Short duration earaches are very common in children and often is a reason for rushing to hospital with the baby around 3am.
Though common cause of ear ache all over world is wax or a foreign body insect or cotton or stick in ear... In infants the ear is most commonly aching due to common cold.
The nose block associated with common cold or rhinitis or adenoiditis or flu causes pressure and congestion of Eustachran tube opening in throat and causes pain in ear due to pressure buildup in middle ear.
Ear ache in infants is commonest reason of excess cry (after the infantile colic) in age 2 months to 2 years. Ear infections are often bacterial and may need good course of specific antibiotics.
Dont try to treat an ear issue without visiting a doctor as there are some serious infections like otitis media that need good course of antibiotics. Also some life threatening sequalae like bleeding, sepsis or tetanus may floow some cases and cannot be easily seen as other symptoms.
Never put any stick in ear.. Its the job of doctor to clean if felt necessary. Most kids dont need wax cleaning as ear pipe ot children is straight.
Analgesic ear drops give prompt.relief that antibiotic or antifungal ear drops. Wax dissolving doesn't help in pain as it only dissolves wax. Otoscope is a special instrument that may help doctor to see ear content if not easily seen. Leaky ears often get infected and is a sign of ear drum damage or perforation or rupture. Its always better to have cotton swab closing the ear during sleep and removing it after bath in morning to avoid insect or water getting in ear.
For details #whatsappdr 9869405747

Heard of developmemtal delay?/neurological delay?
Its important to understand for every parent that "Not noticing the delay in time" is real delay.
Often parents sit at home, saying he will learn sooner.. his mom or dad also learnt it late.. or whats the urgency etc
Please donot fall into a trap; by accepting delay in development or growth of a child normal; we are halting the progress of the child.
Visit your doctor, ask when to worry about a delay; when not to worry about a... delay. What is the maximum potential of the child? is he lagging behind peers of same age in certain areas of development? to what extent it is normal? what may happen if u donot note in time?
Its important for us to understand that any delay is rectifiable only if picked up early and intervened early by some brain training therapies; that your occupational therapist or pediatrician may guide about.
Certain delay if not noted in time may cause serious mental retardation. A common known reversible cause of developmental delay is dietary iodine deficiency related hypothyroidism; which gets reversed with near normal intellect once the disease is diagnosed and started on medications.#
There is a huge market stressing you from nutritional advertisements stating that marginal under performance can be related to iron or DHA or calcium or other micronutrient deficiency. Surely malnutrition is an important reason for developmental delay.
When a doctor assesses a child with labelled developmental delay like say delayed smile, delayed sitting, delayed rollover, delayed sitting, delayed standing walking running or comprehending in words or social interactions; the doctor has kept in mind all these causes to decide about action plan. Neverthless, the detailed neurological examination also helps a doctor to decide the need for evaluation of serious neurological disorders from cerebral palsy, autism, etc to neurodegenerative disorders and strokes.
Early Intervention therapy, helps child cope up with the lag and develop a step in milestone development by training the developing cortex using vaious sensory,vibrations/kinaesthetic senses.
www.neuropediatrician.com

vomiting 4-6 per day----> hardly 2-4 motions --> viral diarrhea---> treat vomiting and ensure hydrationa

no vomiting and frequent loose stools .. not watery but partly formed with no mucus and blood---> ileal diarrhea. giardiasis? may need specific meds.

no vomiting but watery diarrhea ---> treat as toxin producing bacterial enteritis

vomiting with watery stools ---> take as toxin producing viral infections

no vomiting and mucus in stools ---> bacterial or amebic dysentery

greenish motions ---> begining of viral diarrhea or  malabsorption

loose sticky foul stools---> colitis/ enteritis mostly bacterial

Vomiting:... a often true symptom but wrongly labelled or wrongly interpreted by people makes doctors mismanage at times.
Anything that looks like vomiting need not be vomiting.
Something coming out of mouth.. say curdish milk in infants is called possetting... a normal phenomena.
If its frothy or spitting out.. beware it may be type of seizure if child is losing eye contact along with.
The term vomiting from inside often means retching reflux or at times throat discomfort.
Vomiting just before cough and immediately with food is often choking or gagging than vomiting as seen th throat or tonsil issues.
Vomiting little time after food can be food pipe or gut problems primarily infections.
Vomiting with infection doesnt last more than three days.
Vomiting with hyperacidity or neurological issues tend to recur unless properly treated.
Repeated vomits can also be due to hut obstruction or TB.
Vomiting lasting for weeks surely has a serioua problems.
Sometimes it canbe psychogenic especially in some adolescents.
In viral gastroenteritis its often with loose stools. In dysentery; vomitings are uncommon.

Vomiting that doesn't cause weight loss or is barely 2-3 times a day may not be serious unless known cause in background.
Vomiting with jaundice or yellow urine is likely to be waterborn hepatitis.
Vomiting after medicines and stale food is pretty common and most vomitings need chewable antiemetics with fluid support till the disease is understood. For details whatsap 9869405747
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nose issues.. is this allergic rhinitis? or infection?

since a week or more, the nose and cough issues have risen a bit in Mumbai. each time someone blows nose in, doesnt mean that its allergy. commonly most kids and adults get nose cough issues following viral fever. such viral cough cold often comes with fever at onset and cold is in the form of runny nose white or thin but not as thin as allergic rhinitis. though there is little sneezing and throat discomfort, its much less than seen in allergic rhinitis. Often viral fevers are associated with little change in speech or voice, either it becomes nasal.. or it becomes hoarse. whatever it is... all settles in a week or so unless complicated.

Allergic rhinitis is almost opposite entity.. sneezing and itching in nose or throat is almost always there in allergic rhinitis. runny nose can be thinnner and more continuous but at fixed time slots or on exposure to allergic item. this is not contagious. So if someone is continuously sneezing, practically he is not suffering from infection.

the treatment differs..

Often allergic rhinitis can be associated with chest tightness/breathlessness or stuffy chest called asthma or asthma like diseases.

appetite series: topic 1, post 1
1.why do a parent feel his/her child has no appetite?
2why does a mother feel her milk is not enough for baby?
3.why does a parent feel... why his/her child is not growing well?
will be upcoming topics.

1.1 Today lets understand why does a parent feel his /her child has no appetite.

Most often, feeling of child not having appetite is a subjective/personal interpretation by parent or neighbourhood by observing look behaviour or feeding or diet pattern of child, most parents expect their child to eat heavily on nutritious standard and bland diets...like the perception - that heavy (healthy) diet will keep you strong and protect from diseases.
so its not unusual to see parents forcing lots of vegetables fruits , 2 glass of milk a day and two chapati/breads three times a day.
when they donot find their child eating as per their expectations, parents feel the child is not having appetite.
Such a situation may also be because:
1.parents feeling of child not growing well (cause not found)
2.child really not growing well
3.child likes selective food/ diet which is not provided
4.child has problem in digestion/ excretion like say indigestion, constipation
5.infections mainly due to throat / tonsil and gut infections, TB
nutritional deficiencies
6. real lack of appetite

Of this, the last one is really rare and in almost all cases there is no clear need for appetite inducing medicines like cyproheptadine and may need serious evaluations.
1. parents feeling child not growing well: this is often a comparative interpretation, but if the doctor has checked weight and height of child and if its appropriate and if there is no illness often most doctors will advice on exercise, and balanced diet to maintain same growth pattern. i do appreciate parents concern,because these are the cases where the hidden reasons are not obvious and often after detailed history, a doctor may be able to find a reason for parents perceptions and specific treatment is likely to show results by treating the cause.
2. child really not growing well: continued in next post.. pls wait for same.

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