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Sitting (or Sitz) Bath

Sources: Papers On Health

This bath, in whatever form administered, is

essentially a sitting in cold water with the feet out. The feet, in

fact, are better to be warmly covered up while the patient sits in the

bath. The most important thing to be considered in all such baths is

the degree of vitality possessed by the patient. If he has much

vitality, then the bath may be deep and longer continued--as long as

even forty minutes. If the vitality
e low, the bath must be brief and

very shallow--it may be even necessary to make it as short as one

minute, or even less. In some cases, as a beginning, a mere dip is all

that is required. This leaves a large discretion to the nurse, and is a

matter which common sense should be able to decide. To try a short bath

first, and repeat it several times, rather than to give one long one,

is the safest plan. It will soon be found out how much the patient can

bear. If the vitality be so low as to make the simple sitz-bath a

danger, the feet may be immersed, for the one or two minutes of the

bath, in a small bath of hot water, and the patient well wrapped up all

over in warm blankets.



In some cases it is necessary to pour cold water on relaxed organs,

which, especially with females, will sometimes not be braced up by mere

immersion. But such pouring must be done with caution. Half-a-minute of

it is a long time; one quarter-of-a-minute or less will usually be

enough, even in important cases. If longer applications have only done

harm, then let our friends try the one-minute bath, or the

quarter-minute stream of water. In many cases we have known this make

all right. Such short baths may be taken twice or thrice a day.



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