Summer Diseases

The food of children in summer, should be light and nourishing; if of milk, be careful that it is sweet. If you cannot get it fresh as often as you want it, boiling will keep it sweet. Sour milk and improper food sometimes bring on the summer disease, which is easier prevented than cured.

A little rhubarb tea or tincture, with a small quantity of prepared chalk, will sometimes check it in its early stages, but the most effectual medicine that I have tried is called by some apothecaries, “red mixture,” of which I will give a recipe.

Chicken water, slightly salted, is very good; make but a little at a time, and have it fresh.

Rice gruel, sweetened with loaf-sugar, and a little nutmeg, is nourishing. To make a drink of slippery-elm, shave the bark fine and put it in water; strain it, mix it with milk, and sweeten it. Elderberry and blackberry cordials are also good in cases where there is no fever.

The stomach and back should be bathed with spirits, and a little bag of pounded spices, wet with spirits, applied to the stomach, may be used with safety, when not within reach of a physician.

A bark jacket has been used with success in many instances, cut it out of fine muslin, to be double, spread it open, and cover one side with about two ounces of the best Lima bark, and twelve pounded cloves; put on the other side, sew it up, and quilt it across; put on shoulder straps and strings of soft ribbon; sprinkle it with spirits twice a day.

The child should have the benefit of the morning and evening air. If it is not convenient to ride it out, walking will answer, in the arms of a careful nurse, carried on a pillow, with an umbrella to protect its eyes from the light.

When a child is taken sick in a city, removing it to the country often has a beneficial effect. Milk thickened with arrow root is good diet for children. Flour dried in an oven for several hours, and used to thicken milk or water, is also good, sweetened with loaf-sugar, and is nutritious. They should eat but a small portion of any thing at a time.

To cut slices of lean fresh beef or mutton, put it in a bowl, and pour a pint of boiling water on it, and let it set close to the fire for an hour, is very good to give children occasionally, with but little salt; the stomach will sometimes retain this when other things are rejected. As thirst is an attendant on this disease, much salt should be avoided in all their food. Every thing about a sick child should be kept clean, and its clothes well aired before changing them. If it is too ill to carry out of doors, have it changed from one room to another, and the apartment it left well aired.

Children who are afflicted with this disease, sometimes crave fruit. Ripe peaches, fresh from the tree, or ripe apples, baked or roasted before the fire, may he occasionally administered in small quantities with perfect safety.

To make toast-water, the bread should be toasted on both sides very dry, and boiling water poured on it.

Source: Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, Elizabeth E. Lea

Delightful Cough Candy

Break up a cupful of slippery-elm bark, and let it soak for an hour in water poured over it in the measuring-cup. Half fill a cup with flaxseed, and fill up to the brim with water, leaving it to soak the same time as the slippery-elm. When you are ready to make the candy, put one pound and a half of brown sugar in a stew-pan over the fire; pour the water from the slippery-elm and flaxseed over it, straining the last, and stir constantly until it boils and begins to turn back to sugar; then turn it out, and it will break up into crumbly, small pieces. For preachers or teachers who use their voices too much, it will be found an admirable and agreeable medicine, the taste being peculiarly pleasant. It is highly recommended to any one subject to throat affections. The best flavor for it is a little lemon-juice.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Cure for Hiccough

A good cure for hiccough is slippery elm-bark boiled and made sweet with sugar.

Source: The New Galt Cook Book, M. Taylor & F. McNaught

Slippery-Elm Bark Tea

Break the bark into bits, pour boiling water over it, cover, and let it infuse until cold. Sweeten, ice, and take for summer disorders, or add lemon juice and drink for a bad cold.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Slippery-Elm Tea

Pour one cup of boiling water upon one teaspoonful of slippery-elm powder or a piece of the bark. When cool, strain, and flavor with lemon-juice and sugar. This is soothing in any inflammation of the mucous membrane.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Slippery-Elm Bark Tea

Break the bark into bits, pour boiling water over it, cover and let it infuse until cold. Sweeten, ice, and take for summer disorders, or add lemon-juice and drink for a bad cold.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Whooping Cough Syrup

One ounce flax seed, one ounce slippery elm, one ounce boneset, one ounce stick liquorice, one and one-half pounds loaf sugar, one pint Orleans molasses. Put first three ingredients in thin muslin bag, and boil one hour in sufficient water to cover well. Dissolve the liquorice in one pint of water; then boil all together a few moments.

DOSE.–One teaspoonful every hour or two, as the case may require.

Source: Recipes Tried and True

When A Button Is Swallowed

Children sometimes swallow buttons, fruit stones, thimbles and pennies. When the mother is sure that the child has swallowed a foreign substance the child should be encouraged and even compelled to eat plentifully of mashed potatoes, thick mush and coarse bread. Then follow with syrup of rhubarb or castor oil. Do not give the cathartic immediately on finding out the accident but make sure that much bulky food is taken. Give a child slippery elm to chew when it swallows a penny or button or hard object. This forms a slippery coating on the surface of the penny in the stomach which aids it in passing easily through the intestine and prevents its lodging there and was the remedy applied by a physician when called.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

For a Burn

Make half a tumbler of strong lime water, let it set a few minutes; then strain the water through a thin muslin to the same quantity of linseed or sweet oil (neat’s or hog’s foot will answer); mix it well, and spread over the burn; wrap over linen cloths. Do not remove the cloth for several days; saturate it frequently with the lime and oil until the inflammation is subdued. Should the odor become offensive, apply cold poultices of the flour of slippery elm; spread over with pulverized charcoal. A plaster of lard and soot is also good for a burn. Heal with any simple salve — a very good one is made by stewing together heart leaves, white lily root, agrimony, a few leaves of the Jamestown weed, and sweet gum. When the strength of the herbs is extracted, strain the water; throw away leaves, etc.; add fresh unsalted butter, and simmer gently until the water has evaporated. Keep this on hand for common sores, in a close-covered box.

Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book

Cough Mixture

Take of boneset, slippery elm, flax seed and stick liquorice two ounces each, one pint molasses, half pound brown sugar. Simmer the herbs in water (about three pints), until the strength is extracted, add the sugar and molasses, strain and boil to the consistency of cream. A teaspoon every two hours.

Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book