Keeping Children Safe

Keeping children safe in the home is one of the most important jobs for a parent or grandparent. Children are by nature exploratory. They will look in cabinets, open doors and put anything in their mouths. There are ways to protect children in the home from getting into hazardous substances.


Cleaning products are the easiest chemicals in the home to keep out of the reach of children. Every homeowner has some type of cleaning solution, but that does not mean it should be kept around his or her child. Cleaning products such as Clorox, dish detergent and laundry detergent should be kept in a high cabinet, preferably one that has a lock of some sort on it. There are numerous types of locks that parents can get at any hardware store to put on a cabinet. The locks are childproof and will not allow children to open the door. Cleaning supplies should never be kept with other household objects that the child is allowed to play with. Childsafe.com gives parents tips and ideas on how to keep all hazardous materials out of the reach of children. They suggest that if locks cannot be placed on cabinets and drawers, then the bottles that chemicals come in should be sealed with a childproof lid.


Loose insulation in homes is a major hazard for not only children, but all family members. Exposure to the poisonous asbestos fibers is the only known cause of mesothelioma cancer, a disease that attacks the lining of the body’s major organs. A mesothelioma prognosis is rather grim, usually giving only one or two years of survival. For this reason, older homes should have the insulation replaced every few years so that there is little asbestos build-up.


Cleaning products are not the only hazardous materials that children can come in contact with. Medications need to be properly stored as well. Children should not be told that vitamins or medicines are candy. This will give them the idea that all medicines are candy. Do not store medicines in a bottle that resembles a candy bottle. Always have a childproof lid on any medications in the home. Medicines that adults take on a daily basis need to be kept in a locked medicine cabinet, out of the reach of children. Even medicines that are for children can cause poisoning. It is easy for children to overdose on medications that they can get their hands on easily.


Keeping children away from chemicals in the home is easy to do. Simply keep substances locked up and on a high shelf so that children cannot reach them.

The above is a guest post by Jillian S. McKee of http://www.childsafe.com/

How to give medicines to a child

Several of my patients used to come back to me within a day or two of the consultation, complaining the child wasn't taking the medicine willingly, and had to be forced to take it, whereupon, it so happened that the child cried and vomitted out the medicine along with his/her previous meal. I made it a part of my consultation, therefore, to advise the parent/care-giver on how to give the medicine to a sick, unwilling, often hungry and irritable child. Let me share these tips with you.


The first thing to remember is that the sick child is often an unco-operative subject. It is, therefore, worthwhile to taste a little of each of the medicines you are going to give her and decide which of the medicines is the most bitter, which is less so, and which is definitely palatable. If possible, tell your pediatrician at the outset to choose palatable medicines if you know your child is fussy about this aspect of treatment. Often, however, the doctor is helpless as the medicine in question does not come in a more palatable form, and is irreplaceable in the prescription. Your doctor may choose to give one or more medicines in another, less troublesome, formulation: some medicines can be given as rectal suppositories, for example. This is a form of medicine that looks like a long-nosed bullet. It has to be inserted from the anal side, and it starts to work within 5-10 minutes after administration. Paracetamol is often available as rectal suppositories.


There are several oral formulations, such as suspensions (they come as a powder in a bottle, and the patient has to add water to the bottle up to a certain mark on the bottle. Once made in this form, the medicine needs to be stored in a cool dark place, or preferably, in a refrigerator.), syrups, tablets, drops, etc.


Okay, so now you know the medicine. How do you give it? The first thing to know is that the younger the babv, the more it will depend upon or trust the care-giver. Your attitude should always be that of a smiling and encouraging elder. Never get annoyed or frustrated as that can directly affect the baby's willingness to open its mouth to swallow the medicine, regardless of its taste! If the baby just keeps rolling the medicine in its mouth without swallowing it, use a dropper to slowly give the medicine the next time. You may, if needed, hold the baby's jaws open with your thumb and first finger and wait till the medicine is properly swallowed. DO NOT CLOSE THE BABY'S NOSE TO AID THE SWALLOWING. This can prove to be a dangerous tactic!


For an older child, the best posture to give the medicine is with her sitting upright. This prevents irritation by the medicine of the back of the throat, allows gravity to assist in swallowing the medicine downward, and removes the anxiety that older children feel when they are forced to lie down to swallow the medicine.


It may be worthwhile to make the child drink a little water BEFORE being given the medicine. This will definitely help her retain the medicine after she has managed to swaow the medicine. This is very useful to give tablets in older children.

Swine Flu in children: issues

Swine flu (Novel H1N1 influenza), which had promised to come in a big way in Asia, is indeed upon us in India. As of today, thousands have been afflicted, hundreds hospitalised and about 70 have succumbed to the disease. As parents, you must be worried about this as far as your children and your family are concerned.

The fact is that swine flu is a communicable disease that spreads rapidly only through respiratory particles coughed or sneezed at an unaffected person, or left behind on towels, napkins etc. which are shared with an uninfected individual. It is feasible to remain unaffected by remaining about a metre away from all people at all times, by washing hands with a real soap solution frequently, but especially after coming in contact with a suspected individual, and by not sharing amenities like towels, napkins etc. with other people. I know that's a bit tough to follow at times, but what I am trying to say is that it is indeed possible to be NOT affected by it.

At the same time, the other good news is that for the majority of the people around the world, swine flu is like any other flu, with cough, sneezing, fever, headache, muscle and bone aches, throat pain and so on dominating the symptom list. The illness is self-limiting, which means that after it has run its course, it tends to recover without any treatment. It tends to get more serious only in individuals who are sick with immune deficiencies, chronic diseases and nutritional weakness, and in small infants, whose immunity is also weak.

Okay, so do all patients with this illness need Tamiflu (oseltamavir) treatment? Well, that's a yes and a no, because it would make sense to treat this problem just as we treat other illnesses; however, the problem is the less than proper effectiveness and an unacceptable incidence of side effects, esp. in children.

Is a vaccine around the corner? No. Although a vaccine may be available by September end, it is unlikely to reach the common man for now. It is likely to be administered first to the U.S. army and defence personnel before going out to those who are at increased vulnerability.

Any more information of a vital nature? Not really, but the bottom line is that one should not panic about this illness.

Breastfeeding: a few facts and tips

As a pediatrician, who can have a better understanding of breast milk being the best nourishment for a growing infant than me? I have, as a matter of personal interest, made it a mission in my practice to promote the art and science of breastfeeding among the new (and old) mothers of India. Breastfeeding is one of the miracles of Mother Nature (or you can even say, God, Ishwar, Allah, Jehovah, Ahura Mazda, Khuda).

Breast milk begins to be made in the breasts of a mother-to-be from the sixth month of pregnancy. This milk is small in quantity till the baby is born, and remains small in quantity for the first few days of life after the birth of the baby. This milk is less in quantity, but it is a powerhouse of defense, nourishment and energy. No amount of it must be wasted, even if it looks dull and yellowish or watery in nature. It has high proteins, immunoglobulins that will protect the baby against many infections, and a lot of other good substances that are not even properly understood by modern science.

If the baby is suckled soon after birth, it also encourages great mother-infant bonding - a quality that will, over the years, make the baby less aggressive, more stable, more sensitive and more loving. Studies have even shown that the earlier the mother starts feeding the baby at the breast, the more reduced are the chances of the baby turning out to be a liar, a criminal or a socially maladjusted individual.

After a few days of this scanty milk, breastmilk begins to flow smoothly and copiously in 99.9% of all mothers by the third day; this is called as the "coming-in" of milk. Once this happens, both baby and mother get adjusted to a schedule of feeding over the next few weeks. The baby is mostly a night-time feeder, and both mother and baby are expected to stay awake for most of the night. In fact, I counsel the relatives to allow the mother and baby to sleep during the day so that they can allow them (the relatives) to sleep at night!

Did the readers know that the milk secreted by humans changes in texture, consistency, viscosity and colour as the feed progresses from the beginning to the end? If not, and if you are a mother, or have the opportunity to see a mother breastfeeding a baby (there is no shame and no stigma associated with a breastfeeding mother and infant pair ... and someone who feels a thrill to see a bare breast of a nursing baby's mother ... is a depraved individual, IMHO), then you will see that when the baby starts a feed, it laps at mostly watery milk that flows fast, and as the feed progresses, its feeding action changes to deeper and deeper, slower and slower sucks, so that it gets thicker and more nourishing whiter and fat-rich milk at the end. This is Nature's way of first quenching the thirst of a baby, and then, its hunger. This is indeed a miracle that can never be replicated by the most expensive milks, be they from a national or international food products company. In fact, this is the reason why breastfed babies do not need supplements of water in their first six months of life.

Do you have any questions/stories/experience etc. to share? Please do write back. To those who have not yet started the journey of raising a family, I do apologise for writing on this topic, but if you have someone in your family who is or has nurse (d) a baby, you sure are experienced too, and can join in the discussion!

Mothering: What is Quality time?

Time and again, I have had patients who have forgotten the meaning of parenting so much so that they will continue to provide sustenance but hold back love and attention in their child on an ongoing basis. Mothers who are so worried that their figure will spoil if they breastfeed their infant, fathers who claim that they love their child but will stay at their place of work from dawn to midnight (thereby ensuring that they never meet their child awake), parents who give expensive mobiles to their child, or X-boxes, or PS3, but will not be able to spend half an hour each day just talking to their daughter ... these are the sure prescriptions for disaster.

Quality time means devoting 1-2 hours every day for simply "being" with the child/children, with the T.V. switched off, the mobiles put away, no guests or visitors, no chiming door-bells to disturb the bonding and then, listening to your child. Listen. Don't unburden your problems when you meet with your child. Remain silent and attentive, and listen. Play, sing, dance, jump, or just ... listen. You will be surprised at the amount of information that really trickles in ... even a small toddler with a vocabulary of less than 100 words will tell you things you could not have even imagined.

Bonding begins at birth, but the process continues throughout the child's childhood, teenhood, and occasionally into adulthood too.

What are the pros and cons of seeing a specialist vs. a general practitioner for day-to-day illnesses of children?

The title looks forbidding, does it not? It must be first made clear that what I am about to write is most applicable for the kind of practice in India. You see, and this is for readers from places other than India, we have a two tiered private practice system in India, which is in addition to the practice that is available from municipal and government hospitals, which is collectively referred to as the "public" system. 

Going back to the private practice, we have general practitioners, or family doctors, who have the basic practice of seeing all ages of patients from a newborn baby to a nonagenerian (that is someone who is over 90); he/she not only sees the patient, he/she may refer the patient to a specialist or to a lab or a diagnostic centre, and finally, if no referrals are done, he/she may, in the patient's best interest, even dispense a medicinal mixture of syrups and tablets. This is charged quite nominally.

On the second tier, of course, are the various specialists, and they include, not just the basic specialists like pediatricians, but also super-specialists like cardiac surgeons, neuro-surgeons and the like. These doctors, some of whom have their own hospitals or nursing homes to manage in-patients, are those who have studied further and specialised in a particular area. They are generally known to see the patients and write down medicines which have to be purchased from the pharmacy. Their practice is more in the nature of a consultation, and hence, their charges are also higher.

The question that many parents do NOT ask is: should I go to the G.P. and get the medicines or should I seek an appointment with a specialist? Now, this post is not meant to denigrade G.P.s or shower enconiums on specialists, since I have known G.P.s who are really good at diagnosing and treating illnesses on a day-to-day basis; conversely, I have seen specialists who are bad ... bad enough to jeopardise the life of their own patients because of errors of omission or commission. 

Generally, however, the benefits of going to a specialist increase as the age of the pediatric patient comes down ... in the youngest of the young, it is always better to visit a specialist. This is not only because G.P.s have less knowledge about how to manage the baby-patient, but also because babies cannot speak, and the index of suspicion of a major illness has to be very high so that no problem is missed out. Action must also be that much more prompt; for example, a child of 10 years with a mild cough can be managed by the G.P., but the same complaint in a small 1-month old baby may be associated with a potentially bigger problem like a pneumonia and may need even hospitalisation. 

In addition to this age-related difference, there are a few more advantages of going to a specialist: as the medicines are prescribed, there is no secrecy of the prescribed medicines, and this allows the patient to cross check the treatment with any other doctor of his own choice (something like a second opinion, but without the formality of a request sent by the first doctor - a thing that is very normal in India). Also, the complete course of therapy is written down, so that the patient does not have to go to the doctor every day. Whereas, with the G.P., only 1-2 days' treatment is usually dispensed,  and often, as there is some relief, the patient is then NOT taken back to the doctor.

This is not to say that G.P.s are not at all advantageous! They are! Sometimes, they are the only doctors available, for example, late in the evenings when the consultants have already left. At times, they are better able to understand the dynamics of a disease as they know the entire family, they have visited the patients' homes, and so on. This helps them to easily decipher environmental or epidemiological clues to a possible infectious illness. Also, they probably have known 2-3 previous generations of the child and know which illnesses prevail in a particular family, what kind of thinking (howsoever much abstruse or crazy it might be) prevails among the senior members of a family and so on. Finally, as they have seen the treatments of many different specialists in their years of practice, they are often able to pinpoint the better specialists from among the many who are practising in that area.

Does this make the decision making easier or more difficult? I don't know, but it is for you, dear reader, to understand what I am saying.

What is the Injectable Polio vaccine?

Several of my patients have been asking me about the recently made available vaccines in the Indian market, and one of them is the Injectable Polio vaccine or the I.P.V. So what is it, really?

Well, in India, the government is currently struggling with the final stages of eradicating poliomyelitis, a crippling disease that now occurs in less than ten countries all over the world. Although the incidence is falling every year, we are still having to conduct special rounds of pulse polio immunisation and mop-ups to take care of the cases of poliomyelitis that are still being diagnosed - mostly from the state of U.P.

Having said that, today, we give 2 drops of the Oral Polio Vaccine or the OPV to all the children. However, this is the case only with the few countries where cases of polio are still being diagnosed. In all the other countries of the world, whether from the Western world or the third world, the vaccine that is administered is the more effective and less problematic IPV.

It is more effective because giving three shots of this vaccine to all children below the age of one year and a booster each at 18 months and 5 years will probably wipe out poliomyelitis sooner than the oral vaccine will (or can!)

I currently give IPV only after a one-to-one consultation with the relatives of the patient. In such cases, the routine doses of OPV can be avoided.

When should one worry about an illness?

I have often wondered about what makes a parent who is nursing a sick child decide that it is time to take her to a specialist. In India, we often have people who cannot afford the specialist's fees: but then, I believe the same is the case even in developed countries when the family does not have insurance. So there.

Imagine, for a few minutes, if you may, that your child has started having a runny nose. I don't think you are going to run to a specialist with just THAT, are you? Now think what you will do if she has a slight cough AND a little temperature. At this point, if you have seen such a thing before, or if your child is a little older than being a baby in arms, you are probably going to do one of the following (in increasing order of anxiety):

1. Ignore the problem and say - it is no big deal, she will soon be all right
2. Make a concoction of home-based stuff like ginger tea, honey and ginger drops, an inhalation of an aromatic substance like Vicks VapoRub or roasted seeds of "ajwain"
3. Give her one of the previously prescribed cough and cold mixtures that your child's specialist had given on a previous visit
4. Go to the local chemist and ask him to give you a suitable cough and cold medicine
5. Call up your local family doctor and ask him if the medicine you have in your medicine cupboard is all right to be used
6. Go to the local family doctor and ask him to "give" you some medicine for cough and cold for your child, or at least prescribe it
7. Go to the local family doctor with the child and seek a proper check-up and prescription
8. Call up the specialist and ask him to either suggest some medicine for cough and cold or ask him if the medicine he had given to your child previously will be all right this time too
9. Go to the specialist with the child for a professional consultation

Now, based on the list above, where are you likely to be? And what has made you decide that position? In my opinion, people do an action after a lot of confounding variables are taken care of:

• Is the child really sick?
• Does she really need a professional consultation or is a phone call going to be enough?
• Can I afford a pediatrician's fees or should I make do with a local doctor?
• How old is the child?
  
• Can I afford to take a risk with this child after already having lost one to pneumonia?
• Did I lose that child with pneumonia because I neglected it or because my wife did not take her to the doctor in time ....

and so on.

Thus, as you can see, parents do not often think alike in these matters.

So, here is a guide: take the child to a specialist if:

1. She has been ill for more than two days and the medicines that you have been giving her (whether herbal, home, local doctor or specialist's previously prescribed medicine) does not seem to be working
2. She has very severe symptoms - lot of loose motions or vomiting, dry hacking cough with chest pain, severe headache or stomach pain that makes the child cry, she is unable to breathe because of a blocked nose, etc
3. She has dangerous symptoms such as bleeding from any orifice, dark coloured urine, blood in stools, a fit, a difficulty in using any part of the body - muscles and bones, I mean, a loss of consciousness however brief, a change in voice or speech, a swelling that is very painful, a very high fever more than 39 C or 101 F, change in vision or hearing, and so on.
4. She has recurrence of symptoms within a few days of stopping the medicines for the same problems
   
5. She develops fresh symptoms like a rash, high fever, visual disturbances, headaches, bodyaches, bloody vomiting, difficulty in breathing or blood in the urine etc. soon after taking a certain medicine
6. She has acute vomiting or loose motions or both within hours of consuming food - esp. in a restaurant or at a community dinner
7. She is not the only one with a particular set of symptoms: many of her school mates have the same problem, or many others in the family

Of course, this list is not conclusive, but I am sure it will be a help to parents who often get stuck about what to do next.

Wrap tight or loose?

I have, over the years, advised many mothers to leave their babies loose - i.e. unwrapped; the mothers, and indeed their extended families, have often secretly disobeyed my advice, for who wouldn't like their baby to be snugly wrapped in pink and lacy wraps?

What the parents are missing is, of course, the logic behind my advice. Unable to understand, even when I have explained that keeping the baby open allows her the freedom to move her body, hands and feet in whichever direction she wants, they continue to wrap the baby, and to do that tightly, which means that not only does the baby not get to move her limbs here and there, she does not even get to move them one tiny bit ... even when she has an urgent desire to do so!

Now, the fact remains that sensory input is THE ONLY WAY to encourage neural development in an infant. Babies who are constantly stimulated do much better at older ages than those who are not. This is reflected in their acquiring motor milestones earlier, their ability to be more dextrous and flexible and their speed of development of finer motor milestones as well.

In addition, in tropical climates, and particularly in the summer and autumn months, and to some extent in the months of monsoon (with extremely high humidity), the child who is tightly wrapped can get rashes such as heat rashes, chapping of the skin inside the arm-pits, groins, buttocks, and so on, and can also get itchy rashes that cause a lot of discomfort and excessive crying.

Thus my recommendation: Do not tie the baby tightly; rather, if it is cold outside, cover her up with a blanket, but by and large, let her sleep well by her own self.

About a baby's sleeping behaviour

I have many parents coming to me and asking me questions about a baby's sleeping behaviour. Now, a normal baby who is less than three months of age sleeps for almost 14-16 hours a day, though some may sleep less. During the time that the baby is awake, and this is most often at night, the baby wants to be constantly fed. Even immediately after she has completed her feed, she will continue to be awake and will often be irritable/playful in turns. To a mother who feels harassed that her baby is keeping her awake at nights, I have only to say this: the baby is programmed to stay up at nights because her mother gets the maximum breast milk output only at night. This is true not only for humans but for most mammals.

As the baby grows older, the sleeping hours gradually start falling. By the age of six months, the sleeping hours have declined to 12-14, by one year, to about 10-12 and by five years, to about 9-10 hours per day.

The first few months of night-time awakenings are gradually replaced by the baby learning to sleep during the nights and staying awake in the day. However, this transition period may get prolonged in some babies, and I have seen babies even as old as one and a quarter years of age who haven't learned to sleep well at night. One of the factors responsible for such a delay is the institution of bottle-feeding - esp. the bottle that is offered to the baby when she is going to sleep. The baby associates the bottle in her mouth with the sleep to such an extent, that if the bottle is not provided, she just won't fall asleep.

My advice to all mothers is not to encourage the night-time bottle at all - in fact, to never use a feeding bottle at all, if possible.

During the first few hours of a full night's sleep, both children and adults pass into deeper and deeper sleep till they are in deep sleep within an hour to ninety minutes. After this first spell of fitful sleep, which ends around 2 - 2 1/2 hours, the baby/child/person gradually emerges to a near conscious state and passes into her first dream-stage sleep, the so-called "REM" (Rapid Eye Movements) sleep. During this sleep, the brain is active (alpha waves), as are the muscles (tight), the mouth (chewing movements with or without a tightly held lower jaw), the eyes (moving side to side rapidly with blinking of the lids ... hence the name REM) and almost the entire body ... internal organs and all.

After the REM stage, which lasts for 15-20 minutes, the baby/person passes into the second bout of ever-deepening sleep. This, however, is not as long as the first bout, and may get over in less than an hour. A repeat REM follows. This alternation between deep sleep and REM sleep continues throughout the night. However, the REM phases come sooner and sooner, so that by the early hours of the morning, REM stages are repeated with just half an hour gaps in between. Finally, after the last spell of REM, the baby/child/person wakes up, fresh and eager for the day.

Understanding the above pattern is extremely useful for both, the person who sleeps and the others who look after that person. If, for example, you were to disturb a person who is still in the REM stage, the baby/child/person will wake up irritable, sleep-deprived, tense and uninclined to arise and shine.

To understand sleep is to understand rejuvenation of the human body. Every night, the tired individual sleeps, rejuvenates, and wakes up in the morning, relaxed and refreshed, ready to face the hurdles of life anew.