain when it rolls over upon the back, so often proposed, seems good advice easily followed. But practically it fails, as it is impossible, without making the bandage too tight, to keep it in place.

The benefit which, in some instances, has followed the employment of a succession of small blisters directly over the lower part of the spinal column, is doubtless due to their forcing the child to sleep upon the face or side. The remedy is somewhat a painful one, but should be tried in obstinate cases.

The child's general health, if enfeebled, should be improved by cold baths, bitter tonics, and if possible a change of air. In no case should any mechanical means be employed to arrest the infirmity. Serious and even fatal results have followed such attempts.

If the precautions and simple remedies we have mentioned fail, recourse must be had to the family physician. The drugs which are of benefit are too powerful to be entrusted to any other hands. The hygienic method of cure we have pointed out will, if inst.i.tuted early, be effectual in all excepting very obstinate cases, which latter indeed sometimes resist for a long time the best efforts of medical skill.

LOOSENESS OF THE BOWELS.

Children under one year of age should have two movements of the bowels in the twenty-four hours, and those from one to three years at least one stool a day.

A slight attack of looseness is often beneficial if it pa.s.ses away within a day or two. It is easy, however, for such an attack to become hurtful, especially if the food be improper, or the weather warm. A looseness which is of no consequence in the winter may well excite uneasiness during the summer months.

Diarrha in a healthy child is ordinarily preceded by vomiting. If the diarrha persist long, the little patient is much prostrated by it, and rapidly reduced in flesh. Such an attack should never, therefore, be neglected.

In the case of an infant not weaned, it should be removed from the breast for half a day or more, that the stomach may have little or nothing to do. Barley or rice water, or ordinary water, may be given in small quant.i.ties at a time to relieve the thirst. This in many cases will be all the treatment required.

In the case of an elder child, all meat and vegetables should be at once forbidden, and the only food allowed for a day or two must be rice and milk, arrowroot, or milk and water.

The dose of castor oil which is so frequently given by nurses in these cases under the impression that the oil is 'healing,' is only of service when the diarrha has been caused by food of improper quality or quant.i.ty. It then aids nature in her efforts to get rid of the offending matter, which by its irritation is doing the mischief. In such instances one dose of the oil is quite sufficient. It has no 'healing' virtues, and should not be repeated from day to day.

Children who are teething are frequently affected with looseness. A warm bath every evening, and attention to the gums, will be ordinarily all that is required in these cases, at least during the cold months. It is of the utmost importance, however, during the summer that such patients, if living in the city, should be at once removed into the country; otherwise their lives are in danger.

Looseness of the bowels in children is usually best treated by careful management of the clothing and diet, by attention to all that affects the health, and by avoiding as much as possible the administration of medicines. No case should be allowed, however, to run on without seeking competent medical advice.

An excellent remedy for the diarrha of children is the subnitrate of bis.m.u.th.

This medicine may be disguised in the food, as in a case narrated by Dr.

Inmann. A lad about ten years old was brought to him by an aunt, who stated that the boy suffered much from diarrha, and was emaciating visibly; that he would not try any domestic remedy, was an obstinate fellow, and determined to take no medicine. After sending the lad to another room the doctor recommended the lady to get some white bis.m.u.th and give it to the cook, telling her to mix a large pinch of it with some b.u.t.ter, and to send in the bread and b.u.t.ter so arranged that the lady would know which was for the boy. This was done. The lad was duly drugged without his knowledge, and the diarrha stopped in two days.

INDIGESTION.

Infants and young children suffer often from indigestion, or _dyspepsia_, as well as adults. One of the most frequent signs of this disorder is vomiting. But every infant which throws up its milk is not suffering from indigestion. Vomiting is sometimes a sign of health, and shows that the stomach is vigorous enough to free itself promptly from excess of food. The child is thus saved from the effects of over-feeding. The obvious remedy is to diminish the quant.i.ty of milk taken at each nursing or meal.

But vomiting from over-feeding is very different from that caused by irritation of the stomach, which causes it to reject proper food. The common sense of the mother will enable her easily to distinguish between the two sorts. In the former, the child remains cheerful, happy, and well nourished, scarcely changing countenance even while the superabundant milk is being returned from its stomach. In the latter, the child soon becomes pale, feeble, and distressed looking.

Over-feeding, if persisted in, may occasion indigestion.

Indigestion during the first year of life shows itself by languor, pallor, and evident discomfort. The child wishes to be constantly at the breast, and suckles eagerly, but vomits the milk shortly after, usually curdled. The bowels are either constipated or too loose. The most prominent and often the only symptoms are this alternation of vomiting and an eager desire to take the breast, a.s.sociated with loss of flesh and strength. The child is evidently not nourished by the food it takes, and if relief be not afforded it sinks, and dies from starvation in the course of a month or two.

Children who are _weaned abruptly, and at a very early period_, are liable to a serious form of indigestion, which may come on in a few days after weaning, or not for several weeks.

Older children are liable to slight attacks of indigestion, which are attended with vomiting or purging, or both, for a few days, when the stomach recovers its health. In some cases, however, the derangement continues longer, the child then losing its appet.i.te, and suffering from colic, and becoming fretful, pale, and weak. The breath becomes sour, and the pa.s.sages green. Such cases require careful watching and treatment, especially during the hot weather of the summer.

In infants at the breast indigestion is usually caused by giving the breast too often or by an excess or change in the quality of the milk.

Errors in diet on the part of the mother, and other faults which we have pointed out in our chapter on nursing, are the most frequent causes of this ailment. In children who are weaned the causes are almost invariably improper food or food taken too frequently, or in too large quant.i.ties. The hint should be taken when a child rejects its food, to change it, or give it less. Instead of this, too frequently the child is urged to take more, and thus derange the stomach.

The _treatment_ of indigestion in childhood is usually easy and satisfactory. The first thing is to look to and regulate the quant.i.ty and quality of the food. If it be due to excess of food, this is easily remedied. If due to improper quality, change it promptly. When the mother's health is such that her milk is found to frequently or constantly disagree with her child, a suitable wet-nurse must be procured.

In most cases the attack is mild, and readily yields to a few hours'

abstinence from food. As it often happens, especially in artificially-fed infants, that the gastric juice is more acid than it should be, great benefit is derived from the use of _precipitated chalk or carbonate of soda_. A few grains of either of these, given several times a day for a few days, will be found to effect a surprising change and alone restore the appet.i.te and digestion.

In older children an attack of indigestion should be the signal for putting them upon a simpler and more restricted diet for a time. Milk, eggs, arrowroot, tapioca, sago, panada, &c., are better than animal food. If the child becomes much weakened, jellies, chicken, lamb, mutton, or oyster broth, beef tea, or wine whey, should be given to check the tendency to exhaustion.

We repeat, that most cases of indigestion in infants and children yield promptly to an immediate change in the diet, without medicine.

HINTS ON HOME GOVERNMENT.

On this subject, as it may be regarded as outside of our domain of hygiene, we have but few words to say. We wish, however, in the interests of medicine and hygiene, to insist upon the necessity of training children to prompt, implicit obedience to the parental voice.

As physicians, we have seen the spoilt, undisciplined child, when sick, rebellious alike to persuasion and command, refusing food and medicine, revolting against the slightest examination, and by its violence and capriciousness, converting a slight illness into a dangerous one. For a child unaccustomed to obedience there is no proper treatment possible when sick; nor when well is there any proper care possible for the preservation of the health. What it wants, and not what it ought to have, is given it, and every one knows that a child's instincts are no guide to health. With health, happiness is sacrificed also. There is no surer way of making a child miserable than by accustoming it to obtain all it wishes, and to encounter no will but its own. Its desires grow by what they feed upon. As a French writer on education has well expressed it: 'At first it will want the cane you hold in your hand, then your watch, then the bird it sees flying in the air, and then the star twinkling overhead. How, short of omnipotence, is it possible to gratify its ever-growing wants?' Accustom the child to hear 'no' and 'must,' but let these hard words be softened by voice and manner--an art in which every true mother excels.

But, on the other hand, do not hara.s.s the child by needless restrictions, nor worry it by excess of management. We desire to call attention here to the words of an eminent English divine and learned writer, Archbishop Whately:--

'Most carefully should we avoid the error which some parents, not (otherwise) deficient in good sense commit, of imposing gratuitous restrictions and privations, and purposely inflicting needless disappointments, for the purpose of inuring children to the pains and troubles they will meet with in after life. Yes; be a.s.sured they _will_ meet with quite _enough_ in every portion of life, including childhood, without your strewing their paths with thorns of your own providing. And often enough you will have to limit their amus.e.m.e.nts for the sake of needful study, to restrain their appet.i.tes for the sake of health, to chastise them for faults, and in various ways to inflict pain or privations for the sake of avoiding some greater evils. Let this always be explained to them whenever it is possible to do so; and endeavor in all cases to make them look on the parent as never the _voluntary_ giver of anything but good. To any hards.h.i.+ps which they are convinced you inflict reluctantly, and to those which occur through the dispensation of the All-wise, they will more easily be trained to submit with a good grace, than to any gratuitous sufferings devised for them by fallible man. To raise hopes on purpose to produce disappointment, to give provocation merely to exercise the temper, and, in short, to inflict pain of any kind, merely as a training for patience and fort.i.tude--this is a kind of discipline which man should not presume to attempt. If such trials prove a discipline not so much of cheerful fort.i.tude as of resentful aversion and suspicious distrust of the parent as a capricious tyrant, you will have only yourself to thank for the result.' It is a matter of common observation that those who complain of their fortune and lot in life have often to complain only of their own conduct. The same is true of those who complain of their children. They have themselves only to blame in each case.

Parents who do not appreciate the responsibilities of their position usually err on the side of over-indulgence to their children; on the contrary, those fully alive to the importance of home discipline often err on the side of over-regulation. To the latter, we commend the reply of an old lady to the anxious inquiry made by the mother of a too rigorously disciplined child as to what course should be pursued, 'I recommend, my dear, a little wholesome neglect.'

Lessons of truthfulness; of fort.i.tude in bearing pain and disappointment; of the duty of right doing, because it is right and not because it is the best policy; of frugality and industry; of self-denial, contentment, and charity, should be early impressed upon the plastic mind of infancy. We wish also, in this connection, to quote the words of a wise physician and observer of men, that 'the little child who is brought up to repeat short and simple prayers at his mother's knees, has a rule of conduct thereby instilled into him which will probably never be forgotten; and, in after life he may not only look back to these beginnings with feelings of reverence and love, but the recollection of them may serve to strengthen him in some good resolution, and help him to resist many a powerful temptation.'

We have had occasion frequently in various parts of this work to point out the intimate relations which exist between the physical and mental nature of parents and their offspring. Like parent, like child. The same close connection and sympathy extends to the moral and religious character; hence that direction and training which relies largely upon the _force of parental example_ is the most effective method of home government. Virtuous precepts, or rigidly enforced rules of conduct, avail little unless the parent keeps the path to which he points the child.

'Well, upon my word, Mrs. Primrose, you have the handsomest children in the whole country.' 'Ah! neighbor,' replied the wife of the Vicar of Wakefield, 'they are as heaven made them--handsome enough if they be good enough--handsome is that handsome does.'

IS THE RACE DEGENERATING?

This is a question which perplexes some minds in our times. A German author of note has recently written a volume to prove that each generation is feebler than the preceding. Old physicians say that in their youth diseases of exhaustion were rarer than now-a-days. For this our habits of life, the pressure on our nervous systems, the prevalence of hereditary diseases, and the excessive use of narcotics and stimulants, are held responsible. 'The fathers,' say these croakers, 'have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

We attach little weight to these gloomy views. There are plenty of facts on the other side. The suits of old armour still preserved in our museums prove that, as a rule, we have slightly gained in weight and size. Tables of life insurance companies and reports of statistics show that the average length of human life is greater than it ever was. Dr.

Charles D. Meigs used to state in his lectures that the size of the head of American infants at birth is somewhat greater than in the Old World.

That there are more numerous diseases than formerly, is not true; but it is true that we know more, for we have learned to detect them more readily and to examine them more minutely. This is especially true of such as are peculiar to women. Within the last ten or twenty years so much that is of sovereign importance has been contributed to this department of medical science, that it is hardly possible for one to become an expert in it unless he gives it his whole attention.

To avoid the tendency to debilitated frames and chronic diseases, woman should therefore learn not only the laws of her own physical life, but the relations in which she stands to the other s.e.x. Thus she can guard her own health, and preserve her offspring from degeneracy. It is only by enlightenment, and the extension of knowledge on the topics relating to soundness of body and mind, that we can found rational hopes of a permanent and wide-spread improvement of the race.

Some have maintained, not understanding the bearing of the facts, that such degeneracy is more conspicuous in the frame of woman than anywhere else. They quote the narratives of travellers, who describe with what fort.i.tude--we might almost say with what indifference--the Indian women, and those of other savage races, bear the pangs of childbirth, and how little the ordeal weakens them. A squaw will turn aside for an hour or two when on the march, bear a child, wash it in some stream, bind it on the top of her load, and shouldering both, quietly rejoin the vagrant troop. Our artificial life seems indeed, in this respect, to be to blame; but if we look closer, we can learn that these wild women often perish alone, that they are rarely fertile, that unnatural labors are not unknown, and that the average duration of their life is decidedly less than among the females in civilised States.