Frequently when whooping-cough intervenes during the time of teething, the irritation of the gums somewhat abates. Some children have whooping-cough and diarrhœa for some length of time, and upon recovery, show quite a number of teeth. I am not all in favor of encouraging any increased discharge from the bowels, but sometimes in congestive whooping-cough a little looseness is beneficial. Cholera often sets in just as the teeth have begun to break through the gums. The treatment, however, should be the same as if not teething. Great caution should be observed not to administer drugs containing laudanum; for by so doing, air and mucus collect in the air or bronchial tubes, inducing a stoppage in the breathing. Possibly suffocation and death have resulted from this cause in numbers of cases. Whooping-cough, if gently treated, seldom, if ever, proves fatal. I have had patients under my charge with it from four weeks old, upwards. It would, nevertheless, be well to keep the tender infant from exposure to whooping-cough for a while. It does seem as if sooner or later in life we are to encounter these peculiar complaints. The main thing to do to relieve the force of whooping-cough is to keep the chest and air-tubes warm, and, most of the time, moist. If there is danger of congestion, a warm poultice of flaxseed meal spread over the chest and throat, and keeping clear of dust, smoke, or smells of any kind, will aid much. By all means the nose should be kept running, which may be done by sweating the forehead and nose. Bronchitis or wheezing, like whooping-cough, is a disease that affects the air-tubes in a greater or less degree, the inflammation sometimes becoming very distressing. The treatment should be about the same as for whooping-cough.
Pneumonia, which is lung fever, frequently sets in just about the time a child is getting teeth. When there is known to be inflammation of the substances of the lungs, active treatment is called for. To the nurse, or mother, I will say that the surest signs of lung troubles are in the manner of breathing. If the nostrils flare at every attempt to take breath, or in other words, if they open and shut in quick succession, there is little doubt as to the presence of lung fever well advanced. Of course, there is great heat prostration and perceptible agony from pain, even in the infant of three or four weeks. Thousands of babes die annually from this disease, who have never looked out at a door or window; how is it? Quick breathing may be occasioned by extreme pain, but never flaring of the nostrils without some lung pressure. Active measures to reduce the blood is the proper way to treat lung fever. The flaxseed meal poultice over the entire chest, or wrapping the body up in flannel cloths wrung out of hot water, and giving to drink, plentifully, of cream of tartar and gum-arabic water,—one teaspoonful of each dissolved in a pint of boiling water and a teaspoonful every hour to a child one month old, and upwards, increasing the quantity according to age,—all tend to reduce the fever.