Chapter X · DIET IN ABNORMAL CONDITIONS (continued 2)
Reading edition
On the other hand, too much food is often urged on the convalescent from a mistaken idea that large quantities of food are necessary in order to rebuild the enfeebled system.
Care must be taken not to return too rapidly to a solid diet when a liquid diet has been followed for some time. The digestive system shares in the general weakness and must not be overloaded.
The more easily digested foods, as ice cream, milk, tapioca, crackers and cream or cream toast, cream soups and meat broths thickened with bread crumbs rolled from toasted bread, custards, stewed fruits, corn meal, mush, in some conditions, cornstarch blancmange, boiled rice, and poached eggs may be given.
Later, when meat is added to the diet it should be scraped or finely minced so as to give the stomach as little work as possible until it regains its tone.
Potatoes, if allowed, should be baked or mashed.
Sweetbreads in cream, sponge cake or lady fingers with light cream may also be allowed.
At least a week should be taken in returning to a solid diet and the orders of the physician must be strictly followed. Pickles, nuts, or solid meats should not be allowed. They will often occasion a return of fever and possibly a relapse.
After typhoid fever or other lingering illness, the appetite is usually much increased, but great care must be exercised not to allow solid food before the condition of the stomach and intestines shows that danger is past. It is usual not to allow solid food in typhoid fever for two weeks after the fever has disappeared.
It is possible to make great variety in the diet even if it be light and easily digested and common sense must govern in the kind as well as the quantity of food allowed the convalescent.
Scraped beef or scraped chicken may be seasoned, lightly pan broiled, and made into a sandwich. The first solid meat may be creamed sweetbread, a bit of broiled tenderloin steak, or breast of chicken.
It is better to give small amounts both because of the lessened work of digestion and because large amounts of food often destroy rather than aid the appetite.
If the appetite is capricious, or lacking, it needs to be stimulated by food appetizingly prepared and daintily served. A sloppy tray with half-cold tea or coffee will often cause complete loss of appetite.
The face and hands of an invalid should always be bathed before a meal; the fresh feeling induced is often an aid to the appetite. The mouth should be carefully cleansed after eating in order that no fermenting food particles may be carried into the stomach to cause disturbance there. Swabbing the mouth with cotton dipped in an alkaline wash or rinsing the mouth with listerine and water or peroxide of hydrogen and water will add greatly to the comfort of the sick, especially when the tongue is coated and the mouth bitter.
Great care should be taken not to allow bread crumbs to fall into or under the bedclothes, as a small bread crumb is often a source of great discomfort. The skin is especially sensitive and a small bread crumb may so disturb the mind as to cause a patient, otherwise doing well, to become restless and disturbed.
The invalid frequently forgets to ask for water and the attendant should see that a sufficient amount of water is taken. A glass of water should be placed where it is within easy reach and it should not be allowed to become warm. Cool water is one of the prime requisites in the invalid’s dietary.