Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/90

 treated by a parent, not even in the early stages, for it is in the early stages that the most good can generally be done. It is utterly impossible for any one who is not trained to the medical profession to understand a serious disease in all its bearings, and thereby to treat it satisfactorily. There are some exceptions to these remarks. It will be seen, in future conversations, that Sir Charles Locock considers that a mother ought to be made acquainted with the treatment of some of the more serious diseases, where delay in obtaining immediate medical assistance might be death. I bow to his superior judgment, and have supplied the deficiency in subsequent conversations. The ailments and the diseases of infants, such as may, in the absence of the doctor, be treated by a parent, are the following: Chafings, Convulsions, Costiveness, Flatulence, Gripings, Hiccup, Looseness of the Bowels (Diarrhœa), Dysentery, Nettle-rash, Red-gum, Stuffing of the Nose, Sickness, Thrush. In all these complaints I will tell you—What to do, and—What to do. 93. What are the causes and the treatment of chafing?

The want of water: inattention and want of cleanliness are the usual causes of chafing.

What to do.—The chafed parts ought to be well and thoroughly sponged with tepid rain water—allowing the water from a well-filled sponge to stream over them—and, afterward, they should be thoroughly but tenderly dried with a soft towel, and then be dusted, either with finely-powdered starch made of wheaten flour, or with violet powder, or with finely-powdered native carbonate of zinc, or they should be bathed with finely-powdered fuller's-earth and tepid water.

If, in a few days, the parts be not healed, discontinue the above treatment, and use the following application: Beat up well together the whites of two eggs, then add,