Part 7 (1/2)

During teething there is generally much torpor of the bowels; here, then, castor oil is a very appropriate and useful artificial means of increasing the frequency of the alvine discharges.

Then, again, no purgative can be so much relied on for overcoming habitual costiveness as castor oil; it may for this purpose be given daily for some weeks, gradually reducing the dose until only a few drops be taken; after which the bowels generally continue to act without further artificial a.s.sistance. Even its occasional administration leaves the bowels in a relaxed state; a great advantage over other purgatives, which generally cause, after their action is pa.s.sed off, a confined state.

The proper dose will depend upon the age, and the known effect of aperient medicine upon the childsome requiring more, others less:

Under one year, one small tea-spoonful.

Under three years, two ditto.

Under six years, three ditto.

Under ten years and upwards, a table spoonful. The quant.i.ty being more or less according to the facility with which the bowels are purged.

It may be given in various ways; poured upon a little mint water, or blended with a little moist sugar;--or, if the stomach is unusually delicate, the oil may be made into an emulsion with some aromatic water, by the intervention of the yolk of an egg and a little syrup of roses or sugar combined with it. The following proportions make an elegant and not at all a disagreeable mixture, of which a desert- spoonful (or more, according to the age,) may be repeated every hour until it operate:

Castor oil, six drachms; The yolk of an egg; Mix well together, and add Dill water, two ounces, Syrup of roses, two drachms.

MANNA.

This also may be given with impunity to the youngest infant; it is sweet to the taste, and mild in its operation. It should be exhibited in doses of one to two drachms in a little warm milk; or if it cause flatulence in this form, in some aromatic water, a desert spoonful of carraway-seed or dill water. For children above two years, it must always be given with some other aperient: thus, it may be combined with castor oil by the medium of mucilage or the yolk of an egg; in fact, it might be subst.i.tuted for the syrup of roses in the previous prescription for castor oil.

MAGNESIA AND RHUBARB.

Magnesia, besides being a laxative, allays irritability of the stomach; it is consequently useful during dent.i.tion, at which period there is both much irritability and a prevailing acescency of the stomach. The dose is from five grains to ten for an infant, increasing the quant.i.ty to fifteen grains or twenty to children of nine or ten years of age. When taken alone the best vehicle is hot milk, which greatly quickens its aperient operation. And whenever the bowels are distended with wind, the pure magnesia is preferable to the carbonate.

It is well to mention here, that when the infant throws up the nurse's milk it is generally curdled; a fact which leads the inexperienced mother to infer that the child is suffering from acidity; and to counteract the supposed evil magnesia is given again and again. This is a useless and pernicious practice, for curdling or coagulation of the milk always takes place in the stomach, and is produced by the gastric juice, and is so far from being a morbid process, that milk cannot be properly digested without it.

Rhubarb, it should always be recollected, has an astringent as well as purgative property, according to the extent of the dose in which it is administered; the former of which never opposes or interferes with the energy of the latter, since it only takes effect when the substance is administered in small doses, or, if given in larger ones, not until it has ceased to operate as a cathartic. This latter circ.u.mstance renders it particularly eligible in cases of diarrhoea, as it evacuates the offending matter before it operates as an astringent upon the bowels.

As a purgative it operates mildly, and may be given to the youngest infant; if from two to twelve months old, from three to six grains; for children above that age, the dose may range from ten grains to twenty.

Its operation, however, is much quickened by the addition of magnesia; both of which are more effective when thus united than when given separately. The following form, in a costive and flatulent state of the bowels, will be found useful[FN#19]; a tea-spoonful or more may be given every three or four hours until the desired effect is obtained:--

Powdered rhubarb, half a drachm;

Magnesia, two scruples;

Compound spirits of ammonia, twenty drops;