Antibiotics in babies may cause asthma!

Antibiotics are the wonder drugs from the 20th century. However their success has also been their downfall.
Antibiotic misuse has lead to increasing drug resistance, and nowadays this has lead to a decrease in their prescription by many physicians. Now there is another reason to ask your pediatrician to think again before giving an antibiotic prescription.

A recent canadian study in Chest Medical journal has suggested that those children treated with even a single course of antibiotics under the age of one are twice as likely to develop asthma in childhood as kids who are not given any antibiotics!

It found that for each extra course of antibiotics during the first year of life a child was 1.16 times more likely to develop asthma. What pediatricians and parents need to remember is that most respiratory infections in this age are viral and do not require antibiotics. It is believed that this effect may be as a result of anitbiotics killing the beneficial bacteria in the intestine, leading to alteration of immunity, which perhaps leads to asthma.

Getting the medicine in the child! Some Tips!

Tips for giving medicines to children!
There are many reasons why children will not take medicines, they don't like the taste, they are too unwell and irritable to be co-operative or just because they can say NO! As a result, parents have to be really creative to get the medicines down the throat of their children.
Here are some helpful tips:
Mask the taste: Sweet tasting foods may help, common things that may work are grape & apple juice, sometimes orange juice maybe used for slightly bitter medicines. Remember NOT to get too anxious and do not mix the medicine in large quantities since the child may not consume the entire contents of the juice.
Avoid the bitter taste buds by giving the medicines in the cheek pouch (with a dropper)
Children make decisions about medicine based on what it looks like. Changing the color of the medicine with food coloring may help get it down the child.
Mouth dissolving tablets can be more convenient and give the child less chance to throw up.
If your feverish kid throws up whatever he swallows or refuses to take medicine at all, find out whether the medication is available in suppository form (now Paracetamol and Domperidone is available in India in rectal form too!). The dosage is based on a child's weight, but always check with your pediatrician before administering.
Is your child a Lion King fan? Get some Simba stickers, draw a jungle scene on a piece of paper, and let him attach a sticker each time he swallows a dose. It's even more effective if your pediatrician participates: When your child has finished all his medication, he can bring his completed artwork along on his follow-up visit to the doctor as proud proof of his accomplishment.
Let the child hold the cupful of medicine, allowing him a sense of control helps. One pediatrician puts her toddler twins' medicine into toy teacups, enabling them to take it on their own.
In a crisis, call your doctor and ask if you can substitute another type of medicine. For instance, you may be able to obtain a better-tasting antibiotic made by a different company. Sometimes, the brand-name version of a drug has a more pleasant taste; in other cases, the generic is preferable. Often, a child may actually dislike the consistency of a medicine, not the taste; in this instance, a thicker or thinner liquid may do the trick.
Promise a party/ treat when the child gets well, and tell her that by not taking the medicine the party is going to get late.
However while trying to get in the medicine do remember these tips:
1. In general, medicine isn't absorbed as quickly when it's paired with solid food or milk, but if this is the only way you can get your child to take the medicine, it's fine.
Some exceptions: penicillin G and erythromycin lose their potency when mixed with acidic foods like orange juice, or soda.
2. Check with your pharmacist to make sure it's okay to crush a tablet. Some medications may irritate the stomach if you destroy the protective coating, or they may fail to do the job they're meant to do.
3. Don't freeze the medicine or warm it up to make it more palatable. Temperature changes may alter the efficacy of the medication.
4. Don't call the medicine candy. Emphasize to your child that you are giving him medicine, not a treat. And store all medications out of sight and reach.
5. If you can't convince your little one to cooperate, let your doctor know he isn't getting the prescribed medication.
Lots of help from: Parents.com website

Headlice treatment: Putting our heads together!

A few days back I had a doctor walk into my clinic with their 2 daughters aged 7 months and 3 years sufferring from head lice.
I was not very sure as to the best possible treatment for the 7 month old kid and thought to surf the net to find the best and the safest treatment for head lice.
Here is what I found, a very recent article (BMJ Aug 2005) suggests that the best treatment for headlice may infact be what our mothers used to do with us ... wet hair combing with a fine tooth comb! Regular use of this technique (four times over 2 weeks) on conditioned hair (with a hair conditioner) had almost 60 % chances of curing head lice. This compared well with various chemical treatments wherein the cure rate was a very poor 20 % only!
In India, the most well advertised product is probably a shampoo (MEDIKER) , that contains 0.23 % premthrin. This may be safe for small children (even 6 months old) however according to studies it is unlikely to be very effective.
What would be more useful would be 10 minutes application of a 1 % permethrin lotion (like SCABPER by Shalaks) after washing and shampooing the hair. This should be repeated once after 6 days for better results. In case of resistant lice, I would still go the grandmother way and ask for the wet hair and fine tooth comb treatment !
Disclaimer:
The products mentioned in the above discussion are in NO way endorsed by Dr. Gaurav Gupta. There maybe similar products of equal or better efficacy. Dr. Gaurav has no financial interests in any of the above products.