Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/263

 lump or two of sugar, then let a teaspoonful of cod-liver oil swim on the top; let the child drink it all down together, twice or three times a day. An hour after a meal is the best time to give the medicine, as both iron and cod-liver oil sit better on a full than on an empty stomach. The child in a short time will become fond of the above medicine, and will be sorry when it is discontinued. A case of rickets requires great patience and steady perseverance; let, therefore, the above plan have a fair and long-continued trial, and I can then promise that there will be every probability that great benefit will be derived from it. 272. If a child be subject to a scabby eruption about the mouth, what is the best local application?

Leave it to Nature. Do not, on any account, apply any local application to heal it; if you do, you may produce injury; you may either bring on an attack of inflammation, or you may throw him into convulsions. No! This "breaking-out" is frequently a safety-valve, and must not therefore be needlessly interfered with. Should the eruption be severe, reduce the child's diet; keep him from butter, from gravy, and from fat meat, or, indeed, for a few days from meat altogether; and give him mild aperient medicine; but, above all things, do not quack him either with calomel or with grey powder.

273. Will you have the goodness to describe the eruption on the face and on the head of a young child, called Milk-Crust or Running Scall?

Milk-crust is a complaint of very young children—of those who are cutting their teeth—and as it is a nasty-looking complaint, and frequently gives a mother a great deal of trouble, of anxiety, and annoyance, it will be well that you should know its symptoms, its causes, and its probable duration.