Pediatric Surgery

Undoubtedly, over the course of your child’s life, you’ve had to run for over-the-counter (OTC) medication to help with common ailments ranging from severe fever to mild coughing. But are the medicines you can readily purchase in the grocery store good for your kids in the long run? Rumors have circulated that you can actually harm your kids using these medications, but the truth is that these problems lie mostly in the administered amount to the children rather than the medicine themselves. What is assumed to be a problem with the medicine, is really a matter of over-dosing.

Whenever you deliver medicine to a child, you should be sure to check the labels regarding the proper dosage. There actually are no “safe” medicines which can be taken in any quantity. Even the most popular and widely consumed OTC medication, acetaminophen, is dangerous when administered to a child in the improper dosage. When administering prescription meds, the consumer tends to take the instructions more seriously, as they understand that there is a danger associated with using the medicine incorrectly. This makes OTC medicines more likely to be accidentally overdosed due to the lack of trepidation people experience when handling them.

Another reason for the typical misuse of children’s OTC medicine is simply because the labels are not read correctly or not read at all. Parents that mistakenly deliver an adult dosage of a normally “safe” medicine, are doing much more harm than good. So when giving medicine to your child, be absolutely sure you are following the instructions carefully for both individual dosage and daily amounts. And be sure to avoid practices like giving the child enough medicine to “last through the day.” Also, if your child has a pre-existing health complication, check with your doctor before giving your child any OTC medicine.

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Kids are a parent’s biggest worry. From the day you were born your parents worried about every bump, bruise, cough and sneeze. And from the moment you had kids, you worried about the same thing. The difference between what your parents could do about it and what you can do about it, however, is enormous. If there is one thing today’s generation has the advantage in, it’s the quality of home medical care and home medical monitoring. There is no telling how healthy kids can now be when their parents use the available technology to monitor health.

At a very basic level, there are advancements in what kids get out of the vitamins they take. The technology used to coat the pills is some of the most advanced scientific processing and manufacturing in the world. The pills dissolve easier and are absorbed into the body quickly so they are effective quicker and for longer. This was not the case 50 years ago. Now kids are in the drivers seat as far as the minerals and nutrients they get.

Another thing kids have access to today that they didn’t have 50 years ago is a pulse oximeter. This is a device that kids can wear on their finger to tell parents how much oxygen is getting to the important parts of the body. This is something that would have taken invasive testing years ago, without any accurate results. But nowadays, this technology is easy to find at your local home medical supply store or pharmacy. The kind of world we live in allows a parent to be able to get more information about their child’s health than ever before. You have to thank technology for being able to feel safer about your kid’s health.

Your insurance card is an awful lot like a prepaid credit card. Obviously, it does not have any particular cash value to it. And this is definitely a good thing, because some yahoo would probably try to sell it if there were. But when it comes to both your health and your family’s health, your insurance card is sort of the “keys to the kingdom” of health care. Think about how much insurance can save you, when one of your children gets sick. If they develop an infection that requires them to be hospitalized, you may end up having to pay only a tiny amount of money out of a bill in the five digit range.

And consider the possibility of what could happen if your child had a congenital defect. If something is wrong from the very beginning, your insurance could literally save their life. While it is terrible to imagine something like that happening to your baby, don’t you feel a lot better knowing that you can focus on caring for your child, instead of being afraid that you may not be able to afford the treatments they might need? When it comes to the fancy treatments our society seems to be in love with, they all cost a lot of money.

And insurance pays that money, except for your percentage and your copay. While it isn’t exactly the free health care people receive in a lot of countries, at least it’s better than having to pay cash for every medical good and service you receive. And when it comes to your children, do you honestly think you could ever even consider saying no to what they need? Your insurance card is not just the medical equivalent of a prepaid credit card – it is the ticket to a long life for your children. And it’s also a long life in good health.

Are you one of the many Americans keeping cleaning products under the sink? While this storage area seems like a good place, you may want to find a better one. In August 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a warning to parents to lock up household cleaners. The warning primarily targeted families with toddlers, but the advice is sound for any family with young children. The AAP issued the announcement after reviewing the results of a study based on information from the Columbus, OH Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The hospital estimated that it treated 267,269 children under the age of five for household-cleaning-related conditions between 1990 and 2006.

In years past, the potential danger of young children getting into cleaners resulted in many companies changing their packaging in order to offer child-resistant products. As a result, parents may have put their faith in the packaging instead of taking precautions to lock up the chemicals. Even something as “harmless” as dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, or ammonia can send a toddler to the emergency room. The hospital reported the following statistics in its study:

~ Children under the age of three accounted for 72 percent of hospital visits related to cleaning products.

~ One-year-old children accounted for 45.9 percent of those injuries.

~ In the majority of cases, children ingested chemicals, with chlorine bleach being the number one product ingested.

~ Over 50 percent of the injuries involved little boys.

Overall, injuries related to household products decreased by 46 percent since 1990. The non-fatal nature of the injuries is also positive in light of the serious risk a child can encounter by playing with chemicals intended for cleaning. Mixing ammonia and bleach can cause a toxic gas, which could cause fatal harm. Drinking some chemicals could damage a child’s lungs. Some researchers attribute the improvement to a combination of child-resistant packaging and parent awareness regarding the potential harm household chemicals could cause. To prevent unintentional harm, lock household cleaners in an area out of a child’s reach, store chemicals in their original containers, buy child-resistant products, and properly dispose of cleaning agents.

If you have a child who has health problems, especially of the heart, lungs or circulatory system, you may have to monitor him more closely than you would other children. The same is true of a child who’s very overweight and must exercise to lose the extra pounds. One of the monitoring devices you can use to check your child’s health is a finger pulse oximeter. You can also use a blood pressure monitor, and be sure to take your child’s temperature regularly. These three devices together will help you know the overall health and well being of your child.

Having a sick child, or worrying over one that’s very obese and must lose weight for his health, can be stressful. There are few things that can really be done to take that stress away, but even being able to ease it is helpful. When you have a way to monitor your child, the stress that you’re facing won’t be as severe, because you’ll have up-to-the-second information that will help you stay more informed and in tune with what’s going on. Just knowing what’s taking place is often one of the best ways to feel better and more in control of a situation.

While there are plenty of things in your life – and your child’s life – that you can’t control, being able to monitor important conditions is very valuable. It gives some measure of comfort, and it can help you determine whether things are stable or whether your child needs to see a doctor or go to the emergency room. Even something as simple as monitoring blood pressure, oxygen and temperature gives security that you would otherwise miss out on. It can keep you in the loop and can also help your child to feel safer and more protected because his condition is being closely monitored.

If you have school-aged children, you probably know about the standard head lice checks many schools conduct as a part of their public safety efforts. Usually, the school nurse calls in students and checks each child for signs of the parasitic insects. In times past, the nurse would call a parent to come get the child if she found any symptoms of head lice. Once parents successfully treated the lice, the school would check for nits and either accept or decline to let the student back in school.

While this was once the standard, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages schools to abandon the “No-Nit Rule.” In its updated guide detailing how to treat head lice, the AAP reports that head lice shouldn’t cause medical alarm. According to the AAP, pediculus capitis don’t contribute to the spread of disease. Even though nits can be pesky, head lice shouldn’t cause a student to miss school. With no medical harm evident, it could be more detrimental for a student to miss seven to ten days of school.

The quick breeding cycle of head lice and the parasite’s ability to spread on contact can make it difficult for a school to keep head lice to a minimum. A female louse can lay up to ten eggs a day and has a life cycle of up to four weeks. The nits hatch within 10 to 14 days and can begin their own mating cycle soon after. Head lice live on human hair and feed by sucking blood from the scalp once a day. In order to get rid of head lice, the AAP recommends parents use a non-toxic formula containing at least one percent permethrin lotion. Applying the formula seven to ten days after the original application can help catch any nits just starting to hatch. Parents can find over-the-counter head lice products at reasonable prices at many grocery stores and pharmacies. In addition to applying a solution to kill lice, parents can use a head lice comb to remove any nits stuck to strands of hair.

It takes longer to get through security when you travel with kids. Security personnel have to check through things like backpacks, dolls, baby strollers, and diaper bags. To make the process easier, give yourself extra time to get to your gate. Have your children wear clothing and shoes that they can easily remove for the security check. If you’re going to a warm destination, consider having your children wear flip flops. Make sure your older children know better than to tell a joke about bombs or weapons, or you might find your entire family detained. If possible, take an FAA-approved car seat for any child weighing less than 40 pounds. This can make the ride more comfortable for them. Consider flying with an airline that offers TV or movies, or take a portable DVD player and your children’s favorite movies. To help your children handle the ear pain that is common during take off and descent, have suckers, gum, or pacifiers on hand.

Make Road Trips Fun

When you take a road trip, you have the luxury of packing more toys and distractions for your children. Portable DVD players and iPods can help keep your kids from asking the never-ending question, “Are we there yet?” You can even consider taking a laptop with a 4G connection or getting FlowTV. Older children may enjoy helping you navigate. Taking breaks every two to four hours can relief the fatigue associated with riding in the car. Find a park, a road-side attraction, or a rest area where kids can run around for at least 15 minutes. Younger children may need to stop more frequently than older kids. Having snacks on hand can reduce the number of stops you make for food but pack plenty of wet wipes to clean up sticky fingers. For safety purposes, use the proper car seats for children, and make sure everyone wears a seatbelt. If you plan to be on the road for more than one night, stop early enough for your kids to enjoy the hotel’s pool or other amenities.

Sometimes adults forget what it feels like to be a child, but learning how to handle anxiety is something every person must do. Anxiety occurs when an individual feels uneasy, or apprehensive, for no apparent reason. The situation often makes the child want to escape, but he may not know what to escape from. If you have a family history of anxiety attacks, watching your child go through this experience can trigger stress. Understanding how anxiety develops and progresses in a child can help you handle the situation in a way that benefits your child.

Children first experience anxiety at 10 to 18 months of age. Commonly referred to as separation anxiety, the child typically calms down in the presence of a parent. From the age of four to six, kids may begin to fear imaginary things, such as ghosts or monsters. As children get older, they may translate their anxiety to things that can happen in real life. Your child may experience anxiety when you leave because he might not know what to do if you were to die in a car accident. Typically, children will conquer one type of fear only to have another one rear up.

You can help children learn to overcome anxiety and fear, including phobias. Help your children realize fear is real. Talk with them about the benefits of fear: Fear of fire can help protect your child from burns by helping her be cautious. Try not to belittle the fear, but don’t let it consume your child. If you panic around a snake, you may reinforce that the animal is something to fear. For some children, you may need to help them overcome their panic by slowly introducing them to the object of their fear. If your child experiences anxiety while you’re gone, start by distancing yourself a little bit. When your child calms down, move a little further away. For older kids, you can teach them positive affirmations to help them, such as saying, “I can do this.” With your help, your child can conquer his panic.

When most people think of kidney stones, they think of older individuals. But kidney stones can form at any age, and some U.S. hospitals are treating more kids for the condition than in years past. Kidney stones are the result of crystal-forming substances occurring in high quantities in the urine. Typically, the substances are calcium, oxalate, or uric acid. At the higher quantities, the liquid of the urine fails to dissolve the substance, leading to the formation of a kidney stone.

A recent study of data from pediatric hospitals in the U.S. indicated an increase from 125 cases of children with kidney stones in 1999 to over 1,300 in 2008. Doctors who reviewed the data were reluctant to say the upswing is a trend. The information corresponds to children seen at hospitals; therefore, it may not be a true representation of the average U.S. population. The increase could be the result of pediatric clinics designated for kidney stones. Doctors may refer more patients to these clinics than they would have prior to them opening.

Some researchers believe there may be a connection between the increase in childhood obesity and the increase in children developing kidney stones. As research continues into the obesity epidemic that has gained national attention in part because of First Lady Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, the connection may become more apparent. As with obesity, children’s diet may be a contributing factor. Dr. Jonathan C. Routh, a practitioner at Boston’s Children’s Hospital explained that an increase in sodium intake, eating more animal fat, and not getting enough fluids can increase the risk of kidney stones. Children who have a family history of the condition may see an elevated risk, as well. To prevent kidney stones, parents can make sure their kids drink plenty of water, especially after exercising or during warmer weather. Keep in mind children who have had one kidney stone have an increased risk of developing additional ones later in life. Passing a kidney stone can be very painful. If you think your child might have one, call your doctor as soon as possible.