Now, magnesia is one of
the most useful and harmless medicines that can be given to an infant
when indicated; when prescribed in a dose suited to its age, and when
the proper time is fixed upon for its exhibition; in the foregoing
case, however, every thing forbad its use, but none of these points
were considered.
Aperient medicine, too, is sometimes unwittingly repeated to remove
those symptoms which it has itself produced. Some incidental pain and
uneasiness, some slightly greenish appearance of the motions, leads the
mother to believe that more purging is necessary, when, in fact, both
circumstances have probably been induced by the irritation caused by
the purgatives already too freely administered. How frequently is this
the case, during the first week or ten days of the infant's life, when
the nurse doses the child with tea-spoonful after tea-spoonful of
castor oil, for the relief of pain, which her repeated doses of
medicine have alone created.
The bowels of an infant in health should be relieved two, three, or
four times in the twenty-four hours. The stools should be of the
consistence of thin mustard, and of a lightish yellow colour, having
little smell, free from lumps or white curdy matter, and passed without
pain, or any considerable quantity of wind.
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