The student's guide to diseases of children.
- Sir James Goodhart, 1st Baronet
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The student's guide to diseases of children. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![bowels acted regularly, and there was nothing about the face to indicate local disease, and witliout exami- nation the case might readily have passed for one of atrophy from bad feeding. It lay in its motlier’s lap in a passive condition, and the mother laid in fact l)ecome concerned because the wasting had now reached an extent tliat sitting up seemed a troulde to it. An examination of the chest revealed the existence of exten.sive bronclio-pneumonin, which h,-id not even been suspected. The bases of tlie lungs were dull; tubular Ijreathing and l^ronchophony extended np to tlie spine of the scapula on the one .side, and on the f)ther were audible in [)atches, witli much ]:ironchitic crepitation in the larger tubes. Treatment.—A careful attention to the rules laid down for dieting healthy infants will in most cases prove successful. Inasmuch as tlu‘. child has usually been improperly fed, it is generally advisable to give a few doses of some mild aperient, and none is better than castor oil, which, sweetened v-ith sugar, mo.st infants take readily. It may be given as a mixture twice or three times a day (F. 3), a, mode of administration which r prefer; or as a .single larger dose of half a drachm to a drachm. Insufficient food must of cour.se be met by inci’eas- ing its (piantity, but caution is necessary in doing this. The .stomach of an infant that has been persistently starved for some weeks, or even months, will not tolerate an immediate return tf) the ([uantity of food which would V)e .suitable for a, child of its age under natural conditions. The inci’ease is to b(( made by stages; if not, the .stomach, which in c:\rly life is most punctilious in re.senting ajiy .sudden de[)arture from its recognized custom, will certainly relieve itself by vomiting. An infant which has been taking per- haps half a pint of milk in the twcuity-four hours with l)read, and .so forth, may have half a, pint of milk substituted for the bread, aiid tlu! pint is to lie day by day slowly increa.sed till the proper quantity (two to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24990462_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
