Babies - Digestive Disorders : Part 3

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 29 of 43)

Constipation

In the chapter, "The Feeding Problem," constipation in bottle-fed babies was discussed. The bowels should move at least once in twenty-four hours. The passages are frequently very hard and leave the body only after a very great effort of straining. This constipation, often continuing until late childhood, should be corrected in the following manner:

In early infancy - as early as the fourth month - prune juice may be given as directed elsewhere, while in later months prune pulp or fig pulp, which has been carefully rubbed through a fine-mesh colander, may be given at meal time. By the time the baby is eleven or twelve months old, strained apple sauce may be given.

We deplore the use of the water enema as a regular daily procedure; in its place we suggest the use of the enema of oil or the introduction into the rectum of a gluten suppository or in obstinate cases a glycerin suppository. Abdominal massage should be daily administered. With a well-oiled hand, begin on the right abdomen and proceed upward to the lower border of the right ribs and across to the left side and down.

This should be repeated many times at a regular hour each day. The mother should select an hour for the bowels to move, preferably after the forenoon feeding, and if the child is too small to sit upon the toilet chair, a gluten suppository may be placed into the rectum before the forenoon feed and some time during the middle of the day the bowel movement will be found in the napkin.

For the older child, before a certain meal each day, a good Vaseline piece of cotton may be inserted in the rectum; this often produces a bowel movement immediately after the meal. Laxative foods, such as bran, stewed figs, stewed prunes, or a raw apple, should be used faithfully - as repeated medication never corrects the difficulty, but usually prolongs it.

To immediately flush out the bowel, a soapsuds enema or a plain water enema may be allowed to flow into the lower colon, or a glycerin suppository inserted into the rectum will quickly bring a bowel movement. These methods are only of temporary value; a regular habit should be formed, if possible, to bring about a natural, normal bowel movement.

When necessary to resort to drugs - such remedies as cascara sagrada, milk of magnesia, or syrup of rhubarb, are satisfactory, as well as our old stand-by - castor oil. Regular habits must be insisted upon, and if the mother pays attention to regularity at stool in early childhood very little trouble will be met later on in adolescence and adult life.

Chronic constipation often produces abnormal conditions about the rectum such as fissures, hemorrhoids, or prolepses, which may be of serious import.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea is a symptom of an acute illness, or it may be associated with a chronic condition such as chronic intestinal indigestion, tuberculosis of the bowel, or may occur alternately with constipation in colitis. It is the most dangerous of all symptoms that babies develop, and in spite of all the instruction given to mothers at the present time, in spite of all the welfare stations in large cities, and in spite of all the efforts put forth by the commissioner of health, with his corps of visiting nurses - even yet, more babies die of diarrhea each summer than from any other single cause.

There are usually just two reasons for diarrhea - not cleanliness and bad milk. During the hot summer days flies multiply greatly and all manner of bacteria and germs grow in warm, moist, shadowy places, so that usually before the milk leaves the dairy farm it is seriously contaminated with disease-producing germs. If the milk is not kept at a temperature of 35 or 40 F. (which is just above the freezing point), these bacteria, particularly the manure germ, grow at such a rate that by the time the milk gets to the infant it is teeming with bacteria, and diarrhea is the sure result.

Another form of diarrhea is infant cholera, where the stools soon become watery and colorless. The vomiting is almost incessant and there is high fever. Fortunately it is a rare disease, but when once seen it is never forgotten. One beautiful baby weighing nearly thirty pounds was reduced to sixteen within forty-eight hours, and when death came he could hardly be recognized because of the wasting from this most dreaded of infant diseases.

Another form of diarrhea is seen in an acute inflammatory condition of the intestine itself. The stools contain more or less mucus and blood. The bowel movements, which are very frequent, are accompanied by a great deal of pain and straining. This form is often seen in the more severe types of summer dysentery. We wish to impress upon the reader's mind that these diarrheas may all be avoided if the baby's food is clean and free from germs, if the apple or pear is not only washed, but thoroughly scrubbed before paring during the summer months. If all the bottles, nipples, water, toys, etc., are adequately clean, no summer diarrhea, no dysentery, no other infection due to dirt, will attack the baby. Of paramount importance is the pasteurization of milk during the summer months, as mentioned elsewhere.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.