en gum be
discovered, it should immediately be attended to, not waiting till
constitutional symptoms appear before she employs proper aid for her
child. For this purpose the mother should make herself familiar with
the appearances of the gum under distention and inflammation; a matter
of no difficulty, accompanied, as this condition usually is, by a
profuse secretion of saliva, heat of mouth, and at a time when the age
of the child justifies the supposition that it is about to cut its
first tooth, or, if it have some teeth, that others are about to appear.
SECONDLY, TO THE FOOD.--If a child is teething with difficulty, it
should always have its quantity of nourishment diminished. If it is
being fed, as well as nursed at the breast, at the time, the former
should be immediately withheld: if it is being fed alone, the only
kind of food that should be allowed is milk and water. These cases are
much aggravated by the not uncommon habit of parents giving the infant
food whenever it cries from the irritation attending upon the process;
and thus a slightly difficult dentition is converted into serious
disease.
THIRDLY, TO THE STATE OF THE BOWELS.--These must be carefully watched,
that they may not become confined; it being necessary that they should
be gently relaxed at this time. If a slight diarrhoea is present, it
must not be checked; if it pass beyond this, however, medicine must be
had recourse to, and great benefit will also arise from putting the
child into a warm hip-bath, and warmly clothing the body, but keeping
the head cool.
FOURTHLY, TO THE HEAD.--The infant's head should be washed with cold
water night and morning, and no other covering than that which nature
has provided should be put upon it when within doors or asleep; and on
no occasion should warm felt or velvet hats be worn during mild or warm
weather, straw or white hats being much lighter and cooler. The child
should be much in the open air.
The sponging of the infant's body daily, either with cold or tepid
water, must depend upon the season of the year and constitution of the
child, as well as upon other circumstances. Sponging the head with cold
water night and morning is almost invariably atttended with great
benefit, and may be resorted to in every case without fear; and now and
then the use of the warm hip-bath, for several days together, will be
ordered by the physician, which, by acting upon the skin, diminishes
the determination of
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