Every child should receive top-notch medical treatment. Every parent understands that our children’s health and safety are top priorities, whether they are at home, school, or an early learning centre. A persistent lack of child health care has an impact on children’s early physical and mental health, as well as long-term grownup outcomes. These common child health problems can have a substantial impact on children’s well-being and quality of life. (Source)

You’ll be more ready to take action quickly if you understand the signs and Symptoms of these common children’s health problems.

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Top 20 Common Child Health Problems with Symptoms, Prevention and Care Tips 

1. Common cold

Symptoms – breathlessness, rapid breathing, cough, runny nose, blocked nose, sneezing.

Prevention – Keep them hydrated with lots of fluids, Keep them away from crowded places, Practise good hygiene, not share towels, drink cold water, or eat junk.

Care tips – Medications, vaccinations as prescribed

2. Respiratory syncytial virus

Symptoms – Congestion, runny nose, fever, cough, and sore throat are all symptoms of the virus. Young newborns may be fussy, tired, and have respiratory problems. These symptoms often disappear on their own within a few days.

Prevention – Practising good hygiene, avoiding close contact, encouraging thorough hand washing, and not allowing children to share drinks, cutlery or toys.

Care tips – Drink enough fluids to prevent dehydration, giving your child non-prescription cold medicines.

3. Ear pain

Symptoms – grabbing the ear and pulling it, Crying and restlessness, inability to sleep, fever, fluid coming out of the ear, hearing problems or trouble understanding audio.

Prevention – Avoid smoking around kids, avoid putting things in your ears to prevent infections of the outer ear, and after showering or swimming, thoroughly dry your ears.

Care tips – holding a warm towel or heat pack next to your outer ear, ingesting painkillers like ibuprofen or paracetamol, and putting two or more pillows under your head while you sleep.

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4. Stomach flu

Symptoms – Vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea, stomach ache, fever, chills, headache, dehydration.

Prevention – Hand washing, after using the bathroom and before eating, everyone in your family should wash their hands with soap and water, proper hand hygiene.

Care tips – Hydration and rest, drink plenty of liquids. 

5. Asthma

Symptoms – Wheezing sound when they breathe, breathlessness, tight chest, coughing especially at night and or in the early morning.

Prevention – Avoid smoking in the area of your children, motivate your child to exercise, when required, consult your child’s doctor, encourage your child to keep a healthy weight, and keep digestive problems under control.

Care tips – Take quick-relief medication, avoid or reduce the impact of asthma triggers, and encourage kids to remain active as regular.

6. Skin Infection

Symptoms – Blisters loaded with pus, especially when eczema is present, blisters or lesions that look like cold sores, swelling, reddish lumps on the skin, spreading redness or streaks on the skin.

Prevention – Apply a bandage to any skin infections, Clean that skin and dry it regularly, Use gloves and wash your hands after dressing.

Care tips – Don’t scratch blisters or rashes, wash your child’s skin twice daily with gentle soap and water, and protect your child’s skin from the sun.

7. Bronchitis

Symptoms – Coughing out thick white, yellow, or greenish mucus, feeling short of breath, pain or a feeling of tightness in the chest, headache,  wheezing (a whistling or hissing sound made during breathing), fever, chills.

Prevention – Washing hands well, Protecting kids from smoke, covering your nose and mouth with a face mask or a towel, and avoiding being in close contact with too many people.

Care tips – Plenty of rest, cough medications for children over the age of four, if prescribed by their doctor, put a cool-mist humidifier in your child’s bedroom.

8. Bronchiolitis

Symptoms – Runny nose, congestion, fever, cough, fast or hard breathing, wheezing, loss of appetite, irritability.

Prevention – Wash your hands, avoid contacting anyone, wear a mask, toys and surfaces should be washed or wiped down on regularly, use disposable tissues and dispose of them immediately after usage.

Care tips – Use a cool-mist vaporizer or humidifier, avoid hot-water and steam humidifiers, when feeding, keep your baby’s head more upright.

9. Roseola

Symptoms – High fever, mild sore throat, swollen neck glands, a rash of pink, raised spots on the chest, tummy and back.

Prevention – Thorough hand hygiene, and get plenty of rest and fluids.

Care tips – Take rest, consume lots of fluids, give them paracetamol or ibuprofen for children, and keep your child at home if they have a fever.

10. Conjunctivitis (pink eye)

Symptoms – Inflammation of the eye, redness of the inner surface of the eyelids and the transparent membrane that covers the white area of the eye, yellow or green discharge from the eye, crusty eyelashes, itching or burning eyes.

Prevention – Wash their hands well and often with warm water and soap, should not share eye drops, tissues, washcloths, towels, or pillowcases.

Care tips – Using cool or warm compresses on your child’s eyes may make them more comfortable, clean the infected eye’s margins carefully with warm water and cotton or cotton balls. 

11. Hand, foot and mouth disease

Symptoms – Fever, tiny blisters on the cheeks, gums and sides of the mouth, tiny blisters on the hands, feet and nappy area, sore throat.

Prevention – Hand-washing and avoiding close contact with people who have hand-foot-and-mouth disease, keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth.

Care tips – Treating discomfort in the mouth will help your child drink more and avoid dehydration, serve soft meals such as yoghurt, spaghetti, pudding, or smoothies, as well as ice pops.

12. Threadworm or pinworm

Symptoms – Anal itching, worms in their underwear redness and itching around the vagina in girls.

Prevention – Remind children to wash their hands thoroughly and frequently, especially after using the restroom, playing outside, and before eating, keep your child’s fingernails short and tidy, and make certain that your children shower or bathe every day.

Care tips – Mebendazole is the most commonly used medicine to treat threadworm infections, Raw Garlic is believed to kill eggs in the body, and underwear and pyjamas should be changed and washed every day.

13. Chickenpox

Symptoms – Normal rash, with a fever, headache, sore throat, or stomachache.

Prevention – Get a dose of the Chickenpox vaccine, and avoid hot and spicy spices like garlic, chile, ginger, pepper, curry, and mustard, as well as meats like dog meat and goat meat.

Care tips – Apply calamine lotion to the itchy areas,  a cool bath with baking soda, aluminium acetate, or raw oatmeal added, If mouth sores from the chicken pox grow, eat soft, bland foods, Diphenhydramine (Benadryl), an antihistamine, is used to treat itching, and acetaminophen (Tylenol) is used to treat minor fevers.

14. Eczema

Symptoms – Children with eczema suffer skin inflammation, which causes red, dry, itchy patches to form. Itching could be intense and ongoing. By repeatedly scratching the skin, an infection may develop, leading to blisters, weeping, crusting, or ulcers.

Prevention – Keep your child’s skin from becoming dry or itchy and avoid things that cause flare-ups to help prevent or cure eczema, Children should only take short, showers or baths that are warm (not hot), prior to applying lotion or ointment, and avoid common triggers like sudden temperature changes, dust, animal fur, tobacco smoke, and stress.

Care tips – Use mild soaps and dress your child in light cotton clothing, keep your child’s skin moisturised and use a topical steroid cream when recommended by the doctor, give your child an anti-itch medication (antihistamine) before bedtime to help him sleep more comfortably.

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15. Allergic Rhinitis (Allergies) 

Symptoms – Scratchy lips, nose, or eyes, runny nose or a stuffy nose (nasal congestion), persistent sniffling, snoring or mouth breathing, itchy, watery, and red eyes, swollen eyelids, dark circles under the eyes.

Prevention – use air conditioning during the pollen season instead of opening windows, keeping away from places with a lot of dust, mites, or mould.

avoiding animals.

Care tips – Use a high-efficiency particulate air filter to decrease dust, consider using a second pillow to keep your child’s head propped up to relieve congestion and ease breathing, and avoid common triggers including dust mites and tobacco smoke.

16. Constipation

Symptoms – Having less than three bowel motions a week, hard, dry bowel motions that are difficult to pass, having a bowel movement causes pain, stomach ache, and traces of liquid or pasty faeces in your child’s underwear – an indication of rectum blockage.

Prevention – Provide high-fibre foods to your child, encourage your child to consume plenty of fluids, encourage physical activity, make a toilet routine, avoid oily and junk food, and remind your child to listen to nature’s call.

Care tips – Drinking plenty of water and other liquids allows excrement to pass more smoothly through the intestines, Create a regular meal regimen, and get your children into the habit of walking, and create a regular meal schedule.

17. Food poisoning

Symptoms – Nausea (feeling sick) belly ache and cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever.

headache and whole weakness.

Prevention – Always thoroughly wash your hands before eating or handling food, thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables, and check that the meats are fresh and do not smell.

Care tips – Drink liquids, and give your child small amounts to drink frequently, such as a few mouthfuls every 15 minutes, lemon juice can be consumed by those who are suffering from food poisoning to help prevent dehydration.

18. Febrile Seizures 

Symptoms – A child may become unconscious, stiffen, collapse unexpectedly, or have jerking limbs and legs. Other signs include clenched teeth and rolling the eyeballs back in the head.

Prevention – Do not attempt to restrain your kid. Allow the seizure to run its course and do not force anything into your child’s mouth, just make sure his airway is clear to avoid choking. Allow your child to sleep if he wants to once the seizure has ended. If this is your child’s first seizure, take him to the doctor right away.

Care tips – To avoid choking, turn your kid on their side. Any clothes around their head and neck should be relaxed, Keep an eye out for any indications of breathing issues, such as a bluish hue in the face, and try to record the length of the seizure.

 19.  Tuberculosis

Symptoms – Your child may experience a fever, exhaustion, nighttime sweating, and weight loss if they have TB illness. Your child will cough and experience chest pain if they have TB disease in their lungs. Depending on the affected area, TB illness symptoms can appear in other body parts. 

Prevention – Vaccines. Bacille Calmette-Guérin, also known as BCG, is a vaccination that prevents TB disease. Many nations use BCG to prevent paediatric TB illness.

Care tips – Antibiotics are used to treat both TB infection and TB illness. Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, and Ethambutol are some of the antibiotics used to treat TB. To eradicate the bacteria and stop the spread of the disease, your child must take antibiotics for at least six months if they have a TB infection.

 20. Pneumonia

Symptoms – The most typical signs include fever, wheezing, and coughing. When inhaling, a child with pneumonia may breathe quickly or retract their lower chest (in a healthy individual, the chest extends with inhalation).

Prevention – If infants and young children are breastfed early on, receive vaccinations, have access to clean water, a healthy diet, and have little exposure to air pollution, pneumonia can be prevented.

Care tips – If your child has bacterial pneumonia, your doctor will recommend antibiotics. Viral pneumonia is not helped by antibiotics. Antiviral medications may be used in those situations. Your child will recover at home with the help of rest, over-the-counter painkillers, wholesome meals, and lots of fluids.

It is only natural for parents and other caregivers to want the best health for their children. Even if your child attends school or early learning, where illnesses in kids sometimes spread quickly in crowded environments, it is unrealistic to anticipate that they will always be healthy. Parents may overcome these hurdles more successfully by following preventive measures, remaining aware of common child health problems, and getting the right care and support.

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