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

11. Summer Complaint, Inexpensive Remedy for.—

     "Paregoric 2 ounces
     Brandy 1 ounce
     Jamaica Ginger 1 ounce

Have used this and found it excellent." Dose: 1/2 dram every 3 hours.

12. Summer Complaint, Fern Root Good to Relieve.—"A decoction is made with two ounces of the sweet fern root boiled in one and one-half pints water to one pint. Dose.—A tablespoonful several times a day as the case requires. Most useful in diarrhea," This may be purchased at any drug store and will be found a very good treatment for diarrhea.

13. Summer Complaint, Milk and Pepper a Common Remedy for.—"Sweet milk and black pepper once or twice a day. Dose.—Three or four swallows. Mother used to use this for us children." The milk should be warmed, for in this way it relieves the diarrhea while the pepper is stimulating.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Diarrhea.—1. Rest in bed is the best. Abstain from food, especially at first, and then only give a little milk and boiled water or milk and lime water every two hours for two days. Cracked ice is good for the thirst.

2. A dose of one-half to an ounce of castor oil to an adult is of great benefit, as it removes all the irritating matter from the bowels. This often cures a light diarrhea. Follow by a blackberry wine or blackberry cordial if it is more severe.

3. For children.—An infusion of path weed is an excellent remedy for this trouble in children; after castor oil in one to two teaspoonful doses has been given. If castor oil is too bad to take, you can use what is called "spiced syrup of rhubarb," one to two teaspoonfuls to a child one to two years old, and then follow with blackberry wine.

4. For infants.—An infusion of chamomile is good for the green diarrhea of teething babies.

5. Another for infants.—For infantile diarrhea the root of geranium maculation or cranesbill, boiled in milk in the proportion of one or two roots to the pint, will be found of great service and is tasteless.

6. Ginger tea is frequently of good service, especially when the stomach needs "toning."

7. Infants of six months.—Chalk and bismuth mixture by Dr. Douglass, of Detroit.

    "Subnitrate of Bismuth 2 drams
    Paregoric 2 fluid drams
    Chalk mixture 2 fluid drams

Mix and shake bottle. Give one-half to one teaspoonful for loose bowels in a child six months old, every two to four hours as needed."

DIET IN DIARRHEA.—From the Head Nurse of a Large Hospital.

May Take—

Soups.—Milk soup well boiled, clam juice, beef tea.

Meats.—Scraped fresh beef or mutton well broiled, sweetbread, beef juice from freshly broiled steak (all sparingly).

Eggs.—Lightly boiled or poached on dry toast.

Farinaceous.—Rice, sago, macaroni, tapioca, arrowroot, dry toast, milk toast, toasted crackers.

Desserts.—Milk puddings, plain, with sago, rice, tapioca or arrowroot (no sugar).

Drinks.—Tea, toast water, boiled peptonized milk, Panopepton.

Must Not Take—

Oatmeal, wheaten grits, fresh breads, rich soups, vegetables, fried foods, fish, salt meats, lamb, veal, pork, brown or graham bread, fruits, nuts, pies, pastry, ice cream, ice water, sugars, sweets, custards, malt liquors, sweet wines.

Infants.—Bottle-fed infants should stop milk and use egg albumen, etc. This is prepared by gently stirring (not to a froth) the white of one egg in a cup of cold water and one-fourth teaspoonful of brandy and a little salt mixed with it. Feed this cold.

If it causes foul or green stools it must be stopped. Dr. Koplik, of New York, recommends stopping the feeding of breast and bottle-fed infants in severe diarrhea or cholera infantum and to use the following:—Albumin water, acorn cocoa, or beef juice expressed and diluted with barley water. The white of one egg is equal in nourishing value to three ounces of milk and is well borne by infants. The albumin water can be used alternately with the solution of acorn cocoa or beef juice or barley water. Liebig's soup mixture is better liked by older children. Meat juice is made from lean beef, slightly broiled, then cutting it in squares and squeezing these in a lemon press. Rice or barley water can be added to this if the meat juice causes vomiting. Add only one or two teaspoonfuls of barley or rice water and increase, if it agrees well, in a day or two.

CHOLERA MORBUS (Acute Inflammation of Stomach and Upper Bowel).—This is most common in young people in late summer, after indiscretion in eating.

Symptoms.—Sometimes the patient feels tired, then nausea, etc. The attack though is usually sudden, with nausea, vomiting, and cramp-like pains in the abdomen. The contents of the stomach are vomited. The bowel discharge at first is diarrhea and later like rice water. Repeated vomiting and purging, with severe cramps. It looks like true cholera.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES, Cholera Morbus.—Castor Oil for.—"Castor oil one tablespoonful for an adult, one-half tablespoonful for children." This is an old, tried remedy and very good.

2. Cholera Morbus, Blackberry Root and Boiled Milk for.—"Steep the root of the long blackberry, give in one-half teaspoonful doses; alternate with teaspoonfuls of well boiled sweet milk, one-half hour apart."

3. Cholera Morbus, Blackberry Cordial for.—"Take a quantity of blackberries, strain out all of the juice. To each pint of juice add a pint of sugar. Then put in a little bag or cloth one-half ounce of cinnamon, one-fourth ounce of mace, two teaspoonfuls of cloves. Place this little bag with spices in the berry juice and boil for about two minutes, after which remove bag of spices and add one large cup of brandy or whisky to each pint of juice."

4. Cholera Morbus, Tincture Cayenne Pepper for.—"Tincture cayenne pepper, five to ten drop doses in a little hot water. Before giving this medicine it is well to drink a quantity of tepid water and produce vomiting. This can be made more effective by adding five or ten drops of camphor."

5. Cholera Morbus, Nutmeg and Jamaica Ginger for.—"Grate one teaspoonful nutmeg, put few drops Jamaica ginger in three or four tablespoonfuls of brandy, add little water." The writer says this is one of the finest remedies she has ever known for summer complaint.

6. Cholera Morbus, Home Remedy for.—"To a pint of water, sweetened with sugar, add chalk one-half dram, anise, two drams, cayenne pepper, ten grains; boil this down to one-half pint. Give a teaspoonful every hour or two until relieved. Kerosene may be applied to the abdomen with cloths. This is a very good remedy and easily prepared."

7. Cholera Morbus, Old Reliable Remedy for.—

    Tincture Rhubarh 4 ounces
    Spirits Camphor 2 ounces
    Paregoric (Tinct. opii camph.) 3 ounces
    Spirits Ammonia 4 ounce
    Essence Peppermint 1 dram

Take a half teaspoonful every two hours. This is a tested recipe; have known of its being used the last fifty years."

The camphor and paregoric will relieve the pain, while the rhubarb and pepper are stimulating and laxative.

8. Cholera Morbus, Common Remedy for.—"To check vomiting and purging, the following mixture is excellent:

    Essence of Peppermint 1 ounce
    Water 1 ounce
    Carbonate of Potash 20 grains
    Paregoric 1 teaspoonful
    White Sugar or Honey 2 teaspoonfuls

Mix and shake well. Dose.—One teaspoonful every ten or twenty minutes until the patient becomes quiet. If necessary keep up bodily heat by means of hot flannels or bricks to extremities. Keep the patient quiet."

This is an excellent remedy for this trouble and may be used by anyone.
The above mixture is for an adult.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Cholera Morbus.—l. Heat to the bowels and to the extremities. Give plenty of hot water to aid vomiting and to wash the stomach. It is always well to keep on drinking hot water and frequently the vomiting stops. If not, the camphor, laudanum and water can be given.

2. Morphine by hypodermic method. A doctor must give this.

3. Tincture of Camphor 15 drops
     Laudanum 15 drops

Mix in one-third of a cup of hot water. This is a good remedy. Mustard poultice to the stomach and bowels benefits.

CHOLERA INFANTUM, Symptoms.—Usually begins with a diarrhea, which is often so mild as to attract but little attention, but should be a warning. If a weakly baby has a diarrhea which persists, or is foul smelling and especially if there is a marked loss of flesh and dullness of mind, there is ground for worry. If a bright child loses interest in things and has diarrhea something is wrong. The two essential features are vomiting and diarrhea, and the vomiting is persistent. First it vomits food, then the mucus and bile. The thirst is great, but anything taken to relieve it is instantly thrown up. The stools are frequent, large and watery. They may be painless and involuntary. They may look like dirty water, but later they loose all color. They are sometimes so thin and copious as to soak through the napkin and saturate the bed. They may be without odor, and again the odor is almost over-powering. The prostration is great and rapid. The fontannelles, openings in the head, are depressed, the face becomes pale and pinched, and the eyes are sunken. It occurs usually during the summer months, oftener in babies under eighteen months and still more under a year old.

Cautions.—This book will probably find its way into homes many miles from a drug store and possibly a long distance from a physician. Should a child in that home show symptoms of cholera infantum it would be imperative for that mother to begin at once home treatments. We, therefore, give below a number of remedies which a mother can either prepare in her home or can take the precaution to have filled at some convenient time and keep constantly at hand, properly labeled so she can turn to them at any moment. On the other hand, should you have to wait even three or four hours for a physician begin one of the treatments below until he comes; you may save the child's life by doing so. Cholera infantum and pneumonia claim so many of our little ones each year, and in many cases snatch them away within a few hours of the first noticeable symptoms that we must advise you to call a physician as soon as you suspect it is serious. Cases vary and only a trained eye can detect the little symptoms and changes that may weigh in the balance the life of baby.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES for Cholera Infantum.—l. Castor oil and warm applications for.—"Give the child one teaspoonful of castor oil, then wring woolen cloths out of warm whisky and apply to the abdomen. This will most always give relief, especially after the castor oil has acted upon the bowels."

2. Cholera Infantum, First Thing to Do.—"The first thing to do is to give a teaspoonful of castor oil, so as to thoroughly clean out the bowels. Then add one tablespoonful of turpentine to one quart of hot water and wring cloths out of this and apply to the bowels to relieve the pain that is always present in this disease. The turpentine is especially good for the bowels when they are bloated and have much gas in them."

3. Cholera Infantum, White of Egg and Cathartic for.—"One teaspoonful castor oil every two hours, until the movements are natural. Give no food except albumen water, which is composed of the white of one egg (slightly beaten) and a small pinch of salt in a glass of cold water which has been previously