Assistance in bringing up English children at first in troubled times (7)

I believe the answer is:

emetics

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'assistance in bringing up' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'english children at first in troubled times' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation as in OED).
'at first' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'troubled' indicates anagramming the letters.
The first letter of 'children' is 'c'.
'times' anagrammed gives 'metis'.
'c' placed into 'metis' is 'metics'.
'e'+'metics'='EMETICS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for emetics that I've seen before include "We bring up" , "they make me vomit!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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