Whooping Cough (another name for Pertussis) can be termed as an infection to the respiratory system caused by the bacterium Bordetella Pertussis (B. pertussis). It generally affects infants (below one year of age) and who have not yet been immunized; also kids between 11 to 18 years of age whose immunity graphs are on a downward spiral.

What are the Signs and Symptoms?
Initially, whooping cough produces signs and symptoms that may just seem to overlap with those exhibited during the average cough and cold; mild coughing, sneezing, runny nose, low fever, etc. These persist for about a week or two and then slowly, there is the onset of the dry, irritating cough which again turns to prolonged coughing spells. The child s face may seem flushed with a purple hue. The child may also vomit or make the distinctive whooping sound at the end of one such spell. Breathing difficulty can be another issue.

What is the Diagnosis?
The doctor performs an initial check-up followed by tests of mucus sample from the nose or throat. The mucus is checked for the presence of the Bordetella pertussis bacteria. To make a more thorough diagnosis, a blood test is also advisable.

What is the Treatment?
Hospitalisation might be required in case of acute distress. Respiratory support may also be provided if required. If there is intense dehydration, intravenous (IV) fluids may also be administered. As this disease is on account of a bacterial infection, antibiotics will be needed. But these will just treat the immediate effects and the cough cannot be completely done away with.
What can be the Possible Complications?

The possible immediate complications include:

Brain Damage
Pneumonia
Convulsion
Haemorrhaging in the brain
What can be the Prevention?
Vaccination is needed in order to prevent whooping cough. The vaccines are advised to be administered at the age of two months, four months and six months respectively. The 1st booster dose is to be given at 16 to 18 months age and 2nd booster dose is given on 5 year completion of age. An optional booster may be given at 10 year age.

Whooping Cough in Kids - How It Can Be Treated?

Is your child undergoing Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders (PIDDs)? If you are tired of seeing your child suffering with regular cold and cough which could be solely due to a lack of nutrients in the diet, resulting in low immunity of the body. Adopting healthy habits by cutting back on junk food while including healthy items will help raise your child s immunity levels immensely. 

Some of the best foods to include in the diet to increase the immunity of your child are mentioned below:

Eggs, pulses, lean meats and other healthy protein: Immunity buildup may be disrupted if there isn t enough protein in your diet. Milk protein in cow s milk or dairy products like butter and cheese, animal protein in lean meats such as chicken and ovo-protein in eggs are highly beneficial and raise immunity levels.
Fish for immunity build up: Fish is a great immunity builder and also helps in making the brain work more efficiently. Fish meat contains lean proteins as well as essential Omega-3 acids which help properly regulate many functions within the body raising immunity.
Stay healthy with yogurt: There are a lot many flavored varieties of curd or yogurt that your child may like and which is also considered as a power food source. It helps reduce gastrointestinal illnesses. However, try and go for the less flavored ones as they would have lesser amounts of processed sugar.
Oats and Barley for your rescue: The reason why oats and barley are healthy alternatives, especially for children is because they are composed of beta-glucan (fibre containing antioxidants and antimicrobial properties). This helps in avoiding constipation thus cleaning the intestine and hence avoiding the buildup of harmful bacteria within the body.
Fruit toppings are delicious: Fruits are not limited to mangoes, apples and bananas only. Darker the color of the fruit, greater is the nutritional value. Berries, peaches, melons, pomegranates etc, can and should also be included in your fruit intake as they are healthy as well as tasty.
Vegetables can be tasty too: Growing children require leafy green vegetables for physical and mental development as they contain zinc, iron and folic acid. Foods like fenugreek leaves and spinach are an example of vitamin rich food items. You can include spinach and other vegetables in a clever manner by making the food interesting so that children would want to eat it willingly.
Carrots to fight infection: Carrots are beneficial for good eyesight and protection from infections. With carrot intake it becomes quite difficult for the bacteria and germs to ender the blood vessels. This can be made into a salad or craved figuring to make it interesting to the kids.

Immunity of Your Child - 7 Foods that Help Boost It!

When you hold your new born in your arms for the first time, you will count him or her as the greatest blessing of your life. This is also the time when you are burdened with the responsibilities of another human. The sleep patterns in new-borns are erratic and you will never see them follow any pattern as such. They sleep off just about any time of the day and you will not see any pattern until about your angel is about 6 to 7 weeks old. After that age, they get quite adaptable and you will be able to get him or her adapted to certain patterns. This will make things very easy for you and your partner.

So why won t your baby sleep?

1. Your baby is too excited to fall asleep

Babies are a powerhouse of energy. Activities like tossing him in the air or giving him an exciting bath full of fun and frolic will probably do the opposite of winding him down. It will make him more excited and he will not want to go to bed thinking he would miss out on the other fun activities that are in store for him.

Solution: Replace the fun tickles with other activities like comforting massages or story time and lullabies. Dim the lights, cosy up the room. Make it a routine and you will find your baby easing into a deep slumber in no time.

2. Your baby is too sensitive to the external or internal environment

Every baby is not a sound sleeper. Some babies may jolt awake with just a simple nod, others may dose off amidst noise and screams as well. If your baby is of the first kind, then you may face a bunch of troubles to keep your baby calm and cosy. You may bother your baby s sleep if your phone starts to ring around her or by the constant honking of cars outside.

Solution: Keep her surroundings as warm and comfortable as possible. Keep her in a room that is away from the bustling noise of the cars, if possible or sound proof her room. Start by dimming the lights and getting her comfortable clothes that will keep her free when she is sleeping. Keep her sheets and pillows clean and ensure they do not remain wet.

3. Your baby snacks in the middle of the night

As it was mentioned before, babies have erratic schedules. They can get hungry or cranky just about any time of the day. Mid-night snacking is probably numero uno reason as to why your baby will not fall asleep at night. If you feed your baby to sleep every time, he or she might associate it with nursing.

Solution: It is okay to train your baby to comfort itself in the middle of the night. Whenever it may think it is hungry, he or she will cry and expect you to nurse him to sleep. Put him in the nursery when he is relatively sleepy to allow him to fall asleep all by himself. You may stand by till he does, but do not swaddle him.

Why Your Baby is Missing Sound Sleep?

There are few things I hear over and over again from students
1.  How they are studying for so many in a day
2.  How they do not have even time for anything else in their life due to study pressure
3. How they are sleep deprived
4. How much they are stressed
5. And finally, after all the sacrifices and hard work, their exam performance is not what they expect.

Here are few tips to study smart, improve your grades and yet have a life!
We all know that 2 hours of focused study will be much more productive than 4 hours of distracted study. And, the good news is that concentration is a mental skill that you can develop and improve. There are two ways to improve your concentration:

A. First, work on raising your brain's natural ability to concentrate or in other words, learn to increase your attention span.
B. Second, adjust the environment around you to make concentrating easier.

Improving your concentration takes a little time and effort, but it is worth it. In my personal experience with students, I have seen noticeable improvement in relatively short time.

A. Ideas for daily concentration boosting habits include

1. Mindfulness meditation: Many studies confirm that 20 minutes of meditation or more per day improves concentration and attention span. Mindfulness meditation, where one focuses on one's breathing,  is one of the simplest way of meditation. Start with ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes before bed. To begin with you may try a guided meditation. One can easily find audios for guided meditation online.

2. Proper sleep: I am sorry to say this. Pulling all nighters will not help with your grade. Unless you are getting sufficient restful sleep, you are not going to be as mentally focused as you could be to study as well as answer questions in exams.

3.  Food for your Brain: The more you use certain skills, the more they are reinforced in the brain. So it makes sense that playing concentration games and games that require you to focus will improve your concentration ability. You need to be consistent in this. Play for about 10 to 20 minutes each day. Have fun, and get the benefits but remember not to spend more than 20 minutes a day. Your goal is to improve your concentration and not just keep scoring higher in the game! Try Lumosity and use only free version this will help you restrict your daily play time to 20 minutes and have maximum benefit.

4. Eat healthier: Your brain needs the proper nutrients to allow you to focus. Eat more vegetables and fruits and avoid consumption of junk food as much as possible. Instead you could keep some nuts such as walnuts, almond or peanuts as in between munches. Lot of research has now proven that sugar is very harmful for our health. Reduce sugar and refined white flour in your diet as much as you could.  

5. Exercise: It is helpful in both reducing stress and increasing energy and focus. At least 20 minutes a day would go a long way. Going for a short jog of 20 minutes will make next 4 to 5 hours of study very efficient.

B. Optimize your mental state & environment

In addition to building the habits described above into your daily routine; also adjust your environment and your current mental state to improve your concentration when studying.

1. Create a study space: Your brain loves routine. Create a place where all you do is study. An obvious choice is a secluded desk of some kind, but the trick is to make sure you only study in that spot. Studying in bed is a bad habit, for example, because your body is trained to want to sleep once you get into bed.

2. Remove distractions: Turn off the ringer on your phone and take other steps to prevent interruptions. Don't study with the television on or with radio playing. Some studies have shown that soft instrumental music (no vocals) can help improve your concentration.

3. Reduce background noises: If you have to study or work in an environment where it is too loud (classroom or open space) or too quiet (such as at home or at a library) you can get easily distracted by outside influences. With the right amount of background noise you can actually block out distractions and enhance your creative thinking.

4. Use timer: Set a time limit when you need to study new material. For example, let's say you want to read one chapter in a book (and remember it). Decide in advance that you can have 45 minutes to read the chapter, and 15 minutes to review it. Set a timer to keep yourself honest, then pace yourself to keep within the allotted time.

5. Stay motivated: If you see studying as burden, it's hard to concentrate. One way to stay motivated is to set up a reward system. Tell yourself you have to earn that hour of watching your favorite show later in the evening by first completing 2-3 hours of intense studying.
That way, even if the material is dry, you have the reward to look forward to.

6. Take breaks: Take a break every two hours. You mental energy will begin to decline after a long period of study. So every two hours or so, take a ten minute break. Walk around, eat a light snack, or just stare at the wall to relax your mind.

Concentrating is the first step to learning anything new. It only makes sense that if you improve your concentration, your memory will improve also.

How an expert can help?
If you want to get individualized expert opinion about how you are studying currently and what ways you can improve; you can always consult the expert. Once he/she knows what your current study methods are, they will be able to give you specific tips to improve upon. Most likely once you incorporate those tips you will be spending less time studying and your grades will improve. That's what is studying smarter and not harder means!!

Study Smarter and Not Harder!

Asthma is a condition that can flare up anytime; be it at your child's soccer practice or during the middle of the night. Whenever the condition sets in, it leads to your child struggling for breath. For a parent to witness this situation can be hard; but you should know the techniques to keep the situation under control.

Here are a few tips on how to manage the situation:

1. Find out the triggers in your home: Asthma is triggered due to substances that your child may be allergic to. Examples are cigarette smoke, fur of pets and dust. If possible, keep your child away from the known triggers so that the condition does not flare up again.

2. Keep records of the following: It is good to have an action plan ready for your child when the bouts of asthma strike. When you visit the doctor to discuss about your child's condition then make sure that you have these records at hand.

The triggers that caused the bout of asthma
How many times did your child have wheezing episodes?
The number of times your child has been admitted for the same reason
The medications that your child is currently taking, dosage and/or whether they have been changed
How often does he/she need medications if he/she has acute symptoms?
3. Knowledge of the test your child may require: Asthma control test is a type of test that allows parents and children to grade asthma symptoms without a doctor. A pulmonary function test is used to detect the capacity of the lungs and flow of air.

4. See how your child responds to the treatments: You should consider changing the treatments for your child if he/she has recurrent symptoms of asthma attack and require frequent visits to the Emergency Room even after taking medications for an extended duration.

5. Long term treatment plans require patience: Any asthma treatment plan requires patience as they might not immediately cure symptoms.

How to Manage if Your Child Is Suffering From Asthma

Choosing a career is a serious concern for students soon after completing 10th standard when one is required to make a choice of subjects for 11th grade. While still very young, many of us hardly know what is good for us and which field is best. For most of us, choosing a career is not a serious affair until 12th grade. However, once a student is done with 12th, he rethinks -  Did I make the right choice of subjects in class XIth?  I had always wanted to go in this field after school, but nobody guided me about subjects required for it in class XIth and XIIth. So, after completing school one feels very sad and frustrated that interest lay in A field but wasted 2 school years doing B-Field, a totally different course of study.

Therefore, when selecting subjects in XIth, it is very necessary to have a career goal in place keeping the market in mind. In addition to this, selecting the right education institution in XIth is equally important. Eg.  I am interested in Fine Arts but my school offers only Science and Commerce.  So, the child takes one of these only and loses track of what he wants, sowing the seeds for future distress in the field thrust upon him. Unfortunately, not many students are able to discover their potentials and interests at this stage and end up making wrong choices.

In this scenario, seeking the help of an experienced and qualified career counselor becomes absolutely necessary who can assist in discovering your potential and aptitude and accordingly suggest the right course. Career counselor usually employs testing of three factors   aptitude, interest and personality. These aspects help the counselors in deciding the right career path for a student. With an increase in the number of opportunities in the market, the importance of career counseling has also increased manifold. People have begun to realize the fact that not all can become engineers or doctors and started exploring other fields depending on their talent and interest in alternate domains.

Sound guidance will depend on the qualifications, training and experience of the professional. It is always a good idea to first know about the professional expertise of the counsellor/psychologist on whom you depend for making a life-long career choice. Generally speaking, school counsellors are post-graduates with about 9 months diploma in counselling and guidance with a focus on school children. They may or may not have done M.Phil, or Ph.D to qualify as a doctor. Similarly, anybody with just a graduation degree in Psychology can self-proclaim as a Counsellor/Psychologist and offer guidance and counselling, charging much less a fees. For any professional you choose, the higher the educational qualifications, more the number of practical trainings from reputed institutes, and the greater the professional experience, more dependable will be the advice given by them.

Vocational guidance for students and adults is one of the best ways to choose the right career path. With a plethora of career choices out there, sound career counselling plays a pivotal role in ensuring that right career choices are made. This is rewarding, considering that an individual can choose the right career path as per the strengths and talents he possesses. Right counselling not only helps the person to grow in the job quickly but gives ample room to learn in his desired field.

Here is a list of some major benefits of vocational guidance and career counselling:

Right assessment of weakness and strength: Career counselling is typically conducted by expert professionals with years of experience behind their back. They assess a candidate based on various aptitude tests. The test results rightly portray the strength and weaknesses of a candidate. This information plays a key role in determining the right career choice for a candidate. A person can ensure that he refrain from choosing a wrong career that leads to frustration and low work satisfaction.
Right goal setting leads to better choice: A counsellor can help a candidate choose the right goal and help him to outline the process of achieving it. Furthermore, an experienced counsellor can help a candidate lay down a plan to reach the goal. A step by step blueprint of reaching the goal in a realistic manner helps a candidate to achieve his dream career faster. With right goal setting, a person can attend career success over a very short period of time.
Explore various career choices: There are vast career choices that a person can explore that are available within the scope of a person s expertise. A career counsellor can throw light on these choices and help a person focus on the right option. This ensures that a person saves a lot of time and energy while figuring out the best possible career choice that is out there. This is particularly true in cases where a person is trying to make a mid-career switch. 
The right guidance and support: An experienced career counsellor can guide a candidate to get hold of the right set of skills and expertise that may be required to achieve a particular career. This ensures that a candidate is adequately prepared before the big opportunity knocks on the door. Right guidance not only cut down the preparation time, it increases the chances of success as well. 
Search Support: While the job search is on, a good counsellor can help a candidate prepare in terms of resume preparation, cover letter, video introduction etc. They can also help a candidate with the right kind of networking to land that dream job.
To conclude, the crux of career counselling is to get the necessary guidance from a qualified professional that would help the student/adult in making the right choice regarding his career. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Psychologist.

Vocational Guidance & Career Counseling Benefits For Students & Adults

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