As the monsoon relieves the summer heat, it also brings health challenges for children. Dr Mahesh Balsekar, Sr Consultant ...

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Monsoon Health Tips for Children | Preventing Illnesses | Dr Mahesh Balsekar

I'm Dr Mahesh Baler consultant pediatrician at srcc Children's Hospital managed by Nar Health once the summer ends we all welcome the monsoon with the cooling and temperatures but with the monsoon there are special challenges for health in children so what are the precautions we have to take the most important is waterbor infections children are prone to acute gas gastro entries that means diarrhea and vomiting they can also get dentry that means lose motions with blood and mucus and you can get viral hepatitis that is jaundice the way to prevent these infections is by taking care of the water so it's extremely important that the water that children drink should be safe the ideal way is to of course boil water but if that is not practical it is reasonable to use filtered water to prevent these problems it's very important that you take special care when you eat street food and food outside the house the second set of problems with children face in the rains is respiratory problems and this includes normal viruses like the common cold or Rhino virus but more important we get a lot of swine flu or the H1N1 or the influenza viruses these look like the common cold but they typically come with high fever severe body ache and a bad cough how can we prevent these respiratory infections the most important is to teach children a respiratory hygiene this means that whenever a child is coughing the child has to cough in the elbow so that the germs don't spread or they can cough into a tissue and then discard it and sanitize your hand after the child has coughed a children can be prevented from getting influenza by taking the influenza vaccine this is routinely recommended under 5 years of age over there age of 5 years it is recommended for children who have underlying conditions of asthma or heart disease the third set of problems which you see in children is mosquito born infections and mosquito born infections include malaria Deni fever and chicken gunia malaria we are all familiar with and also Deni chicken gunia comes with high fever with severe body ache and Joint swellings it's important that we take care to prevent mosquito bites during the season this includes the safest of course to have Nets but if that is Impractical when children go out during the day a long sleeved cotton clothes is important mosquito repellants are permitted over the age of 5 years but if you use them when you come back home with the children it's best to wash them off there are many mosquito repellants which are available most of them have Aline or some citronella compound the citronella compound are probably slightly less effective but safer the patches which you put on the clothes and bags and on the clothes these are not very effective similarly the handbands and the wrist bands which you use are not very effective the vaporized uh mosquito repellants are somewhat more effective the citronella there is safer than the arine containing compounds those who use the mosquito coils which have smoke this has particulate matter and it's best to avoid prolonged use particularly in IND areas and the last problem which you see in the monsoon is skin problems because of humidity children are prone to skin infections and particularly fungal infections so it is important that children's skin should be kept clean and dry during the monsoon with these Pro precautions children are free to enjoy the monsoon and all the fun that it brings to their lives

Dr.

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