but it is never regarded as a condition that is caused by neglect and
ignorance.

It is an exceedingly common occurence to find a mother worrying over her
child's cold, dosing it with cod liver oil or some other unnecessary
tonic, rubbing it with camphorated oil or plastering it over with
certain useless patent plasters, dressing it with extra pieces of
flannel on its chest and extra clothes pinned snugly around it, then
shutting it up in a warm, stuffy, unsanitary, ill-smelling room, in
order to keep it from "catching a fresh cold." Can you imagine anything
else she could do to defeat her purpose?

No quantity of cod liver oil, no medicine, no coddling, will remove the
tendency to "catch cold." The child's life must be lived amidst sanitary
surroundings and hygienic conditions first; then other expedients may be
utilized if necessary. These children must be kept out of doors most of
the time, unless during the severest wet weather. They should sleep in a
room the windows of which are open at the top and bottom every night in
the year. They should not, however, be in a draught. The rooms in which
they live should be of a uniform temperature, never too hot and never
too cold, between 68 deg. and 70 deg. F. These delicate catarrhal children
should be accustomed to light clothing on their beds. Chest protectors,
mufflers, cotton pads, and heavy wraps of any description should be
absolutely prohibited. It is advisable to use flannel underwear winter
and summer, light in summer and a medium weight in winter.
During the summer months the mother should begin cold sponging of the
face, throat, chest, and spine every morning and carry it into the
winter. The entire process need take only a moment or two. Always dry
thoroughly with a fairly rough towel. If the cold sponging is begun in
the warm summer time the child will become so accustomed to it that no
objection will be made when the cold weather comes.

If the child continues to be "catarrhal," despite a course of this
treatment, it would be well to investigate whether any adenoids or
adenoid tissue exist in the naso-pharynx. If adenoids are found no
treatment will be successful until they are removed.

It is a wise plan to place a flannel cap on an infant who has an acute
attack of "cold in the head" (snuffles). This will prevent catching a
fresh cold and it will aid in the speedy cure of the attack from which
it is suffering when it is put on.

CHRONIC NASAL CATARRH-