CONVULSIONS AND FITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 8

CONVULSIONS AND FITS

TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. COLD COMPRESSES AND DIET. Convulsions and fits are not as dangerous as is popularly supposed. Some susceptible children get convulsions from quite trivial causes. However, the experience of attending a child in convulsions is very terrifying, especially for the first time. The causes of convulsions are numerous. A convulsion may be the initial symptom of any of the infectious fevers, especially scarlet fever. It may be caused by any indigestible substance, and some children are liable to an attack after eating any hard fruit, such as a banana. In other cases it is caused by heat, exhaustion and nerves. In only a few is it caused by a serious organic disease of the brain, such as meningitis, or tumour of the brain.

A child in a convulsion goes very pale, clenches its teeth, and rolls its eyes back and becomes rigid. After a moment of this rigidity, during which it holds its breath, it begins a series of convulsive twitching movements of the limbs and the face, and becomes quite unconscious. This attack lasts several minutes, and there may be one or repeated attacks. Between the attacks, the child is deeply unconscious, or, at the very least, quite drowsy. CAREFUL SPONGING. In the treatment of a convulsion the first thing to. do is to ascertain whether or no it is accompanied by fever. A temperature in a child should be taken either in the fold of the groin or in the rectum. If the convulsion is due to a fever, the'temperature may be found to be as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit or more. If it is high, the temperature must be reduced by sponging, and this sponging must be properly done. The child must be stripped and placed on a towel, and another towel placed over it. Water at an almost cold temperature is used. In summer ordinary tap winter, and in winter the same, with the addition of a very little hot, is satisfactory. The child is slowly and systematically sponged all over, each limb is sponged in turn, and then the back and the front of the body. While being sponged a very cold wet compress is applied to the head. The sponging should take at least five minutes, and this should be timed by a clock. The temperature is then.taken, and if this has not dropped to 102 degrees Fahrenheit the sponging must be continued for a few minutes. If it has dropped to 102 degrees, the child is quickly dried and placed in bed between light, blankets. The temperature should then be taken every half-hour, and if it shows a tendency to rise the sponging should be repeated. In most cases the temperature will drop from 102 degrees to under 100 degrees within the next hour. An aperient should be given; the child should be given nothing but water or fruit juice until a doctor has diagnosed the cause of the convulsion. The more water the child takes, the better.

MUSTARD BATH TREATMENT. In cases of convulsions without fever, the best treatment is the old-fash-ioned mustard bath. A tablespoonful! of mustard is stirred into a small tub of hot water. The temperature of the water should be tested with the elbow, and not the hand, The child is kept in the mustard bath for five minutes, while cold packs are applied to the head. An aperient is given, water given freely, and medical opinion obtained. In the case of children who are known to be susceptible to convulsions, great care must be taken in the diet. Fruit should not be allowed to be eaten if it is at all green, and it should be cut up small or mashed. Bananas mashed with milk and sugar are an easily digested and harmless article of food, whereas the same bananas swallowed in three large pieces are very indigestible.