Kids n Trees

Archive for the ‘Health and hygiene in kids’ Category

Cleft lip and Cleft palate are nothing but born defects in kids. This disorder can develop when the baby is inside a mother’s womb. There are various reasons that can cause this birth defect. When a pregnant women takes improper medication or inhales cigarette smoke or even due to lack of sufficient vitamins, the child is likely to develop this disorder. Cleft lip means, the upper lips in a child will be split and cleft palate means, the roof of the mouth which is called the palate will have a hole. The child who has cleft lip or cleft palate will face many problems like hearing problem, food intake problem, speaking trouble and dental problem. Specially designed feeding bottles are available in the market to feed such babies. Once in a year, it is advisable to check the hearing ability of the child who has this disorder. The irregular teeth alignment in such kids can be corrected by consulting a dentist. Cleft lip and cleft palate can be treated by surgery when the baby is 3 to 6 months and 9 to 12 months respectively. After surgery, regular check up should be done by taking the child to concerned specialists like orthodontist and dentist. There will be a scar under the nose after the child undergoes plastic surgery. Although this disorder is an inborn defect, it can be treated effectively and the child can lead a normal life under proper guidance and care.

A psychologically healthy child will have normal worries over certain things which is quite natural. But this becomes a problem, when a child worries over and over again for silly things. The term obsessive means that a kid unnaturally worries for unnecessary things such as feeling fearful that something wrong will happen to their beloved person, checking the perfection of things around all the time, fear of getting germs while handling things, etc. The term compulsion refers to the behavior that a kid adopts due to over worrying such as washing hands repeatedly, continuously erasing the answers written during examination, ensuring that the shoe lace is tied properly over and over again. All these strange behavior are the symptoms for this disorder. A kid who has OCD will feel shy and fearful to make friends and will try to hide their behavior in front of family and friends. In the United States, nearly 1 million children are seen to be affected by this disorder. OCD may be caused genetically but the main reason is due to the blocking of chemicals carried by the blood from the brain to the nerve cells. There are two ways for treating a kid who is affected by this disorder. The first way is treating the kid medically i.e by giving medicines to allow the normal flow of chemicals from the brain. The second way is behavior therapy, where the child is taken to a psychologist. After the treatment period, the child will definitely show signs of improvement and feel happy.

Kids often hurt themselves while playing and get cuts, when they trip over a stone or glass or any sharp edged area. Sometimes the cuts will be small that they heal by themselves in a short period of time. At other times, the cuts might be bigger, that they won’t heal by themselves and need a stitch to be done by the doctor. Stitch is nothing but, where a small string is used for binding the flap of skin together. The string that is used for stitching is commonly called as suture and there are different varieties of sutures used such as nylon, silk and vicryl. Glue and butterfly bandage are also available in the market and are used by the physicians to bind the skin in kids in the case of any cuts or injury. It is necessary to remove the nylon and silk stitches as soon as the cut is healed completely whereas, vicryl, glue and butterfly bandage are soluble and they dissolve by themselves once the cut is healed. The doctor gives an anesthetic shot while stitching, so the child will not experience much pain. It is advisable to keep the stitched area dry for a period of days. Hence care must be taken to ensure that, your kid does not make the stitches wet. By adopting proper safety measures you can make your kid get healed soon.

The child growth and development depends on the healthy balanced diet, they intake. Based on the calorie requirements prescribed by the physician the diet should include all the essential nutrients and supplements that supports, kid’s growth. Rice, wheat and maize are the most needed of all as they are rich in carbohydrate content. Carbohydrates are the important factor for providing and storing energy. Children should be given nearly five servings of fresh fruits either in the form of salads or fruit juices as they contain low amount of fat and they make the immune system more effective. Green leafy vegetables should me included in the diet as they contain iron which is highly essential for the formation of hemoglobin in the blood. Dairy products such as milk, cheese, etc are important for child’s growth. Especially milk is considered to be a complete food as it contains all the needed macro and micro nutrients such as vitamins, proteins and calcium. Calcium is needed for a child as they are responsible for the strong formation of bones and teeth. Protein content is rich in food stuffs like eggs, meat and pulses. Proteins are responsible for proper functioning of body and hence must be included in the regular diet of children. In recent days, children eat only unhealthy junk foods and soft drinks. The parents should ensure that, they give their kids only a healthy and balanced diet.

Obesity in children has increased at an enormous rate in many countries. This condition is seen especially in children who are below 15 years of age due to overeating unhealthy diet. Basically obesity is measured by calculating the body mass index(BMI) by taking into account the height, weight and gender of a child. Obesity can be caused due to a variety of reasons. Children crave for junk food items like pizzas and burgers and they hesitate to include nutritious food like fruits and vegetables in their regular diet. This is considered to be one of the main reasons for obesity in children. Moreover the children adopt a sedentary lifestyle like playing video games and watching TV. Only a few percentage of children, involve themselves in sports, cycling, swimming, etc. Lack of proper exercise also leads to childhood obesity. Obesity in kids can also be caused due to heredity. If the parents are obese, there are greater possibilities for their children to develop obesity. Childhood obesity can be minimized by giving the children a healthy diet instead of fast food and soft drinks. The parents should make their children inculcate the habit of playing sports, walking, cycling, etc which will help them burn extra calories and make them fit. It is necessary to make kids to do regular exercise right from childhood. Since childhood obesity causes heat problems, diabetes, depression and other illness it is highly recommended to adopt proper measures to control it.

Dental caries is found to be one of the commonly occurring disorder in children. Children are more susceptible to dental caries than the adults because, the children fall a prey to the habit of eating more chocolates, icecreams and other sweet items. Moreover many kids lack in regular brushing habit. These factors contribute to the formation of bacteria in the teeth. Initially, the bacteria demineralizes the teeth and a white spot appears on the infected tooth. Further a cavity develops in the tooth and when the condition worsens the infection might spread to the surrounding tissues. The infected child experiences a lot of pain in the decayed region and also a brown spot appears in the tooth. A child who is affected by dental caries has a bad breath and foul taste of whatever he/she eats. When the above symptoms are observed in a child it is necessary to consult a dentist and get the necessary tests and treatment done. Diagnosis is done by taking tooth X-ray. When the dental caries are diagnosed in the early stage itself then the treatment is less expensive without much pain. Treatment to dental caries involve, tooth extraction and other therapies. The dental caries can be prevented in children by taking proper remedial measures like avoid giving too many chocolates or sweets to the kids and the children should be advised to brush atleast twice a day. By inculcating good eating and brushing habits in kids the dental caries can be prevented.

Whenever any foreign substance or antigen enters the body of a child, the immune system generates antibodies to kill the antigen. Normally the immune system of a child is weak. Hence it is essential to give periodic vaccination to the child whenever necessary. A vaccine, when given to the child stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies against that particular antigen. Generally the vaccination is given to a child from 2 months to 6 years of age. There are a variety of vaccines available. It is advisable to give vaccination to your child only after the consultation of your child’s pediatrician. The pediatrician will provide you with a vaccination chart, which contains all the details about which vaccine to be given at which age of a child. Certain vaccines can have side effects on the child. The side effects include fever and soreness in the body where the vaccine was injected. If the child is affected by any other disease, then certain vaccines should not be given without the consultation of the doctor. It is strictly recommended to follow whatever your pediatrician suggests and vaccination should be given only under his/her guidance. Vaccination has found to eradicate many diseases and also made the occurance of the disease rare. Hence it is highly important to safeguard and comfort your child by giving proper vaccination at the right time.

In recent years the lifestyle of people changed so much that parents don’t find time to look after their own children. So many parents don’t recognize and identify the change in behavior pattern of their children, which is caused due to stress in the minds of kids at an early age. Psychological stress affects a child in many ways especially it is found to retard the mental development of a kid. There a vast number of reasons for a child to undergo stress. There are two types of factors causing stress. They are internal factors and external factors. Internal factors include any pain in the body, excess noise, crowd, family background and fight between parents. External factors include the violence in society, child abuse, lifestyle pressure, etc. All these factors, tends to affect a child’s mentality. When a child is stressed, the behavior of the particular child changes drastically. The behavior changes include crying without any reason, nail biting, bed wetting, shyness, nervousness etc. Depression and stress also affects the health of a kid. The immune system of a depressed child becomes less resistive towards diseases and hence the child is capable of developing diseases soon. As the stress can have serious impact on the mental growth of a child it is necessary to take proper measures. It is the responsibility of a parent to have healthy relationship with their kids and provide a good atmosphere for their growth.

Normally children require more hours of sleep than adults. In recent days, many children are seen to be affected by lack of sleep. Some children don’t sleep properly at night and will appear tired and sleepy the next day. This symptom is the onset of sleeping disorder condition in children. The sleeping disorder can be caused due to a number of reasons. When a child suffers from lack of sleep, it is important to check certain factors that can be a hindrance to your child’s sleep. There should not be any bright light or TV inside the child’s room as they can spoil your child’s sleep. Too much noise, inside the house, can also disturb a child during its sleep. The best technique to make your child asleep is by telling them bedtime stories. You must inculcate in your children, the habit of reading books and listening to pleasant music at night, as they make your child asleep soon. Certain children are scared of dark and nightmares. You must assure and comfort them, by telling that, your always their with them. Stress is the main reason that is found to cause sleeping disorder in kids. It is the responsibility of the parents, to know what problems their children have and solve them. Sleeping disorder affects a child’s mental growth. Hence it is highly important that you take proper measures and consult a doctor before it could affect your child.