OUR BABIES

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144851, 1 December 1915, Page 5

OUR BABIES

By HYGEIA.

Published" under the auspices of the Society for tbo Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top ol a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom," EVIDENCES OF ILLNESS IN INFANTS-. The following is a further adaptation of Dr. n-eroy Yale's notes on. ■•Evidences of Illness,” with comments: VARIOUS COUGHS. Coughs may have a good deal of character. The resounding, brassy, metallic bark of common “spasmodic” croup is weli-kuown. It'compels attention. The smothered, hoars* cough 01 laryngeal obstruction is really more alarming to the physician. The cough, of mere throat irritation is usually short and teasing. In bronchitis there is wheezing, and the cough is usually frequent and not very tight, while if the chest be sore there is apt to be a little cry with or after the cough. The cough of pneumonia is lighter, and suppressed on account of pain, the child seeming to have no breath to waste in crying. It is surprising to see to what an extent a child with this disease w.U sometimes refrain from crying and eating, apparently to save breath. 'Jho euugu oi imkienza, when characteristic, is persistent and wearing, oiLen recalling that of whoopingcough. Tm* cough of whooping-cough is so characteristic that wituout its peculiar “whoop” the diagnosis may remain uncurtain. Too patient begins wiui a cough, a little spasmodic, winch is repeated more and moro rapidly, without proper indrawing of the breath, uulil the stomach is emptied by vomiting, 01 tho paroxysm ends with a long crowing inspiration, which 's tho “whoop.” The penormaace may then bo repeated. VOMITING. The stomach empties itself much moro easily in infancy than later. The overfull suckling regurgitates or “puts up” its surplus without an effort, and this return is not a sign of illness. Real vomiting, however, is often seen as evidence of stomach indigestion wind, tough curds, otc.) as well as of other stomach and bowel troubles. - Vomning is a frequent initial symptom of some of tho eruptive fevers—notably scarlatina; alto of pneumonia and of malarial fever. In the latter two disorders initial chills and shivering are rarely seen in young children, while vomiting or convulsions often occur. Peculiar types of vomiting are seen in special diseases, such, for instance, as the so-called “projectile” vomiting associated with some brain disorders, the matter being suddenly and violently ejected without apparent relation to food or feeding times. [Memo, by “Hygcia.”] PYLORIC STENOSIS. A moro common cause of sudden, violent, and explosive vomiting which occurs during or just after feeding, especially in very young babies, is “Pyloric Stenosis.” In this condition there is more or less obstruction to the passage of food from the stomach into the uoper part of the intestine. This may bo due to more irritative spasm or to organic narrowing of tho orifice. In cither case the matter is one for a doctor to deal with. Jhc main symptom is the sudden, violent, explosive ejection of the stomach contents, which tend to bo shot out forcibly through both the nose and mouth. Mothers and nurses should be alive to tho fact that simple food adjustments alone rarely suffice to overcome Pyloric Stenosis—indeed it may occur in' purely breast-fed babies. Delay, is always perilous. Professor Holt, of New York, gives the following account of Pyloric Stenosis :

The general clinical picture is a striking one. An infant who, for the first two or three weeks, has shown no signs of gastric disorder, and often has been nursing and gaining in weight, begins to vomit-—at first habitually. The change from the usual type of vomiting to the forcible' and constant vomiting is often abrupt and without evident cause. The vomiting is not the or* dinary gastric regurgitation of indigestion, but is forcible and projectile. Chances in diet have but a temporary effect upon it, or none at all. The bowels are constipated. Tho infant wastes -steadily, tho scales often showing a loss of one or two ounces a day. There is no fever and little or no v evidence of pain. The symptom.® of Pyloric Stenosis generally begin after the first week and during the first month, very rarely as late as tho sixth or seventh week after birth. Vomiting often attends the rally from tho stunned condition (concussion) arising from a blow or fall upon the head. The vomiting of whoopingcough seems to he merely a mechanical result of the violence of the paroxysm. The abdomen will help to 'make a diagnosis in case of colic. It is then usually distended, “hard as a board, 5 * and, if tapped upon, resonant. The ■ retracted abdomen cf some brain i troubles is rarely an early symptom. i