Archive for the ‘child health care advice’ Category
Croup
January 20th, 2011 | 
Author: Viral croup is usually found in children under the age of 5 years old and is caused by inflammation of the upper airwaves, it is a viral infection and one that is very common in younger children and is known by the medical term of stridorous laryngitis.
Chicken pox
Chickenpox is a very contagious disease which spreads rapidly through a virus known as varicella zoster; the disease can be spread in one or two ways, the first by having direct contact with the rash and the second by transmission through the air by coughing or sneezing just like the common cold.
Chickenpox is an extremely common infection that affects most children and usually most will have caught the virus by the time they are 9 years old.
Otitis media
Otitis media is more commonly known as glue ear and is a condition which affects the middle ear in children and it is one of the most common of all problems that Doctors treat in children. By the age of 6 year old, more than 70% of all children will have had at least one middle ear infection and possibly more.
The illness occurs when the fluid behind the eardrum accumulates in the space behind the drum and bacteria from the nasal passages invade the fluid and thus causes an infection in the middle ear.
Fever
Fever is a common symptom which can show in your child due to numerous factors and is a common symptom of many childhood illnesses with the most common cause being a viral infection. One of the main factors which your Doctor will have to determine is that the fever has been brought about due to a viral infection and not a bacterial one.
Bronchiolitis
Bronchiolitis is an infection which causes the bronchioles, which are the small airways to the lungs to constrict or tighten due to excess phlegm, it can be a very serious disease and very young babies may even be have to hospitalised as a result of the infection.
Milk protein allergy
Allergy to cow’s milk is the single most common allergy of all allergies in young children but fortunately one which most babies grow out of by the time they reach the age of three. Although there is no cure as such for babies and young children who have an allergy to milk the symptoms can be controlled successfully through a dairy free diet.
Nasal congestion
Babies and very young children can often suffer from nasal congestion; this is usually brought about by having a cold. This can cause a problem because babies and very young children are know as “obligate nose breathers” which means that they don’t really know how to use the mouth to breathe when they are having problems with nasal congestion.
This isn’t usually a problem in older children as older children learn to breathe through their mouth and therefore get less stressed. Another problem and factor in young children and babies is that they don’t know how to blow their nose properly to clear nasal congestion.
Nightmares & night terrors
Having nightmares or night terrors is something which all children seem to go through at some stage as they are growing up , and having the odd nightmare or night terror is usually nothing to be concerned about and are something which can be brought on by numerous factors. In fact they are the number one cause of all sleep problems in young children and one which can cause the child a great deal of distress.
Enlarged lymph nodes
Enlarged lymph nodes are a common problem which affects children of all ages, the lymph nodes are responsible for protecting the body against infections and they usually increase in size during childhood and shrink as the child grows. The most common area that is affected by enlarged lymph nodes is in the area of the neck just under the jaw line, but they are also found in the groin and armpit area and at the area at the back of the head called the occipital.
The flu or common cold
The flu or influenza and the common cold are two separate illnesses which at the very beginning of the illness can be very hard to determine which is which, the common cold can be caused by any 1 of over 250 viruses, while the flu is caused by the influenza virus alone and is a much more serious illness. The flu starts off with very similar symptoms to those of the common cold but then other symptoms begin to show within a few days, you can usually determine if your child has a common cold or if it is the flu by these symptoms. The general symptoms of the common cold along with: