HERNIA

HERNIA

    Hernia in children is not difficult of management. If a well-fiitting truss is adjusted and looked after carefully to keep it in place, the tendency in all cases is to recover. Where the hernia is not very large, the tendency is for it to get well without a truss. Children troubled in this way should be fed very carefully--certainly they should not be overfed; and where there is distention of the bowels from gas, overfeeding must be avoided. Certainly milk and bread should never be given in the same meal, because, when starch and protein are eaten together, there is always a tendency to develop gas in the bowels, and gas distention produces so much intra-abdominal pressure that the hernia is forced out and kept in this state. As soon as the gas pressure has been overcome by limiting the eating to digestive needs, the hernial protrusion will return through the opening, and give nature an opportunity to close the so-called rupture. As a matter of fact, a hernia is not a rupture--it is a forced enlargement of a natural opening. It should be understood that there is no rupture it is only a forced separation of the muscular tissue that guards the hernial ring. Rubbing or kneading gently the muscles over the location of the hernia strengthens them, and there is a tendency to overcome the laxity or weakness of the guarding muscles.