HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 49, 27 February 1935, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

WORMS IN CHILDREN. (By PERITUS.) The decision that a child "has worms" cannot be made by anybody, as all the accepted symptoms may exist without the worms, and the worms bo present without any outward symptom. The non-medical person can only be euro upon actual visual evidence. The small white worm can be banished by repeated (twice weekly) doses of calomel powder, injections of salt and water, or quassia solution, and regular doses of a quinine, sulphuric acid and glycerine mixture. The round worms are often not cleared away by the usual "worm powder" because the method of giving it is at fault. First the bowel must be cleard by calomel, castor oil, or syrup of senna, and then the worm powder immediately given, and within six to seven hours another aperient dose must be given. The lirst uncovers the worm, the "worm powder" poisons them, and the second aperient drives them out and at the same time protects the child from any unpleasant effects due to the retention of the worm powder, which, otherwise, sometimes causes a rash to come 011 the skin. One thorough treatment is generally sufficient, but may perhaps have to be repeated. The doses ordered must be adjusted according to the age of the child. When a child is feverish, restless, irritable, grinding teeth at night, "starting" and tossing about in sleep, with depraved appetite, or none, you may suspect worms, but only suspect. An ordinary aperient and altered diet may be all that is necessary. I have frequently noticed the puffy lower eyelids, and their grey or purple shading, in children proved to have worms, but definite diagnosis in these cases is as uncertain as naming the winner at Ellcrslie unless one has great experience and professional second sight.