Battling Illness

When illness strikes a child at the busiest time of the year, parents are often torn between trying to minimize his illness with over the counter medications or biting the bullet and taking the child to see his doctor.

Advice from public healthcare authorities is simple: diagnose the symptoms early and treat them properly. Seems simple enough, but let’s look at what the average parent must endure to satisfy this simple directive.

By the time a parent takes time off work to fight holiday traffic to see a doctor who may or may not see what the parent sees in his child, it’s already become more than simple. It’s become an aggravation zone.

The wait of an hour or two in a crowded office with other ill children sharing the same toys, then being told it’s an allergy when no one in the family has allergies, the child has never had an allergy, and the allergy is mimicking a severe cold is frustrating. Add an expensive medication that doesn’t work.

Perhaps the real issue begins with preventive medicine. Keeping a child well to begin with may just be the key to fewer doctor’s visits and a much healthier happier child.

Six things to think about and consider:

Everybody, especially children will stay healthier in cooler rooms. Turn the heat down. Try setting heat in the mid sixties. Still in simmer t-shirts? Newsflash - It’s winter; put on a sweater.

Fresh air every couple of hours refreshes and stimulates the body. Get kids moving outside as often as possible. A few minutes of cold air will increase breathing and that’s always a good thing. Airing out rooms, blankets, and pillows helps as well.

Drink water in place of sugared drinks. A steady stream of sugar makes a high demand on the body while water cleanses and renews the body. If you thought your doctor’s visit was helped along by soda pop, think of what soda is actually costing you.

When a child is half comatose on a sofa in front of TV, send him to bed. Any extra sleep a child can get, night or day, will help keep him well. Children who go to bed before 8:00 PM are ill less often than the night owls.

Learn to wash hands properly and do it frequently. Remind a child to wash his hands with soap throughout any day. No child should walk into a house, come to the table or leave the bathroom without washing his hands.

Make sure that half the snacks a child eats count as something valuable on the food chart. Some children’s snacks are not identifiable. If a child takes a cookie, put milk with it. If a child wants a candy bar, put an apple with it. If he is looking for chips, put a slice of cheese with it. Toaster pastry? Try a banana.

Know illness from complaint: Illness is a fever of over 99, vomiting, diarrhea, spots, pus spots on tonsils or throat, eye crust, earache, and most perniciously green mucus. Green means infection allergy or not.

The truth is, the sooner an ill child gets medical attention the sooner he will be well. Dragging out illnesses is hard on children. Know your illness and if necessary, call your physician. Don’t be afraid to speak to your doctor frankly; he should work with you.

Then start over again by turning down the heat, drink water instead of sweet drinks, wash hands frequently, eat well, sleep a lot and go out side as much as possible.