CROUP AND COLDS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 6, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 14.

CROUP AND COLDS.

By Editor

A WRITER in the Housekeeper has the following sensible words on the above subject, the editor supplementing with a note saying that instead of violent rubbing "use a brisk application of salt and cool water, drying thoroughly with a soft towel." And we would add that moderately cold cloths have had equally good effect, according to our observation, as cloths wrung out of ice water, and do not shock a nervous patient so much. With these remarks we give the remedy as one most worthy of application:—

Croup is a word that strikes terror to the heart of every mother. Whoever has heard the clanging cough, the choked breathing, and seen the flushed faces of the little sufferers, will never forget the experience nor fail to recognize the symptoms.

For a long time croup was one of the bugbears of my existence. My children are all predisposed to it, and the least relaxation of vigilance on my part meant a night of disturbed rest. A fire must be made and water heated, onions must be fried, and I usually sat up from one to three hours with the child's feet to the fire. I could look back and laugh at the remembrance, if it were not for the suffering of the child.

In the first place I have learned to not keep the children housed too closely. They are warmly dressed as soon as the first cool days come; then, unless it is damp or stormy, they are turned out to play every day. Thus they are accustomed to exposure, and do not readily take cold.

If one of them wakes with the croup, I light the night lamp, fold a soft cloth so it will make four or six thicknesses around the neck, then dip it into the coldest water in the house. Unfasten the child's clothes, wring the cloth as dry as possible, and place it around the child's neck, covering with a thick dry cloth and a piece of oilcloth. In five minutes from the time I heard the cough, I am back to bed with the little one tucked down between Ted and me, to avoid any possibility of its losing the pack. The child will seldom cough the second time.

In using this treatment several things are imperative. The water must be cold, ice water is best, and the cloth wrung dry. The child must be kept warm, for the pack soon grows steaming warm and a chill then means a fresh cold. In the morning, when the pack is removed, rub the skin with a towel until it burns, and the cure is complete. Care must be taken for a few days, however, that the child takes no more cold. I have found this method to cure more rapidly than all the alum and sugar. Hive sirup, and fried onions I ever

heard of. The most severe cases will yield at once.

For a cold in either children or adults the hot-water treatment is excellent. Just before going to bed immerse the feet in hot water and fill the teapot one-third full of very hot water. Close the lid and take the nozzle in your mouth. Inhale the steam and exhale through your nostrils. Continue until the head and throat have become loosened; dry the feet; then go quickly to bed and sweat away your cold. These are tried remedies in our family, never known to fail.