Remarks on the diet of children; and on the distinctions between the digestive powers of the infant and the adult / [George Thompson Gream].

  • Gream, G. T. (George Thompson), 1812?-1888.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the diet of children; and on the distinctions between the digestive powers of the infant and the adult / [George Thompson Gream]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    191/218 (page 179)
    These remedies are seldom required previous to the time of teething, hut during that process they should he preferred to other kinds of purga- tives, owing to the effect they have of lessening the quantity of fluids in the body, and so reducing the tendency to inflammation; hut great care should he taken to avoid over-dosing under any circumstances, and with saline purgatives espe- cially, for a dose of saline aperient medicine given to a sickly child, with hut little power and less blood in its system (for whom rhuharb would be the proper remedy), might be of very serious con- sequence ; this, therefore, is a cogent reason for the careful administration of none but the most simple medicines, even to robust children, without the sanction of competent medical authority. A very good medicine, where a saline purga- tive is required, for a child from six mouths of age, is a portion of Seidlitz powder, beginning with a fourth part of the usual dose, and increasing it as the child advances in age, up to the second year. Half a drachm of the tartrate of soda, or of potash, will be equal to a quarter part of the Seidlitz powder, and will answer the same purpose, the former being the purgative used in the Seidlitz powders. The advantage of these over Epsom salts is.