Dr. Abhishek Goel

Being a mother is the greatest gift to womankind. With the most amazing feeling of being a mother, comes big challenges and responsibilities. The first and foremost being, keeping the baby safe and healthy. Providing babies their best start begins with breastfeeding. Doctors around the world recommend exclusive breastfeeding to begin within the first hour of a baby’s life and continue until six months.

A mother’s milk has no substitute. It is packed with amazing nutritional benefits, the absence of which can lead children at risk of malnutrition and various diseases. Breast milk is often being termed as complete food with added antibodies, enzymes, hormones and fatty acids extremely vital for a delicate immune system of an infant. Babies build their immunity in the first few years of their life and breast milk is critical to developing immunity.

UNICEF working on child’s rights and well-being world over promotes breastfeeding schemes across many countries.

According to UNICEF reports, a non-breast fed child is 14 times likely to die within first six months than an exclusively breastfed child. An estimated 8,20,000 children under the age of five could be saved each year with increased breastfeeding. However, Only 38% of infants globally are breastfed. Looking at India’s state, Malnutrition continues to be one of the greatest challenges. One cost effective, safe and smart intervention to curb malnutrition and decrease infant mortality is breastfeeding.

Let’s now look at the benefits of breast milk for infants and mothers:

• Breast milk is found to reduce the risk of respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, asthma, food allergies, leukemia, diabetes and celiac disease.
• Psychologists have long established the positive effects of mother’s touch in the emotional development of babies. In addition to this, breastfeed has positive effects on child’s cognitive development.
• Breastfeeding has amazing benefits for mothers. It is found to aid weight loss post pregnancy. It promotes better uterus shrinkage and delays menstruation. Lactating mothers naturally avoid pregnancy till they breastfeed. It reduces the risk of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis later in life.
• Considering the benefits of this super natural milk, many countries have now adopted an international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes. The code promotes breastfeeding and restricts marketing of infant formula milk. India along with many other countries signed it.

India has also begun with a baby friendly hospital initiative where hospitals educate new mothers regarding breast feeding and strictly discourage infant formulas wherever possible. The myth of feeding newborn babies with honey, water, sugar does more harm than good. Thus, it is vital to exclusively breastfeed the baby at least for six months before introducing other foods. 

Ensure your child’s right to a healthy life through breastfeeding!

Cold and cough is caused by a viral infection, which can last for about two to four weeks. The symptoms include stuffy or a runny nose, coughing and sore throat. Many times, the infection may raise body temperature and the child may suffer from fever. Our body’s immune system naturally fights with such infections. Depending on the type of cough and the symptoms, the virus can stay active in the body for about 4 to 6 weeks. It is quite painful to see the child suffering from cold and cough. The symptoms of this infection are worse during the first two days.

The child will experience pain and irritation in the throat with difficulty in swallowing, frequent coughing with mucous, breathing difficulty and high fever. Most parents rush to over the counter drugs for cold and cough to ease of their child’s agony. However, most drugs/ cough syrups available over the counter only provide temporary relief. Medical evidence suggests that antibiotics do not kill viruses, thus, it is not advisable to treat cold and cough with antibiotics unless accompanied by another infection. So, what do parents do? Well, there is a lot that can be done.

Let’s first understand the type of a cough your child might be suffering from:

1. Dry cough: Generally occurs due to infection in upper respiratory tract, cold or influenza. Children with asthma and allergies are also prone to this type of cough as dry cough is triggered by smoke or dust.
2. Croup Cough: A harsh barking and dry cough with swelling beneath vocal cords.
3. Wet Cough: Most commonly caused by cold. This is an infection of the lower respiratory tract characterised by mucous secretions.
4. Whooping cough: Characterised by fast coughing, breathing difficulties and a whooping sound while breathing.

Apart from this, If coughing starts suddenly along with choking, the child may have inhaled a foreign body. Immediate help may be required. For babies less than 12 months of age, cold cough followed by breathing difficulties may indicate bronchiolitis and require a paediatric attention. A normal cold and cough generally subside with two to four weeks. However, it is important to understand when to consult a doctor.

• Chest pain or breathing problems
• Cough lasting for more than 6 weeks.
• A yellow, green or brown mucous indicating another infection.
• Swollen glands, persistent high fever, rashes.
• Body getting pale and symptoms getting worse.
• Temperature higher than 38 degrees in the case of infants.

Precautions and diet that should be taken care of

• Increase Intake of fluids especially hot liquids
• Never stop breastfeeding the baby
• Vapour rub applied on chest and back is an effective remedy
• Inhaling steam provides relief to a sore throat and nose
• Intake of crushed tulsi leaves with honey or hot turmeric milk is soothing and very helpful

There is little we can do to prevent viral infections. However, proper care and caution can ensure a smooth recovery.

Influenza is more commonly known as the flu. It is an infection that affects the respiratory system and is caused by the influenza virus. This injection is recommended for kids who are under the age of 6 months. It ensures that the baby is safeguarded from the virus during an influenza outbreak. Since the nature of virus changes year on year, the immunity doesn’t last for more than 1 year. This vaccination is ideally taken during the month of October and November. The effect of the vaccination typically lasts for 6-8 months.

Ideally, kids who have never had a flu vaccination should take 2 vaccinations within 4 weeks. Kids who have received a shot of flu should undertake this vaccination once in a year. This arrangement is ideal up to 9 years of age. Flu shot is extremely important for a kid due to the following reasons:

• It saves a kid from chronic lung and heart disorders such as asthma and cystic fibrosis
• Kids suffering from immune deficiency, cancer, and HIV should take this vaccination to avoid further complication of the existing disease
• Kids suffering from diabetes, kidney diseases, and metabolic disorders should go for this vaccination without a second thought
• Kids suffering from a neurological disorder, haemoglobin deficiency, and anaemia should take this vaccination to refrain from the risk of aggravation of the present disease
• Pregnant women should ideally take it for the safeguarding the fetus

Flu shot should not be taken be taken if:
1. A baby is under the age of 6 months.
2. The baby has thimerosal allergy.

Is flu shot safe?
The flu shot is considered to be very safe. It does not result in flu. Few side effects include:
a. Soreness of the place where the needle is injected. This doesn’t last for more than a couple of day.
b. Body ache and mild fever for the first couple of days after the vaccination is done.
c. There is little to no pain in the place where the injection is injected by the doctor.

What is nasal flu vaccine?
This is an influenza dose that is not injected into the body, but given in the form of nasal spray. Healthy kids above the age of 2 years are fit to get this injection. For those kids who have a history of chronic illness should check with their doctor to go ahead with nasal spray. Each dose is given in each nostril. Like the influenza vaccine, nasal flu vaccine should be undertaken once for those who have already taken this dose once. Kids who have not undergone this vaccination are eligible for 2 dosages each 4 weeks apart from each other. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor.

If the children do not get sufficient amount of sleep at night, then their health will start getting deteriorated slowly. According to the medical surveys, it has been discovered that kids need much more sleep than adults. 

It is pretty impossible to maintain kids' health without proper sleep at night. The kids will get tired soon and will lack in energy because of poor sleep.

Why sleep is important for kids' health? 

-  Growth promotion: Growth process might get retarded as a result of less hours of sleep. If the kids stop growing, then their health cannot be maintained. 
-  Proper weight maintenance: If the kids lack in proper sleep, then their weight might get decreased slowly. A good sleep of at least 10 hours a day is necessary for maintaining weight of children so that great health can be acquired.

-  Boosting internal energy: More energy will be generated so that daily activities can be performed with ease. The stamina level of kids can also be boosted as well. 

-  Growing improved bed-time habits: Bed-time habits can be properly scheduled with good sleep. If the sleep routine is not properly maintained, then the health condition of the kids will be adversely affected. Sleep can be audited properly, and your kids can grow fast. 

-  Promotes learning process: The kids can get an improved learning process by means of having good amount of sleep. If you want to make your kids learn new things or habits, then for that sufficient sleep during the night is needed.

-  Increase in attention and concentration: Mental strength of kids can be increased along with the increase in concentration and attention level. This is very much essential for maintaining studies and daily activities.

-  Reduction of injury risk: Immunity system of kids can be boosted to a great extent with proper sleep as a result of which the risks of physical and mental injuries can be reduced. In fact, severe kinds of heart diseases can also be prevented by means of having a good sleep at night. 

Sleeping schedules for kids
-  Pre-schoolers need almost 10-13 hours of sleep.
-  For newborns, 14-17 hours sleep is appropriate.
-  Infants need a sleep for almost 12-15 hours.
-  Young adults are in need of at least 7-9 hours of sleep.
-  Teenagers need 8-10 hours night-time sleep.
-  For school-going kids, 9-11 hours sleep is needed.

If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

A pediatrician manages a child's overall physical and psychological health condition. While most parents consult a pediatrician when the child falls sick, they miss the importance of regular visits to the doctor even if the child is seemingly healthy. There are recommended schedules which prescribe regular visits to the doctor from about a week after the birth of the child. The visits are more frequent up till the age of 6 or 7, after which a monthly visit is usually sufficient. The following is a list of reasons why your child should be taken to a pediatrician every month:

1. Documenting the rate of growth
The pediatrician measures the child's weight and height during every visit and charts them. This is important for comparison with the average rate of growth and pin pointing the problems in normal growth (if any) and the reasons for these problems. For example, if a 4 year old girl is in the 80th percentile for height, it means that 80% of the girls her age are shorter than she is and 20% are taller than she is. The rate of growth is an indicator of a child's general health.

2. Detecting deviations in developmental patterns
There are well-defined physical and emotional developmental patterns for children of all ages. For example, a child starts using signals to communicate by 4 months, or starts talking by the age of 2. A pediatrician can spot deviations from the standard patterns better than parents can. Apart from the measurement of height and weight, sometimes hearing, motor skills and vision tests are also conducted on your visit to the pediatrician to ensure that these basic systems and functions are developing properly.

3. Identifying reasons behind behavioral problems
Behavioral issues in children can be caused by a number of reasons - their inability to correctly express physical discomfort, bonding or attachment issues with the parents or caregivers, interactive problems with peers in school etc. Common behavioral problems are snoring, sleep walking, bed wetting, outbursts of anger, lack of social communication etc. The problems can be prevented from becoming complicated conditions if treated early.

4. Prevention of diseases
The schedule for all the required vaccinations is maintained by the pediatrician. Apart from immunization, regular visits to a pediatrician are important for pointing the beginning symptoms of certain diseases. Nutritional deficiencies, which are very common in children, can be diagnosed and addressed before they lead to health problems. Often parents become extremely apprehensive about the child's health- their queries can be answered and their worries can also be put to rest by these visits.

It might happen that you may not find your child, at twelve months to two years of age, at the same level as their peers in verbal communication. You think it's just a developmental problem they are facing and put off seeking professional advice; an intrinsically wrong step to take, because your child might be suffering from Speech Delay.
Delayed speech, or alalia, can be roughly defined as a delay in the development and use of the biological mechanisms that produce speech.
The symptoms of speech delay are roughly categorized into age related groups, generally beginning at the age of 12 months and continuing through the early adolescence, and they are:
1. Age-12 months
a. It is indeed a symptom if your child cannot point at objects or cannot manage gestures, such as waving good-bye.
b. Another symptom is that if your child does not prefer to communicate verbally as much as his/her peers.
2. Age-15-18 months
a. If your child is unable to pronounce familiar syllables or simply cannot call you even by this time, it's a worrying symptom.
b. You find your child unable to, or simply not reciprocating to 'no', 'hello', 'hi', 'bye'.
c. If your child is unable to extend his/her vocabulary up to 15 words by fifteen months, then it's a symptom.
3. Age-2-4 years
a. You find your child unable to spontaneously produce speech and words.
b. Another worrying symptom is if your child is lacking consonant sounds at the beginning and end of words while speaking.
c. If you still find your child unable to form simple sentences and words, then it is indeed a troubling symptom, confirming the disorder.
The causes for the speech delay disorder are:
1. A primary cause can be physical disruption in parts of the mouth such lips or palate, which may be deformed.
2. Another serious cause can be an oral-motor dysfunction which is the disruption in the creation of the specific area of the brain which deals with speech and communication.
3. The disorder can also be attributed to impairment in the development of the child's intellectual, receptive and expressive abilities.
4. There can also be psychological causes involving school environment and peer relationships which might lead to disruption of speech patterns and reluctance in speech expression and development. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

Here are some recommendations for vaccinations in children

Along with the baby, the mother also benefits physically and emotionally from breastfeeding. Due to the release of the prolactin hormones, a peaceful and nurturing sensation fills the mother.