INDICATIONS FOR HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES.
Baryta Carb.- Swollen tonsils, Quinsy. Children backward physically and mentally. Enlarged glands in neck.
Baryta Mur.- Similar to Baryta Carb.
Calcarea carb.- Fat flabby children, very chilly, chalky complexion, sweating head, enlarged glands, readily catch cold.
Calcarea-Phosphorus- Swollen tonsils and adenoids. Pale wasted children, chilly and ready catching cold. Bone troubles. Swollen glands.
Calcarea-Iodium- Similar to Calcarea-Phosphorus
Lycopod.- Swelling and suppuration of tonsils beginning on right side. Wizened children. Worse from 4 to 8 p.m. Craves everything warm.
Sulphur.- Dry unhealthy skin. Complains of heat, burning, itching. Aversion to washing. When well-chosen, remedies have failed.
Tuberculinum.- Tuberculosis feared or suspected, or comes of tuberculous stock. Readily catches cold. When well-chosen remedies have failed.
60. Thrust – Sore Mouth (Parasitic Stomatitis)
DEFINITION.- An inflammatory product, consisting of white patches, on the lining membrane of the mouth and throat. The white patches are now known to be a microscopic parasite plant – the Oidium albicans – the sporules of which increase with great rapidity, and form tubular fibrils. There is also an increased formation of epithelial scaled. The unhealthy secretions of the mouth, particularly when acid, form a nidus or breeding-ground for the vegetation.
CAUSES.- Improper diet; unsuitable quality or quantity of food given to infants fed with the bottle or spoon, neglect of general cleanliness (especially thirty bottles, teats, etc.), also neglecting to wipe out the baby’s mouth after every feed, bad drainage, etc. A scrofulous constitution may operate as a predisposing cause. The disease also occurs during the course of Measles, enteric fever, Diabetes, and Consumption; it is then generally indicative of an early fatal termination.
SYMPTOMS.- There is generally some febrile disturbance; the child is fretful, often refuses the breast on account of pain experienced in sucking; there is usually vomiting, and a thin, watery Diarrhoea, caused by deranged intestinal secretions. The local symptoms consist of innumerable white specks, like little bits of curd, which are sometimes so connected as to form a continuous, dirty, diphtheritic-like covering over the tongue, gums, palate, and inside of the cheeks and lips. In severe cases, vegetations line the whole interior of the mouth, and extend even to the fauces and down the gullet; the buttocks also become red and excoriated by the acid secretions; the parasite plants, however, are not developed on the interior of the stomach or bowels, but are restricted to those portions of the mucous tract which are studded with scaly epithelium.
PROGNOSIS.- In children strong, Thrust, which is caused by improper food or want of cleanliness, may be readily cured by one or more of the following remedies, and by correction of the faulty hygienic condition. If it occurs as a complication in the course of an exhausting disease, or after a lengthened course of improper food, in which the digestion and assimilation of nourishment must be necessarily imperfect, the prospect of recovery becomes proportionately diminished. Diarrhoea, too, is by no means infrequent, especially in feeble children, and diseases the gravity of the case.
TREATMENT.- Borax and Mercurius are the chief remedies for this disease. The latter is perhaps more often employed than the former. The medicine selected should be given three times a day.
INDICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE AND OTHER REMEDIES.
Arsenicum.- Dark colour of the patches; offensive odour from the mouth; severe Diarrhoea and great constitutional prostration.
Borax.- Child’s rest is much disturbed, salivation, the aphthae bleed freely.
Mercurius Sol.- Dribbling saliva, offensive breath, Diarrhoea; if administered when the white specks first appears, it is often alone sufficient.
Sulphur.- In convalescence, and when there are eruptions on the skin.
ACCESSORIES.- The child’s mouth should be washed with a weak solution of Borax (ten grains to one ounce of water), or bicarbonate of soda (a drachm in half a pint of water), by means of a soft brush, two or three times a day. Before using the lotion the mouth should be well cleansed with a piece of linen rag squeezed out of warm water.
A point of first consideration is suitable diet. If Thrush be distinctly traceable to any disease in the mother which cannot be quickly cured, the infant should be at once provided with a wet- nurse, or weaned, and fed as directed in Section 11.
PREVENTION.- Every variety of starch-food is unsuitable for an infant. Diet is to be as prescribed in Section 11. Strict cleanliness is particularly necessary. After each meal the mouth should be washed, to prevent the accumulation of milk about the gums. This simple measure will often prevent the appearance of Thrush. In like manner, the mother’s nipple should be cleansed each time after giving it to the infant. Well-ventilated rooms, and abundance of out-of-door air, every day, in suitable weather, will prove of extreme value, rendering the secretions more healthy, and raising the tone of the general system.
61. Disorder of Dentition
To enable our readers to recognize the disorder of Dentition (in itself a natural process), we shall briefly sketch the progress of healthy teething. There are two sets of teeth; the first – the milk teeth – appears during the first two years of like, and falls out about the seventh or eight year. As the first set falls out it is replaced by the permanent, which is not completed till adult life.
The milk teeth generally appear in the following order :- About the sixth mouth the two middle incisors of the lower jaw, followed in a few weeks by the corresponding incisors of the upper jaw; next appear the two outside incisors of the lower jaw; and soon after those of. the upper; after another interval of perhaps about two months, the first four molars, then the eye- teeth, and, lastly, four other molars, completing by about the second year, the teeth of the first set. Should there be any little deviation from this order, or should Dentition be a little prolonged, no great importance need be attached to it.
Although Dentition is a natural process of development in many children it is a trying one, and may even call into fatal activity latent tendencies to disease. Indeed, in the Registrar- General’s annual report for 1884 no less than 4,942 deaths are ascribed to this cause. In consequence of the increased activity and excitement in the vascular system, combined with the nervous irritation which sometimes attends Dentition, local or constitutional disturbances are likely to arise in delicate children. Rickets, for example, greatly influences the progress of teething. If this disease sets in previously to the commencement of Dentition, the evolution of the teeth may be almost indefinitely delayed; or if some are already cut, further progress may be arrested. Rickety children of eighteen months or two years old may often be seen with very few teeth, and those few black and carious.
SYMPTOMS.- Bronchitis; restlessness, starting, as if in fright, or interrupted sleep; sudden occurrence of febrile symptoms; hot, swollen, or tender gums, and increased flow of saliva; derangement of the digestive organs – sickness, diarrhoea, or Constipation; and sometimes Spasms and Convulsions. Diarrhoea and other symptoms of Indigestion are most frequent in the summer and autumn, and when therefore, children are not exposed to sudden changes.
CAUSES.- Rickets and general delicacy. The exciting causes are irregular feeding; excessive feeding; improper quality of food, and deficiency of vitamins. Disordered Dentition is often coincident with a change of diet from the mother’s milk to various articles which are unsuited to the age of the child. Inflammatory affection of the gums, or disproportion between the jaw and the number and form of the teeth, are also causes of suffering. (See the next Section).
TREATMENT.- Chamomilla is an excellent medicine for most cases of disordered Dentition, and, in the absence of fever, should be considered. It may be given every two or three hours.
INDICATIONS FOR THE SEVERAL REMEDIES.
Aconitum.- Feverishness, restlessness, inflamed gums.
Calcarea carb.- Cases complicated with slimy Diarrhoea; in scrofulous patients.
Chamomilla.- Bilious purging, intestinal irritation, cough, nervousness, and fretfulness.
Kreasotum.- In cachectic children; agitation and wakefulness; gums inflamed; Constipation; teeth decay as soon as they appear.
ADDITIONAL REMEDIES.
Arsen. (with much emaciation); Belladonna (flushed face, nervous irritability); Mercurius-Sol.- (green or bloody motions); Podoph. (pain in paroxysms, with Prolapsus Ani); Silicea (much perspiration about the head when falling asleep).
ACCESSORY TREATMENT.- Regularity in the times of feeding and sleep; correction of any habits in the mother which may affect the child unfavourably; restriction to suitable quantities of food at one time. (See “Diet” Sections 11-14) Keeping the feet warm, and allowing the child to be much in the open air.
62. Decay of the Teeth.
The function of the teeth is so important that it is impossible to over-estimate the necessity of exercising due care in their management during the whole period of childhood. A good set of teeth is one of the best guarantees a child can possess of good digestion and prolonged health; and this blessing it is generally possible to attain by the exercise of early care. A large proportion of the patients who come under our observation, including persons of all ages, suffer from a more or less deteriorated state of the teeth and gums. Our opportunities of investigating this subject have been extensive, for it is one of the points upon which we make definite inquiry, more especially in cases of Indigestion and defective nutrition. Our own observations are confirmed by dentists of long practice, who have noticed the increasing prevalence of carious teeth.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."