Diseases of children, for nurses, including infant feeding, therapeutic measures employed in childhood, treatment for emergencies, prophylaxis, hygiene, and nursing . of as scissors gait. Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis or Infantile Paralysis.—^This is an acute disease which occurs almost exclu-sively in young children, and is characterized by thedestruction of nerve-cells in the brain and spinal cord, es-pecially in the anterior horns of gray matter. Since 1907 epidemics of infantile paralysis have beenprevalent in Europe and the United States. Flexner andLewis in their epoch-making studies ha\i
Diseases of children, for nurses, including infant feeding, therapeutic measures employed in childhood, treatment for emergencies, prophylaxis, hygiene, and nursing . of as scissors gait. Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis or Infantile Paralysis.—^This is an acute disease which occurs almost exclu-sively in young children, and is characterized by thedestruction of nerve-cells in the brain and spinal cord, es-pecially in the anterior horns of gray matter. Since 1907 epidemics of infantile paralysis have beenprevalent in Europe and the United States. Flexner andLewis in their epoch-making studies ha\ing proved it tobe an infectious and probably a contagious disease. Thevirus of infection most probably gains access to the centralnervous system through absorption from the mucousmembrane of the nose and throat, from whence it is carriedby the lymphatics through the cribriform plate of the NERVOUS DISEASES 229 ethmoid bone directly into the cranial cavity. The poisonis likewise thrown off from the same mucous membraneby a reversed process of elimination. Symptoms.—The paralysis comes on very child goes to bed well and the following morning he. Fig. 59.—Scissors gait in a girl two years old (Friihwald and Westcott). cannot move his legs or, at times, his arms. Certaingroups of muscles in the upper and lower extremities areinvolved, chiefly the latter. The paralysis at first is wide-spread, but tends to improve up to a certain point, whereit remains stationary. The muscles affected atrophy, and 230 DISEASES OF CHILDREN FOR NURSES the usefulness of the limb is obtained by an overdevelop-ment of other muscles which perform the function of themuscles which have been destroyed to a Umited degreer| Treatment.—The nose and throat, being the principalpoints of infection, should be thoroughly douched withantiseptic solutions containing hydrogen peroxid andmenthol. This not only applies to the children attacked,but to all children when the disease is epidemic.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectchildren, bookyear192
