Colostrum

“ If, in addition to these symptoms, it is possible for a woman who has not had children to squeeze from her nipples a pale yellowish fluid, called colostrum, she may feel almost certain that she is pregnant. But it must be remembered that these symptoms, also, may be due to causes other than pregnancy; that even milk in the breasts may be present in a woman who has borne children, for months, or possibly years, after the birth of her last baby. ”

“ This is very necessary, both for the
mother and the child, and prevents subsequent troubles. The fluid
contained in the breast is at this stage called colostrum, and is
intended by Nature to act upon the child as a laxative. This first
nursing stimulates the secretion of the milk and causes uterine
contraction, which is very much needed at this time. It is well to wash
the infant's mouth out with sterilized water every time it feeds. For
this purpose use clean water which has been boiled and allowed to cool,
or a solution of boric acid in boiled water--5 grains to the ounce of
water. ”

“ Care of the Nipples.—As soon as the mother has had a good sleep after the confinement the nipples should be [122] washed with a saturated solution of boracic acid, and the child allowed to nurse. The milk does not come into the breast for two or three days, but the child should nurse every four hours during that time. There is secreted at this time a substance called colostrum. This is a laxative agent which nature intends the child should have as it tends to move the bowels and at the same time it appeases the hunger of the infant. ”

“ So long as the breasts contain colostrum the nursings should be at least three hours apart during the day; at night it is preferable not to disturb the mother at all. As soon as milk appears the interval is usually shortened to two hours during the day. In many cases, however, the three-hour interval will be retained even after the milk appears, for otherwise the infant may not become hungry and will fail to nurse as strongly as it should. ”

“ Or if his head is drawn away from the breast, a little, he will sometimes take a firmer hold and begin to nurse. Moistening the nipple by expressing a few drops of colostrum or with 360sweetened water may stimulate the baby’s appetite and thus prompt him to nurse. ”

“ It is estimated that food taken into the stomach will reach the colon in five hours. For nineteen hours the sewage waste of the body is gradually becoming a fetid pool before an outlet is furnished it by the one-movement-a-day people; and O ye gods of health! how many of us there are that haven't even one movement a day! For a few hours the absorbent cells of the colon will try to extract as much of the nutritious residue as the system calls for, but along with it a lot of poisonous filth will be absorbed. The call of the system for nourishment should be fully answered by the small intestines. ”

“ The large intestine is a sort of nest that cradles the reproductive organs, including the ovaries, uterus, and in the case of the male, the prostate gland. A toxic colon is like having one rotten apple in a basket, it contaminates the whole batch. Many problems in the abdominal area are caused by a toxic colon, including chronic back pain, ovarian cysts, infertility, birth abnormalities, bladder infections and bladder cancer, painful menstruation, fibroids and other benign growths as well as malignant ones, and prostatitis or prostate cancer. ”

“ And it is not at all strange that they should, since there is so much pressure from within, so much pressure downward, and so much pressure from without—all through the requirements of fashion, indulgence, and ignorance. But the stomach, upper portion of the duodenum, and small intestine, cæcum, the ascending colon, and especially the transverse colon and sigmoid flexure, are susceptible to various forms of displacement, inhibiting the ready flow or passage of food stuffs, gases, and feces from one segment of the digestive apparatus to another, until the vent is reached. ”

“ All persons suffering from proctitis and colitis and their symptoms, as described in the previous chapters of this work and in Intestinal Ills, will require, now and then, if not under treatment, special irrigation of the stomach to remove fermentative matter, particles of undigested food, and tenacious, ropy mucus before the next meal is taken. Otherwise the condition will be made doubly bad, for the fresh material is piled on top of the unduly retained contents of the stomach. As evidence of our civilization, we clean pots and kettles before the next meal. ”

“ An overloaded condition of the large intestine may cause inflammation of the liver or dropsy of the abdomen. When the colon is distended, it becomes a mechanical impediment to the free circulation of the blood in other organs, and causes congestion of the portal system, predisposing to chronic inflammation or cirrhosis of the liver. This latter is a structural affection, and may, in turn, give rise to abdominal dropsy. In a word, the accumulation of feces in the colon irritates both the large and small intestines, thus causing congestion of the bowels, liver, or stomach. ”

“ In this pitiable disease, through the valve of the colon, through the pylorus, the cardia, and the pharinx, are ejected, first, the contents of the stomach and intestines, with the excrement and even clysters themselves; then the fluid from the lacteals, which is now poured into the intestines by their retrograde motions, is thrown up by the mouth; and, lastly, every fluid, which is absorbed by the other lymphatic branches, from the cellular membrane, the skin, the bladder, and all other cavities of the body ”

“ In many cases as much as a pint of slimy mucus collects in the stomach during the night. Where the stomach cleansing is impossible, in above manner, the stomach tube should be used.
Chronic gastritis, in any of its phases, is frequently accompanied by constipation, and the diet should be so selected as to be as laxative as possible, without irritating the lining of the stomach. The liquid diet assists the intestines, to a certain extent, particularly if the stomach be cleansed by the water in the morning, as indicated under Mucous Gastritis below. ”

“ Constipation, diarrhea, colic, and vomiting. Gastric or stomach trouble is indicated by vomiting or the belching of gas; intestinal trouble by colic, flatulence, diarrhea, and constipation.
The wise mother will learn to distinguish between the various forms of vomiting. Regurgitation, already described, is not a danger signal; [Pg 91] if the milk, unchanged in consistency and color, runs easily from the baby’s mouth almost immediately after the child is taken from the breast or bottle, and then, as if relieved, the infant rolls over in comfortable slumber, there is no cause for anxiety. ”

“ The tenth objection to using an enema is in being obliged to use it from the fact of having such a disease as chronic inflammation of the rectum and colon. Every victim hates to be compelled to do a thing; and the victim of proctitis and colitis is no exception to the rule. In fact, he is beginning to realize that unless he uses it his system will be poisoned by the absorption of the sewage waste. Let the victim object to the disease that necessitates the use of the enema, and all will shortly be well. ”

“ We are enabled thus to treat by double medication as it were, a chronic disease of the intestines and its symptoms—that is, intestines that have been long neglected or maltreated through lack of proper diagnosis, or by all sorts of chemical compounds from above, through mouth and stomach.
The author and inventor naturally enjoys not a little satisfaction in being able to present to sufferers as nearly perfect an instrument as can be devised; one that, in conjunction with other aids, meets all requirements involved in the proper treatment of proctitis and colitis. ”

“ Proctologists who have written on the subject of mucous colitis have noted the many symptoms very accurately, but have missed the usual location of a most aggravating disease from which mankind suffers early and late in life. Authors of books on stomach and intestinal troubles are also groping very much in the dark and are unable to diagnose the cause of a very common functional disturbance of the whole digestive apparatus, caused by proctitis and sigmoiditis, bringing numerous and severe primary and secondary symptoms to which other diseases may be traced. ”

“ All kinds of foodstuffs, at all hours, with seeds, stones, etc., are poked into its stomach, followed by constipating remedies to quiet inevitable troubles, or brisk purgatives given with the hope of expelling the arrested contents of the bowels. Is it any wonder that ninety-eight persons of adult age out of every hundred suffer more or less from chronic inflammation and ulceration of anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, colon, or appendix? ”

“ Changes in the digestive tract are the morning sickness already described, and constipation. The latter is suffered by at least one half of all pregnant women and is due chiefly to pressure made upon the intestines by the enlarged uterus, though weakening of the stretched abdominal muscles may be one cause. Constipation is most troublesome during the latter part of pregnancy. There may be, also, heartburn, acid stomach and intestinal indigestion giving rise to gas, diarrhea and cramps. ”

“ Only in our own day has come the greatest confirmation of the notion then first introduced into physiology, of the surpassing importance of intestinal digestion. The removal of the whole stomach for malignant disease is now undertaken without any fears as to the ultimate result on the patient's general nutrition. The operation has been done many times, and the surgeon's confidence that the intestines would compensate, as far as digestion of food was concerned, for the absent stomach has been amply justified. ”

“ In ordinary doses it greatly increases the secretion of the small intestine and stimulates its muscular coat. The gall-bladder is also stimulated, and the biliary function of the liver, so that colocynth is both an excretory and a secretory cholagogue. The action which follows hypodermic injection is due to the excretion of the drug from the blood into the alimentary canal. Though colocynth is a drastic hydragogue cathartic, it is desirable, as a rule, to supplement its action by some drug, such as aloes, which acts on the large intestine, and a sedative must always be added. ”

“ Colic, Constipation, Convulsions and Vomiting so frequently seen in young babies are symptoms rather than diseases.
Colic usually consists of paroxysms of pain in the stomach or intestines, due to distension or to spasmodic, muscular contractions. The indirect cause may be unsuitable food or food given too rapidly; chilling of the surface of the body, excitement or fatigue. The distension may be due to air swallowed by the baby while nursing or gas formed by carbohydrate fermentation. Excess of protein may form an irritating mass in the intestines and cause a cramp. ”

“ The colon is subject to three main forms of inflammation. In simple colitis the mucous membrane of the colon is intensely injected, bright red in colour, and secreting a thick mucus, but there is no accompanying ulceration. It is often found in association with some constitutional disease, as Bright’s disease, and also with cancer of the bowel. But when it has no association with other trouble it is probably bacterial in origin, the Bacillus enteritidis spirogenes having been isolated in many cases. The motions always contain large quantities of mucus and more or less blood. ”

“ In pathology, a morbid collection of gas in the stomach and bowels. Its most common cause is indigestion. When the natural fluids of the stomach are secreted in a healthy state, they exercise an antiseptic and digestive action on the food, by which it is speedily reduced to a magma that is little liable to spontaneous change whilst in the body; but when the reverse is the case, fermentation soon commences, and the stomach and associated viscera become distended with gas, and all the well-known symptoms of flatulency are developed in rapid succession. ”

“ Cathartics do not remove this old faecal matter, as they simply loosen up what is in the stomach and small intestines, and pass it off through the little opening in the hardened faecal matter with which the walls of a badly constipated colon is lined. In some persons the colon is impacted with hardened faeces, almost as solid as soft coal, to such an extent that their abdomens become swollen and hard. This old waste matter becomes sometimes so foul that it becomes the breeding place of worms, and even maggots, and the colon is filled with their eggs. ”

“ These antiperistaltic waves follow one after another like the peristaltic waves of the stomach (see Figs. 5, 6, and 10) . They begin either on the more advanced portion of the food in the colon (when only a small amount is present) , or at the nearest tonic constriction, which is usually at the turn between the transverse and descending colon (Figs. 7 and 8.) The waves rarely run continuously for a long time. When the colon is full, it is usually quiet. The first sign of activity is an irregular undulation of the walls, then very faint constrictions passing along the gut towards the cæcum. ”

“ Meconium consists of cast-off cells from the skin and intestines, fat, mucus, hairs and bile pigment. In the course of two or three days, the stools begin to grow lighter and shortly the normal, milk-feces appear, being bright yellow, of a smooth pasty consistency and having a characteristic odor. During the first month or six weeks the baby’s bowels may move three or four times daily, but after this they usually move but once or twice in 457the course of twenty-four hours. As the diet is increased, the stools grow somewhat darker and firmer and finally become formed. ”