Mother's Remedies - Thomas Jefferson Ritter (guided reading books .txt) 📗

Child Crowing. Preventive.—The gums should be carefully examined and if they are swollen and hot they should be lanced. The bowels should be carefully regulated, and as these children are usually of a delicate nature and afflicted with rickets, nourishing food and the treatment in diet and medicine should be given for rickets. Cod liver oil is a good general remedy. (See rickets).

Cold Sponging.—In severe cases, the child should be placed in a warm bath tub and the back and chest thoroughly sponged for a minute or two with cold water. This plan may be used even when a child is in a paroxysm, though the attack is severe and the child looks blue, it is much better than to dash cold water in the face. Sometimes the attack can be stopped by introducing the finger far back into the throat.

CROUP, Spasmodic.—This disease gives the parents a terrible shock if they have never seen any attacks of the kind. The symptoms which attend the attack are out of all proportion to the real danger. It is generally the result of exposure to cold or to the cold wind. Irritating, undigested food, often causes it.

Symptoms.—Usually the child goes to bed perfectly well, or has a slight cold and wakes up an hour or two later, coughing and gasping for breath, due to a spasm in the wind pipe. The cough is shrill, more like a bark; the cough is repeated at intervals and soon the patient breathes quickly and laboriously. It must sit up for it can breathe easier sitting. The voice is oftentimes nearly or quite lost, or at least only a hoarse whisper; the face is bluish or perspiring. The spasm lasts for a variable period, but rarely exceeds one-half hour, sometimes only a few minutes. The croupy cough and oppressed breathing may last longer than this, but these too subside after a time, after which the child drops to sleep and usually rests quietly for the rest of the night. There is a tendency to recurrence on succeeding night unless obviated by treatment.

Treatment. Preventive.—Guard against such children's exposure to cold winds and dampness, dress them warmly. The living and sleeping rooms should not be too warm. Do not give them food hard to digest at any time, especially before bedtime. Foods hard to digest frequently cause the attack.

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MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Croup, Cold Application for.—"Apply to throat a flannel wrung out of cold water, lay a dry cloth over it." This is an excellent remedy for a mother to try in case of an emergency when no other medicine can be obtained. This very often will relieve a child until other remedies can be secured and has been known to save many children's lives: The cold water helps to draw the blood away from the larynx and air passages and also dilates the tubes and gives relief. Take great care not to wet the child, as this will cause it to take more cold and may prove fatal.

2. Croup, Sure Cure for.—"Give child anything that will make it vomit, soak feet in hot water, apply onion drafts to bottom of feet, roast onions and put on the chest, keep warm. My mother has cured me at least one hundred times with the above remedy. She generally gave me pig's foot oil, or oil from the feet of a chicken, sometimes melted lard. Croup has to be attended to at once or it is fatal with the child." This is a very good remedy.

3. Croup, Immediate Relief from Steaming.—"Put a small shawl over the child's head to retain steam, then put a small chunk of unslaked lime in a bowl of water under shawl. The steam affords immediate relief, usually, if child inhales it." This is very good; shawl should cover the child's head and bowl in which lime is dissolved.

4. Croup, for Baby or Older Child.—"Take a teaspoonful alum, pulverize it and sprinkle it on the whites of two fresh eggs in a cup or glass, let it stand for a few minutes, until the combination has turned to water, or water is produced; then give one-half teaspoonful to a child six months old or less and increase the dose to one teaspoonful for older children, and repeat the dose in fifteen or thirty minutes as the case may require. Remarks: From personal experience in my own and neighbors' families, I have never known a case where it did not bring relief and cure. The dose must produce vomiting."

5. Croup, Remedy that Never Fails.—"Two tablespoonfuls of liquor or brandy and one-quarter teaspoonful of glycerin, one teaspoonful of sugar, one tablespoonful of water; stir up well and give one teaspoonful every hour or oftener if necessary. Then at same time take a flannel and soak well in cold water, wring it gently and put around neck with a heavy, dry flannel over the damp one. If damp flannel becomes hot take it off, dampen it in more cold water and apply again, and so on until relieved. Do not allow the patient to get chilled. Better results are obtained if patient will go to bed. Remarks: I have used this in my family, and have always found it to be the best croup cure I have ever seen, and it will be found to give immediate relief. The external application is extremely good."

6. Croup, Coal Oil (kerosene) and Sugar for.—"Coal oil and sugar; put a few drops on a teaspoonful of sugar." The coal oil produces vomiting, relieving the trouble. If the first dose does not have this effect upon the child, repeat it.

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7. Croup, Pork and Onion Poultice for.—"Put pork and onions on the throat. Drink plenty of hot water." Bind the pork and onions on the throat, acting as a poultice. The virtue of this can be increased by cooking the onions and pork together. Onion syrup may be given internally to produce vomiting, even in very small babies.

8. Croup, Bloodroot for.—"One teaspoonful powdered bloodroot mixed with molasses or sugar. Have taken this myself and it relieved at once. If one dose does not seem enough it may be repeated." This is a very effective remedy, but is very weakening. Care should be taken not to repeat dose any oftener than absolutely necessary.

9. Croup, Time Honored Remedy for.—"Pulverized alum and sugar or honey or molasses; mix together and give half teaspoonful doses or less. For infants use only in emergency cases." This is one of the good old-fashioned remedies that nearly every mother has used. It acts simply by producing vomiting and causing the air tubes to relax. Repeat in five to twenty minutes until it causes vomiting.

10. Croup, Ipecac for.—"One-third teaspoonful of powdered ipecac dissolved in one teaspoonful of water, one tablespoonful of sugar; pour on one teacupful of boiling water and let boil down to a half cup, Dose: One teaspoonful for adults; children in proportion every two hours; or, if needed to vomit children give again in ten or fifteen minutes." If you cannot secure the powdered ipecac, the syrup can be bought at any drug store, and is already prepared, Dose: Ten to fifteen drops as the case may need.

11. Croup, Vaselin for.—"Vaselin rubbed on the chest, cover with a hot flannel, and take 1/4 teaspoonful of vaselin internally occasionally." Dissolve vaselin and repeat dose if necessary to produce vomiting.

12. Croup, Ice Application for.—"Ice applied to the throat is almost instant relief." It is best to break the ice up fine and sprinkle salt on same, putting it in a cheese cloth bag, binding on the throat with a flannel, and change as soon as it shows signs of wetting.

13. Croup, Salt for.—"Parched salt put on the throat hot." The parched salt acts the same as mustard plaster, by producing a redness on the throat. Salt is something that we can always have on hand and by using this remedy we are always prepared for an emergency in case of croup.

14. Croup, Castor Oil Breaks up.—"Castor oil, given before bedtime, is good. Dose.—From one-half to one teaspoonful. I have taken this when I was small." Castor oil is good when the bowels are constipated or the stomach is full.

15. Croup, Coal Oil, Turpentine and Snuff, a Canadian Remedy for.—"A little coal oil and a few drops of turpentine soaked up by snuff, and used as plaster. Makes the child sneeze after a few minutes. The poultice loosens the phlegm and the sneezing throws it off."

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PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Croup.—Active. 1. Dr. Douglas says wring cloths out of cold water and apply very freely to the throat, and recommends the following syrup:

Syrup of Ipecac 3 fluid drams
Hive Syrup 4 fluid drams
Water 1-1/2 ounces

Mix, and give one teaspoonful every half hour until the child vomits, then repeat the dose every two hours as needed.

2. Place the child in a hot bath, wrap hot or cold cloths about the throat and put one teaspoonful of common soda in a glass of water and give one teaspoonful every fifteen minutes until relieved.

3. Dr. Holt of New York, says.—The room should be very warm, hot cloths or poultices should be applied over the throat (Adam's apple and below) and either a croup kettle or ordinary teakettle kept boiling in the room. This is more efficacious if the child is placed in a tent made by a raised umbrella or some like method with a sheet thrown over it, and the steam introduced beneath the tent. If the symptoms' are urgent ten drops of the syrup of ipecac should be given every fifteen minutes until free vomiting occurs.

Whenever the symptoms reach a point where the breathing becomes difficult, a doctor should be summoned without delay. It might be some other disease.

4. Home Treatment.—One-half teaspoonful of alum mixed with molasses or honey will produce vomiting and help. This is very good when the croup is due to indigestion. At the same time, fry onions in lard and put them on the neck in front, or hot wet cloths may do. The alum can be given once or twice if necessary, half an hour apart, about in one-fourth or one-half the first dose.

5. Goose grease, or lard dissolved, and enough given to produce vomiting will do good. This idea is not only to cause vomiting but to cause a sick feeling after and at that time, which will cause the spasms to relax. A very good thing to do in addition is to put the child's feet in hot water, while local applications are put on the throat. These things tend to relax the muscles and this relieves the spasm.

6. Steam is Very Useful. It relaxes the spasm by local contact and by producing general sweating. Cover the child's head and a pitcher with a shawl and inhale the steam from the boiling water in pitcher. You can put in the pitcher one teaspoonful of oil of tar or one to two teaspoonfuls of tincture of benzoin. This can be kept up for some time.

COLD IN THE CHEST. (Acute Bronchitis. Inflammation of Bronchial Tubes).— This is an acute inflammation of the larger and medium sized bronchial tubes.

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Causes.—Youth and old age are more predisposed to it. Lack of fresh air and exercise, dusty work, poor general health, dampness and changeable weather in winter and early spring. It may be secondary to cold, pharyngitis, measles, typhoid fever, malaria, asthma, and heart disease.

Symptoms.—There is a feeling of oppression with chilliness and pain in the back, a dry, tight feeling beneath the breastbone with a dry harsh cough. This may cause headache and pain, and a raw feeling in the chest, chiefly in front. There may be a temperature of one hundred or one hundred three or less. After a few days there is a thick, sticky secretion; it is profuse. The other symptoms, except the cough, subside. This generally stops in ten days in a favorable case, or it may become chronic. In infants or old people it may extend to the smaller tubes causing broncho-pneumonia. There is more danger in infants than in older people.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Bronchitis, Camphor and Lard for.—1. "Grease a cloth well with lard to which has been added some camphor gum, then sprinkle on some dry baking soda and lay it on the chest. The camphor and lard should be made into a salve, then put on the soda. The lard and camphor gum penetrates the affected parts, relieving the inflammation and tightness