Cause of Death: "Teething Convulsions"

[Rumire]

Here's a better definition of Teething as a cause of death. It came from an article in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly in 1988. It is posted on the website www.antiquusmorbus.com > The entire process which results in the eruption of the teeth. Nineteenth-century medical reports stated that infants were more prone to disease at the time of teething. Symptoms were restlessness, fretfulness, convulsions, diarrhea, and painful and swollen gums. The latter could be relieved by lancing over the protruding tooth. Often teething was reported as a cause of death in infants. Perhaps they became susceptible to infections, especially if lancing was performed without antisepsis. Another explanation of teething as a cause of death is that infants were often weaned at the time of teething; perhaps they then died from drinking contaminated milk, leading to an infection, or from malnutrition if watered-down milk was given.

[M.T.H]

Hi Rumire,

Welcome to Rootschat

I didn't start this thread, but I just wanted to say thanks for the link that you posted above,what a great and informative site!

Best wishes,Mick

[dave marden]

I've just received a death certificate for my grand uncle William Hillyear who died in Brighton workhouse in 1895 aged just two. Cause of death being Dentition Convulsions for 3 hours. I'd never heard of this before and it seems an awful end to a very short life.

Dave

[bykerlads]

Though death in infancy was common, almost half-expected in the past, the psychological effects of the loss of a child on the parents could be devastating and long-lasting.
My Oh's grandmother lost her second son, aged 14 months in 1915. She already had one son and had another in 1918 ( when her husband came back from the war).
The younger lad was my Oh's father. He spent his entire life in the shadow of the dead brother, constantly berated and belittled by his mother, she said he was never as good as the lost baby would have been.
The psychological complexity of the family must have been such that noone ever took her to task about her unreasonable behaviour.
A sad story in so many ways.