Volume 1

Cyclopaedia of obstetrics and gynecology ... / [edited] by Egbert H. Grandin.

Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cyclopaedia of obstetrics and gynecology ... / [edited] by Egbert H. Grandin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    CARE OF THE NEW-BOKN INFANT. morning, at eight or nine. The mother is thus able to sleep in the in- tervals, and the infant promptly accustoms itself to regular feeding. If the child obtains sufficient food, it goes to sleep at once at the end of the nursing, and awakens only at the expiration of two to three hours. Every day the child should be bathed for five or six minutes, and with- out waiting for the fall of the cord, which occurs the earlier the stronger the child, from the third to the fifth day in infants at term, from tlie sixth to the eighth in premature infants. Until the cord separates, the dressing around it should be changed with care, and after separation a flannel or linen abdominal binder should be worn for a time. The infant should never go out until cicatrization is complete. It is not until the end of the third or the fourth day that the passages con- tain no more meconium, that they become yellow, and acquire the normal color and consistency, that of beaten yolk of egg. At this period too, the infant may become yellow, the icterus of the new born. Generally of no import, this icterus, which varies in proportion to the weakness and bad nourishment of the infant, may, in exceptional cases, be grave. The same is true of ophthalmia. While this often yields to simple lo- tions, it may become purulent, and requires then energetic care, else the child may lose its sight. [The best treatment of purulent ophthalmia is instillations of a few drops of nitrate of silver solution (gr X to | i) three to four times daily: frequent washing of the conjunctiva with a saturated solution of boracic acid; and cold over the eyes until all inflammatory, acute symptoms have disappeared. A convenient way of applying the cold is by means of little pledgets of cotton, which rest, imtil needed, on a piece of ice. If one eye is alone affected, the greatest care should be taken against infection of the second, and to prevent this, it is a good plan to seal the sound eye for a few days. The above method depends, for its success, on constant care night and day, and two nurses, or atten- dants, are therefore requisite. When we remember, however, that the infant's sight is at stake, the necessity of any amount of care and trouble is apparent. For the method of the prevention of ophthalmia neonato- rum, see the section which refers to it.—Ed.] Finally, towards the sixth or the seventh day, the child's breasts swell, and give exit to milk. Manipulation of the breasts should be avoided. The best treatment is flaxseed poultices. [Equable pressure, by means of a miniature bandage, such as has been described as applicable to the female breast, will answer every purpose, and prevent abscess.—Ed.] Sometimes a little abscess forms. We have seen two instances, and in children of the same mother. Such is the care required by the infant during its first few life-days. For further particulars, the reader is referred to treatises on the diseases of chiklren. End of Volume I.