UPDATE - 5
SOME CHILD
REARING MYTHS
You may not make out any specific pattern in the issues addressed. The
reason is that I have punched in the matter as it has come to my mind.
In a day of our Clinic practice there is a delectable variety of
parental concerns, parental misconceptions and confusions in the minds
of the care givers of the child.
I
have drawn from this amazing variety and hence shall be brief to each
point.
One interesting ( allow me the liberty ) feature that I have observed
over the years is that those families where there is the parents AND
the grandparents – the following WILL happen ( and this happens in the
best of educated families too) :
-
The child WILL not eat : there will
be so much pressure from so many people that he shall get
rebellious. Please leave him to himself and give him some space.
-
THE MOTHER HAS NO IDEA ABOUT HOW TO RAISE THE CHILD : There will be
frequent comparisons between the times then and the times now. You
shall have to strike a balance yourself. Nobody can come to your
rescue !
-
WHY DOES THE MOTHER RUSH THE CHILD TO THE PEDIATRICIAN SO OFTEN ?:
Here there is a significant experience of the grandmother and it
shall help you to listen to her. Allow some home made remedies, have
some patience – most minor disorders in infants and children do get
okay on their own or with small home made recipes.
-
MILK WILL BE A VERY IMPORTANT
ISSUE – THE MORE THE BETTER :
I am addressing this issue as the first one below.
The general notion is that the more
milk the child takes, the better. Milk is a natural source of Calcium
and is thus important. However it contains almost no Vitamin D – the
vitamin needed for assimilation of Calcium. Too much milk shall eat
into the tummy space of the poor child – lead to smaller solid feeds
and be counter-productive.
As a general rule of thumb , after
the age of say 5-6 months, something like 600- 700 ml of milk a day is
enough.
Weaning ( introduction of semi solids in the
earlier exclusive milk based intake) is ideally begun around 6 months
of age. There is absolutely no scientific rationale behind the fear
that early weaning ill affects the Liver.
Teething should ideally begin around 6-7 months of
age. The belief that delayed teething ( especially that it best begins
after the child starts walking ) again has no scientific basis.
Walking usually shall start sometime around 1 year of age. That is too
too late for teething. It may actually be an indicator of Vitamin D
deficiency and you may need to get to your Pediatrician regarding
this.
Theoretically a very good thing – an ideal goal to
achieve. But it shall simply frustrate you and him. Please do not
insist on it beyond a certain limit.
What with the early morning rush of
getting up from bed fast, getting ready fast, gobbling the breakfast
fast………..being able to pass his early morning stool is difficult
indeed. It is perfectly okay if he does no soon after getting back
from school, or else he may, on his own fit into a fairly consistent
time pattern – support him please.
Let me admit, we Pediatricians do not
actually know what exactly teething trouble is !
We often take shelter under this
nebulous entity when we ourselves do not know what is going wrong.
All that we know ( and this is not any different
from what you also have experienced) is that some vague
diarrheas/tummy upsets/colds etc happen around 6-8 months. Why they
happen, are they really and scientifically related to teething, what
we can do about these symptoms – SORRY !
There are very select scientific situations when a
specific vitamin is needed. They are identifiable by your Pediatrician
and he would prescribe that specific vitamin.
The market is flooded with lovely multivitamin
preparations – they have no scientific role and you may best avoid
them.
It is common for parents to get a repeat round of
drugs from a Chemist for similar appearing symptoms. Agreed it saves
you the time of having to go to your Pediatrician, agreed it may work
well enough this time too , agreed it saves you some money too !
However, in principle it is not a very safe thing
to be doing. What may appear to you to be a ‘similar’ illness may be
something else in the Pediatrician’s view. There are horror stories
hidden in every Pediatrician’s closet of how an erroneous perception
of ‘similar illness’ got complicated limitlessly.
In case you still wish to refill your prescription
, please do pick up the phone and ratify with your Pediatrician.
It is common for ants to get
attracted to a child’s urine ( that may have got spilled on the
floor).
Do not panic – do not think Diabetes
straight. Report to your Pediatrician – he shall order a simple urine
test for sugar ( for your satisfaction ).
Please do not fall in this trap.
Every ailment does not need medication – there is no medicine for
every ailment – medicines are medicines , they can cause ailments too
!
Trust nature and use some patience –
your Pediatrician is always available when these two fail.
Keeping the skin soft , especially in
winters is quite a problem. There are several creams with tall
claims- try them out.
Please also try good old coconut oil.
The only trick is that you should apply the coconut
oil on a moist skin. After his bath dab your child with a towel and
apply coconut oil just before the skin is totally dry. It works well.
A rather common notion.
It has no scientific
basis.
Family pressure may force you to visit your
Pediatrician and he shall rightly advise you NOT to get it removed.
Please listen to him and do not insist on a surgery he does not want
to advise.
As a very basic issue , it is never in your
interest to solicit medication on telephone. There is no substitute to
a Doctor first examining the child and then deciding, first ,whether
to medicate at all , second – if to medicate , what to offer. There
might be a symptom you may miss out on telling on the phone – this
symptom may be really critical.
Yes, clarifications are usually made well on the
phone – things like poorly understood dosage, minor modifications in
dosage, alternatives for non-availability and so on.
Please also understand that it does
embarrass your Pediatrician when he insists on your visiting him
before he prescribes. Kindly understand his position. He is watching
your interest.
The diagnosis of Asthma comes as a
bolt from the blue. Your Pediatrician understands your concerns and
shall usually try and explain the whole issue well and relieve your
anxiety as best as he can.
He may offer you inhaler therapy in
preference to conventional oral medication. Do not get alarmed.
There is established data and global
consensus that inhaler therapy is the best for Asthma.
Please make good use of it.
It is understandable that you shall
feel this is the last resort, there is nothing beyond this, the child
shall get ‘ hooked to it for a lifetime’ , inhalers are known to be
used in adults only and so on.
The actuality is just the reverse. It
is the lightest medication that can be used. You may follow that oral
medication has to get circulated throughout the body for a fraction of
it to reach the lungs ( the target organ ).
What if someone offers a medicine that bypasses the whole body and
reaches the lungs directly. What if only a small percentage of
medicine thus has to be delivered. What if the side effects on other
organs of the body are bypassed.
This is your friend – Inhaler. Please take it
happily if your Pediatrician suggests so.
Diagnosis is perhaps made best by the Allopathic
system of medicine due to its refined diagnostic modalities.
Please get your diagnosis done
properly – follow any system that suits you. The idea is to get relief
and satisfaction – the system that delivers it is the best for you.
There shall be more coming from us
soon – till then good luck and happy parenting.
Dr Jindal and team Healthybaccha.com
|
