98. What are the symptoms, the causes, and the treatment of "Gripings" of an infant?
The symptoms.—The child draws up his legs; screams violently; if put to the nipple to comfort him, he turns away from it and cries bitterly; he strains, as though he were having a stool; if he have a motion, it will be slimy, curdled, and perhaps green. If, in addition to the above symptoms, he pass a large quantity of watery fluid from the bowels, the case becomes one of watery gripes, and requires the immediate attention of a medical man.
The causes of "gripings" or "gripes" may proceed either from the infant or from the mother. If from the child, it is generally owing either to improper food or to over-feeding; if from the mother, it may be traced to her having taken either greens, or pork, or tart beer, or sour porter, or pickles, or drastic purgatives.
What to do.—The treatment, of course, must depend upon the cause. If it arise from over-feeding, I would advise a dose of castor oil to be given, and warm fomentations to be applied to the bowels, and the mother or the nurse to be more careful for the future. If it proceed from improper food, a dose or two of magnesia and rhubarb in a little dill water, made palatable with simple syrup.
Take of—Powdered Turkey Rhubarb, half a scruple;
Carbonate of Magnesia, one scruple
Simple Syrup, three drachms;
Dill Water, eight drachms;
Make a Mixture. One or two teaspoonfuls (according to the age of the child) to be taken every four hours, until relief be obtained—first shaking the bottle.
If it arise from a mother's imprudence in eating trash, or
from her taking violent medicine, a warm bath: a warm
bath, indeed, let the cause of "griping" be what it may,
usually affords instant relief.
Another excellent remedy is the following: Soak a
