Babies - Nervous Diseases : Part 3

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

(Page 33 of 42)

Usually at puberty the trouble ends, and while no amount of whipping will correct the difficulty, the promise of rewards, an appeal to the pride, correction of dietetic errors, the establishment of regular times to empty the bladder, the removal of all reflex causes such as adenoids, need of circumcision, worms, etc. - these combined influences - will bring results in the end, if they are faithfully and intelligently applied.

Meningitis

Cerebra-spinal meningitis is not highly contagious. Children old enough to complain of symptoms usually first complain of an intense headache with frequent vomiting and very high fever. Great prostration is seen, the pulse is weak, the respirations are irregular, the child may have convulsions, or it may have chills and fever, and rigidity of the body may be present. The position of the child is very characteristic. It does not want to lie on its back but usually rests on one side, with the spine more or less arched. It is a very serious disease and demands the early attention of a physician. Some cases are very mild and others are exceedingly grave. If the physician is secured early, and special remedies administered that are known today, many of the children may be saved.

Infantile Paralysis

Infantile paralysis is a serious disease of the spinal cord which comes on very suddenly and is associated with vomiting, pain in the legs, and a high temperature. After these symptoms have lasted a day or two the paralysis is discovered. There may be convulsions. The paralysis is progressive, and the wasting of the muscles increases until by the end of a couple of months one limb is considerably shorter than the other. Sometimes the baby goes to bed at night in apparent good health and wakes up in the morning paralyzed.

In this disease the attention of the best physician in your community should be called to the case at once, for there are being developed in our large research laboratories special vaccines for this condition as well as for spinal meningitis. But what is done must be done very, very early, so let there be no delay in calling in medical counsel.

There are other forms of spinal paralysis which, associated with tuberculosis of the spine and other spinal diseases, result in loss of power to one or more groups of muscles. The only treatment that can be given in the home is to keep all of the paralytic portions of the body very warm by external heat, care being taken to avoid burning, and secure medical advice. Often, later in the course of the disease, by the aid of crutches and braces, the child can be taught to go to school and to get around the house about his little duties.

The slight facial paralysis which is so often seen in babies that have been delivered with forceps, usually clears up in a few days or at the latest in a few weeks or months.

Saint Vitus' Dance

Saint Virus' dance (chorea) is a peculiar disorder seen in nervous children, and which usually clears up in a few weeks or months under proper treatment. It is characterized by irregular jerking pretty much all over the body, so that the child staggers as he walks, drops his food at the table, and executes many other noticeably abnormal movements. The child should be taken out of school at once and removed from association with children who might make sport of him or otherwise annoy him and therefore increase these. He should at once be put under the direction of competent medical authority. Simple food, colon hygiene, more or less complete rest, and freedom from annoying circumstances, will usually bring about a speedy recovery.

Congenital Disorders

Water on the Brain is characterized by an enlarged head due to an increased accumulation of fluid within the cranium. While the face remains small the head greatly increases in size so that oftentimes it must be braced while the child is compelled to remain in a wheel chair. The mentality is usually fairly normal, but the enormous weight of the head compels the life-long occupancy of a wheel chair.

Deaf-Mutism. The child born deaf pays no attention whatever to sounds. An intellectual expression is seen on his face and by six months he is able to do all that a normal baby can do with the exception of hearing. The child should early be taken to an ear specialist in the endeavor, if possible, to correct the defect of hearing. Such little ones who are destined to a life without sound, should be given every opportunity to learn to read the lips and to secure a good education - to be taught a vocation where eyesight is of more value than hearing. Special institutions are in existence today which can take these deaf mutes when small and so teach them to make audible sounds that they can make themselves understood - at least partially. Lip reading is a wonderful improvement over the deaf and dumb alphabet, and should be taught early.

Congenital Blindness. Perhaps not until the child is six months old can the observer distinguish between blindness and idiocy. The blind child of course will not fix his eyes upon any object; but the general lassitude and the inability to hold up its head, while seen in idiocy, is not present in blindness.

Feeble Mindedness. A baby that is born with a weak mind is found to be very backward in all the normal developmental attainments of the growing child. A normal baby holds up its head at four months and should be able to sit erect at six months. The weak-minded baby will not do this, and often as late as two years it will not make any attempt to walk or to talk. There is an unnatural expression - a vacant look - to the face, while there is often much dribbling at the mouth.

Early Training should be Instituted. It is necessary to call the attention of a physician to these facts, that the parents may be instructed in regard to the early training which is so essential in all these weak-minded little folk. In our opinion it is best to remove these children early to special institutions, where their education can be superintended by those thoroughly accomplished and accustomed to dealing with this class. There are varying grades of feeble mindedness - the backward child who requires a longer time to learn things, and the child who is slow at school and possibly cannot get through more than the fourth or fifth grade - but as soon as weak mindedness is discovered, it is best to transfer the child to some special institution.

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.