Transactions of the American Pediatric Society (Volume 5) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893. Excerpt: ... THE LOCAL TREATMENT OF CONSTIPATION IN EARLY INFANCY. BY LERoY M. YALE, M.D., New York. Mr. President: If I rightly interpret the duty you have assigned me, it is to present a few points concerning the local treatment of infantile constipation, to stimulate discussion and elicit experience. We are all agreed that dietetic correction, if possible, is on all accounts the best means, but in practice we find, whether through our own fault or not, that a certain proportion of infants do remain constipated. These we must in some way care for until the child is old enough to take some amount of solid or semi-solid food. I would particularly invite discussion of three remedies or groups of remedies, viz., massage of the abdomen, suppositories and enemata. Whenever any local remedy is systematically employed, a difficulty arises in determining its actual value, because the elements of regularity or of habit thus introduced is itself of the very first importance. In fact if the regular exciting of attention and expectation by placing the child upon the vessel might be considered a local remedy, I should place it before any other. The measures above mentioned are not equally applicable to all types of constipation, massage, perhaps, to more than the others. When applied intelligently and faithfully, even if unscientifically, it has seemed to me a valuable remedy. The method I have, on account of its simplicity, recommended to mothers and attendants is as follows, the parts, of course, being pointed out, not designated by their anatomical names: Using the tips or last joints of the fingers of one hand, oiled if the skin of the infant shows signs of irritation, begin over the caecum to make small circular movements, advancing up the ascending colon to the hypochondriu...