The condition referred to above and which we termed incomplete constipation may affect the nursing infant. A child's bowels may move daily and yet the child will suffer from constipation. If the movements are watched it will be observed that certain children strain when at stool, and after a time succeed in passing hard, dry lumps or balls of fecal matter. Such a movement is a certain indication that the bowel is not emptying itself satisfactorily and that a constant toxemia or poisoning is going on. Very faithful efforts should be made to remedy this condition by the use of articles of diet that are known to be laxative, otherwise the condition is one that will "grow" with the child and establish an obstinate chronic constipation with all its miseries and dangers.
CONSTIPATION IN BREAST-FED INFANTS.--Many nursing infants thrive and gain in weight, yet they are constipated. Before you drug your baby be sure the fault is not your own. Many mothers are responsible for the constipation with which baby suffers. If the mother is constipated, so will the child be. Cure the constipation of the mother and the baby's bowels will regulate themselves. Nursing mothers who are large tea-drinkers have irregular bowels as a rule. A baby whose mother is lazy or indolent, who does not take a reasonable amount of exercise, whose diet is faulty and whose hours are bad, is a sufferer from constipation. The mother's life must be regulated, her diet and habits corrected, and the instructions carried out as already recommended. The breast milk should be examined and if any cause for constipation exists in it, it should be rectified as suggested elsewhere.
If it is thought advisable to resort to drugs for the immediate relief of the constipation of infants, the best ones are the aromatic fluid extract of cascara sagrada; milk of magnesia with equal parts of the aromatic syrup of rhubarb given in doses of one to three teaspoonfuls daily.
Irrigations, enemas, and suppositories should not be used continuously. The habit is a bad one. The parts become accustomed to their use and fail to act. If the child is passing dry and hard stools it is of advantage to inject two ounces of warm sweet oil at night, allowing it to remain in the bowel until the following morning. See page 312.