Читать книгу A Book of Medical Discourses, in Two Parts - Rebecca Lee Crumpler - Страница 8

Table of Contents

No Bay Rum, perfume, puff powders or other unnatural substances should be tolerated about young infants. But after the patients have been made comfortable, all soiled clothing or slops should be quietly removed. All loud talking or laughing should be strictly prohibited. To insure this, no sly jokes should be indulged in by any one present; for by so doing convulsions of an alarming nature may be brought on. Judging from the actions of some women, when around a confinement bed, it is not at all unlikely that many cases of internal convulsions, both of mother and child, are the results of inward or suppressed laughter soon after delivery, and before the womb has had time to get in place, or when the babe is nursing.

Infants should be accustomed to a change of apparel as soon as possible. It is an error to suppose that a child should be kept hot, and tucked down in soiled wrappings till after the navel drops off. After twenty-four hours it can be wiped with clean warm water, close around the navel. The napkins, too, should be changed and washed out just as often as soiled. Also there should be clean day wraps and night slips in constant readiness during the child’s helpless period. Heavy or wadded coverlets should be discarded, even in the coldest weather, for the reason that they are heavier than woollen, retain the moisture from breaths, are not so easily washed as woollen blankets, nor are they so warm. The science of our nature teaches us that woollen is the best covering during the hours of sleep. For instance, the pores of our skin permit the escape of all gases not necessary for the renewal of the tissues of the body; in like manner woollen goods permit the odors to escape from our bodies.

The face of an infant should never be covered when asleep, especially when in the bed with adults; it induces lung difficulties. The blood must pass through the heart and lungs, uninterrupted, day and night, in order to supply all parts of the body. The hours for sleep are intended for the repair of worn material, while at the same time the useless matter is passing off in breath or perspiration. I believe that all infants should be supplied with a light covering for the head day and night, until the hair grows out. The old style lace cap, for instance, deserves a conspicuous place among the relics of health preservers. Later on, the hair becomes the only proper covering for the head day or night. By all means, a child should be closely watched, and its wraps changed and adapted to atmospherical changes. If infants are too tightly wrapped, or are allowed to get too hot, they generally make it known by writhing or whining in their sleep.

By using oil in the first cleaning the temperature of the child’s body is not much changed. I do not propose to describe any of the abnormal liabilities of the cord circulation, that might require the use of hot or cold water, in order to save life. As medical advice should be sought in all doubtful or unnatural cases, the unnatural can only be known by close attention to the appearance of the natural.