What shall I do for this trouble?  Rid the system of the irritating matter by giving the baby one teaspoonful of castor oil.  Then stop all solid food and give boiled water if there is only a moderate looseness.  Keep the child perfectly quiet.  If the attack is more severe and attended by fever and vomiting all food and milk should be stopped at once in children of all ages, and only broth, barley water or some thin gruel given.  Castor oil is required for a severe attack.  If the patient is an infant the milk should be diluted or stopped.  In severe attacks with vomiting or frequent foul stools, stop all food for at least twelve hours and all milk for a longer time, and the bowels should be freely moved by a cathartic.  Give plenty of water to drink.

Food.—­Albumin water is often better than plain water or anything else.  To make it stir the white of an egg into a pint of cold water.  See that they are well mixed, add a pinch of salt and strain.  Give baby one teaspoonful every one-half hour, and if he vomits all other food, give two ounces every two hours; barley gruel, wheat flour gruel, mutton broth may be given also.

Mothers’ remedies.—­1.  Inflammation of the Bowels, Poultice of Hot Mush for.—­“Wrap the child in a poultice of hot mush.  Place the poultice over the abdomen.”  A poultice of this kind retains the heat, and is very good for inflammation of the abdominal cavity, and would help to take away the soreness and bloating in the bowels that is always present in this disease.

2.  Bowel Trouble, a Good Tonic for.—­

Powdered rhubarb        1 heaping teaspoonful
Soda                  1/4 teaspoonful
Sugar                   1 teaspoonful
Peppermint essence    1/2 teaspoonful
Hot water             1/2 cup (scant)

Dose:—­One-half teaspoonful every hour until bowels show signs of right color.

The soda and the peppermint will tone up the stomach and relieve any trouble present there, while the rhubarb will act on the bowels and carry off all impurities.

3.  Bowel Trouble, Rhubarb and Licorice for.—­“Compound tincture of rhubarb one ounce bicarbonate of soda 1 dram, fluid extract of licorice 1 dram, pure water 6 ounces.  Give from one to two teaspoonfuls according to the age of the child.”  This will be found a very good treatment for this trouble, and one that has been thoroughly tried.

[614 Mothers’ remedies]

RICKETS.

You should always be suspicious if your baby has no teeth at the end of the first year.  A hearty baby should have six or eight, and if the soft spot in the head just above the forehead is as much open as it was for months previously you should be doubly suspicious.  This soft spot should be closed in a well-nourished infant between the fifteenth and twentieth months.  If in addition to this the child sweats about the head whenever it sleeps, cries whenever it is handled (unless it has scurvy or rheumatism) and does not like to play, the indications of rickets are very nearly conclusive.  Rickets is a constitutional disease showing itself in different ways.