Infants



Medicines.- (To be given night and morning.)

Sulph. 6.

-In constitutional cases, a good remedy to begin with.,

Nux v. 3.

– Frequent ineffectual urgings, restless sleep, irritability.

Bryonia 3.

-Large motions passed with difficulty.

Opium. 3.

-Hard, lumpy motions, drowsiness’ often accompanied by retention of urine.

Plumb. 6.

– Obstinate cases; hard, distended abdomen; stools in hard, dark balls.

Antim crud. 3.

-With white coated tongue and disordered stomach.

Convulsions. See SPASMS or CONVULSIONS.

Crying.- Usually when children cry there is a cause for it, but sometimes they cry when no cause can be discovered. Except when it is excessive, crying does not of itself injure a child, and need not be cause for alarm.

General Treatment.- The first thing to be done is to find the cause. The only way infants have of explaining that a pin is sticking into them, or that their dress is not comfortable, is by crying. This should be seen to first of all. Pains of all kinds in infants cause them to cry, and it is only by observation other symptoms that the character or site of the pain can be discovered. If there is a rumbling in the body, passage of flatulence, green motions, or diarrhoea, it may be safely concluded that the pain is in the body. If there is fever, dry skin, that means that there is inflammation somewhere. If there is difficulty of breathing or cough, it is probably the chest; if the child cries when washed or touched in any particular part, as the ear, there is probably some aching or inflammation there.

The treatment of all these affections will be found under their several headings. Never give an opiate or any kind of soothing up to stop a child crying, this not only injures the child but it prevents the possibility of finding out what is the matter with it by obscuring the indications of the disease.

Medicines.- (Every half-hour when the attacks are on. Two or three times a day as preventives.)

Belladonna 3.

– Starting out of sleep and beginning to cry violently.

Aconite 3.

– Crying, accompanied by uneasiness and heat.

Chamomilla 6.

-Fretfulness, wanting to be carried about; when there is reason to suppose the crying is caused by earache.

Diarrhoea.- Three to six motions a day are natural to healthy infants. When there are more, and the character of them is altered, and they becomes watery, green, brown, pasty, offensive, or mixed with blood and mucus, and when the child shows signs of suffering, then the condition is unnatural and requires treatment. Diarrhoea, which is prevalent in summer, is a dangerous disease. It is sometimes called summer diarrhoea. It usually begins with nausea and vomiting. First the food is vomited, then mucus. There may be retching and fruitless efforts to vomit. Diarrhoea comes on after the vomiting, the stools are greenish, thin, watery, or yellowish or slimy and mixed with blood. The food is sometimes passed undigested, and occasionally is very offensive. The child rapidly grows thin; there is great thirst for water which is often vomited; the head is hot, hands and feet cold. Bad air, improper feeding, sudden chills from improper clothing, or sudden changes of weather are the chief causes.

General Treatment.- The child must be kept warm and guarded from chills. If it is on the breast the nurse must be careful in her diet and take nothing of relaxing nature. If it is hand-fed a change in the diet may be tried.

If the discharges are excessive and watery, and the child shows of thirst, water may be given in teaspoonfuls. Sometimes water is the only thing that can be retained on the stomach at first. If the child has been fed on milk a little lime water may be added to it.

Medicines.- (Every hour until better.)

Aconite 3.

– Diarrhoea attended with fever; after a fright.

Chamomilla 6.

– Bilious, watery, pasty, or slimy stools of whitish. green, or yellow colour. Sometimes like beaten-up eggs, and offensive like rotten eggs. With it there is colic, fretfulness, crying, drawing up of the legs, redness of the face or of one cheek, soreness between the legs.

Magn. Carb. 6.

-Profuse, green, watery, frothy stool; with green scum like that of a frog pond; white limps like tallow; colic; sour smell of whole body.

China 3.

– Watery, painless diarrhoea, with much wind, occurs after each meal; undigested milk in the stools. Stools fetid; much wind in the bowels.

Ipecac. 3.

– From overloading the stomach; with nausea and vomiting; paleness of face; frequent crying; bilious, slimy stools, greenish-yellow, blackish, and blood-streaked, putrid.

Remedies especially indicated by summer diarrhoea.

Arsenicum 3.

– Child very weak, pale and emaciated; body inflated; limb cold; nausea and vomiting; yellow, watery, or white or brownish; offensive diarrhoea, worse after midnight, towards morning, and after eating and drinking.

Carbo vegetabilis 6.

-Child is cold and blue, stools thin and offensive, vomiting after eating, much first.

Ipecac. 3.

-At the commencement. For special indications see above.

Mercurius. 6.

-Diarrhoea worse before midnight; colic, straining, perspiration; scanty, greenish, sour, slimy, or bloody stools, with nausea and eructations.

Calcarea b.

– Thin, light-coloured stools, sour-smelling or like bad eggs; vomiting; sweat on head; body enlarged.

Veratrum a 3.

– Weakness, nausea, vomiting so great as almost to cause fainting great coldness, with cold sweat on the forehead; great exhaustion, vomiting, and diarrhoea; vomiting after swallowing the least liquid; slightest movement excites vomiting; great thirst for cold water; loose, brownish and blackish stools.

Sulph. 6.

– In protracted cases. Stools frequent, greenish, thin and watery, or whitish and slimy.

Discharge from the Ear.- Gathering in the ears frequently occurs in young children. The pains give rise to screaming, rolling, and tossing of the head, sudden starting out of sleep, and fever. When the discharge takes place the gathering has broken and the symptoms cease.

Treatment.- See under EARS.

Excoriation.- Rawness of the skin between the thighs and about the buttocks of infants is a very common affection. It is not a consequence of irritation from the water and motions, but is an independent affection of the skin.

General Treatment.- When the skin is sore it must not be washed with soap, but with plain water merely, and wiped dry with very soft linen, and afterwards dusted with starch powder or the finest fuller’s earth.

Medicines.- (Three times a day.)

Chamomilla 6.

-This well cure almost all cases.

Lycopodium 6.

-If Chamomilla fails.

Rhus. 3. -If accompanied by red pimples.

Sulph. 6.

-In obstinate cases.

Eyes Sore.- See above, under Management of the Child.

Gum, or Red Gum.- A rash of red pimples chiefly on face, neck, and arms. It is called “gum” because the pimples are tipped with a minute head, looking like a gummy exudation.

General Treatment.- As the disease is often due to improper clothing it will be necessary to see that the child is not too warmly wrapped up. It must be washed regularly.

Medicines.- (Two or three times a day.)

Rhus 3.

-Will cure most cases.

Sulph. 6.

-If Rhus is not sufficient.

Heat Spots, or Prickly Heat.- An eruption of small vesicles, generally about the size of a pin’s head. They are red and inflamed at the base, and contain watery fluid. After breaking they sometimes form thin scabs. There is usually some fever, and the burning and itching cause much annoyance to the infant. Heat of summer, warm rooms, excess of clothing, are the causes which give rise to it.

General Treatment.- Frequent washing and proper attention to ventilation and dress.

Medicines.-(Every few hours until relief is obtained.)

Aconite 3.-Fever and restlessness.

Chamomilla 6.-Peevishness and fretfulness.

Rhus 3.-If the eruption is extensive.

Sulph. 6.-If the eruption persists. When there is a tendency to the complaint, Sulphur may be given at long intervals to correct this.

Hiccough.-Many infants are a good deal troubled with this. Exposure to cold air will bring it on.

General Treatment.-Wrap the child up warmly and give it the breast or the bottle. If it continues give a teaspoonful of water sweetened with sugar.

Medicines.- If the above measures fail to remove it give a dose of Nux v.3. Repeat if necessary after a few hours.

Jaundice.- New-born children are not infrequently affected with jaundice. It may be brought on by exposure to cold or by the administration of apperients.

Symptoms.- The first symptom noticed is a yellowness of the whites of the eyes and of the urine. Then the whole surface of the body becomes yellow, the stools either confined or too loose, generally light coloured.

General Treatment.- The child must be kept warm and in a well- ventilated room.

Medicines.- (Every few hours.)

Chamomilla 6.

-Will often suffice to cure of itself.

Mercurius 6.

-After Chamomilla when the latter fails to complete the cure.

China 3.

-After the above, if necessary.

Nux v. 3.

– When there is constipation and irritability.

Meconium, Delayed.- Meconium is the name given to the dark green tarry substance of which the first stool of the child is composed. It generally comes away a few hours after birth; the mother’s milk slightly exciting the action of the bowels. Sometimes the evacuation is delayed.

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica