This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: philiplhayes Surnames: Classification: death Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.newyork.counties.kings/15568.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Janet- I have a nine month old from Manhattan who died in 1896 of the same thing! You got it. Teething! My wife, a nurse educator, researched it just to make sure. Neither of us could believe it, but apparently it was somewhat common in those days. I saw this explanation from a 2004 list serv post somewhere. ================== Today, infants and toddlers who are put to bed with milk or juice suffer from what is called "bottle-mouth." The teeth rot from the stagnant sugars feeding the bacteria. Today, they can be capped with silver crowns -- quite ugly, but at least the teeth are rescued. If a similar thing happened then, and the teeth could not be capped, then the bacterial growth would extend down the root, into the jaw. If it lodged in the bone, it could easily spread and treatment is difficult, even today with the high-tech antibiotics. Another option existed then, as it does today. At about the same time children are teething, they are also exploring their world. They do this by putting everything into their mouths. Even today, children die from gastroenteritis (stomach/intestinal inflammation), albeit not that often. people were just being introduced to the strange theory that germs, that little creatures were the cause of illnesses. If a child who was teething developed diarrhea, this was nothing new: teething causes some children to developed diarrhea. It was (and is) difficult to tell when normal diarrhea is no longer normal, but is a bacterial infection. ========================== Philip L. Hayes http://hayesfamily.us Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.