Pediatric Massage Intake: Fill & Download for Free

When I was a final year medical student at one of the big Government Medical Colleges in Southern India , I came across the following case during our Pediatrics rotation.The patient was a 6 year old boy who was admitted following complaints of extreme fatigue , failure to thrive , poor oral intake and breathlessness both at rest and on exertion for 6 months.According to his mother, everything was fine till 1.5 years ago when he developed a high grade fever with a sore throat. The parents decided to treat the seemingly minor throat infection with OTC medication and also with "home remedies" .A few weeks later the child started to develop joint pains in the elbows knees and shoulders.The parents, mind you , we're both graduates, well educated with a solid upper middle class background.Instead of referring the child to a pediatrician , they took the advice of their friends and relatives who recommended that allopathic medicine is useless in these cases and referred them to one of southern Indians largest Ayurvedic facilities ; The Kottakal Ayurvedic centre. (Ayurveda is Indian traditional medicine)There the child was subjected to all manner of hot oil massages to alleviate his joint pains.All this afforded minor relief for the joint pains. (Some practitioners are known to surreptiously administer allopathic drugs by crushing the tablets with a mortar and pestle and offering the powder as traditional medicine.)For a few months , the child remained asymptomatic.He then began to develop frequent chest infections , breathlessness on exertion then later on at rest. This was followed by progressive lethargy which manifested later as refusal to eat food or goto schoolAt this stage the parents decided to seek specialist attention. So they approached the chief of Pediatrics of my teaching hospital , a tough no nonsense woman who didn't suffer fools gladly.I still remember the torrent of abuse that our chief rained down on those hapless parents for acting so foolishly and endangering their son. It's pretty common in India that doctors can get away with severely chiding patients and their attendants.Those of you with the benefit of a medical education may have already guessed what had happened.The child's initial sore throat and fever and subsequent joint pains were manifestations of Acute Rheumatic Fever.Which was shockingly left untreated..The child subsequently developed rheumatic carditis. He had a severe mitral and aortic regurgitation..His heart murmur was so severe we could feel it through his little chest. At presentation he was listless, didn't react much to the huge crowd of medical students who had thronged the ward to examine the 'rare case'.Chief said the boy didn't have much in the way of a prognosis. There was talk of surgery etc but the estimated costs were much more than the parents could afford.The standard treatment for rheumatic fever is benzathine penicillin which is available for a few rupees. So you can gauge the magnitude of the crime committed by the parents who neglected to take the child for specialist referral at the outset, all in the name of alternative medicine.I heard from my juniors later that the child died in the pediatric intensive care unit.

A child’s first tooth generally breaks through the gum at about 6 to 7 months of age. The lower incisors (front teeth) are usually the first to appear, followed by upper incisors. The full set of 20 milk teeth erupts by the age of 3 years.Signs of teething may include drooling, sucking, biting, gum rubbing, facial rash, irritability, and decreased appetite.Important to take very good care of your baby’s teeth, not only because the baby teeth (or primary teeth) helps children bite and chew food – but also because the front teeth (incisors) helps your child to develop correct speech.More importantly, baby teeth retain space for the permanent teeth and guide them into their correct position as they erupt around the age of 5 or 6 years. Healthy baby teeth are vital for a child’s confidence and appearance.Advice on teething:From six months to 3 years of age, your child may have sore gums when the teeth erupt. Many children like to bite/chew on a clean teething ring or cold wet cloth. Some parents simply rub the baby’s gums with a clean finger. Sometimes chewing on a carrot stick, or celery stick can help to ease their irritability. Massaging the gums, increasing fluid intake and providing analgesics also help in relieving the pain. However, topical anesthetics gels do not help much in relieving the pain of teething.Regularly visiting the dentist every 6 months until 3 years of age is a must. This has a dual benefit, as it not only ensures your child’s good oral health but also makes your child comfortable in the dental setting.“The first visit by first birthday” recommends the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, but a visit by the second birthday is advisable, as most of your baby’s teeth would have now erupted.Prevent ‘Baby Bottle Tooth Decay’, a serious dental ailment among children. This is caused by often exposing the infant’s teeth to liquids containing sugar - liquids including milk (including breast milk), formula, fruit juice, and other sweetened drinks.Putting a baby to bed for a nap or at night with a bottle other than water can cause serious and rapid tooth decay. Sweet liquid pools around the child’s teeth give plaque bacteria an opportunity to produce acids that attack tooth enamel.Encourage your baby to drink from a cup as it approaches the first birthday. Ensure the baby does not fall asleep with a bottle.At night time breastfeeding should be avoided after the first primary (baby) teeth begin to erupt. Drinking juice from a bottle should also be avoided. Use a cup instead.After each feed, lift the baby’s upper lip and clean the milk residue with clean moist gauze once your child has fallen asleep. This will reduce the chances of early childhood caries.Ideally, the baby should be weaned off bottle-feeding around the age of 1. To wean off the bottle, gradually dilute the contents of the bottle milk or beverage with water over a period of two or three weeks.Source: Narayana Health (Your baby’s teeth need expert care)

How Can I Boost My Immunity Naturally?Your immune system is a really large, complex system that is highly interwoven into the function of every other organ system in the body. So, the best way to really keep it functioning at its best is to boost the health of your body as a whole.Additionally, though, there are a number of natural dietary and lifestyle habits that can be specifically beneficial for your immune function.The six most powerful natural strategies for boosting your total body and immune health are:1. Maintaining an optimal diet that includes natural immune boosting foods2. Getting enough sleep3. Getting regular exercise4. Aromatherapy5. Taking cold showers6. Practicing yoga and/or meditatingMaintaining an optimal dietThere are several factors to consider when putting together a healthy, immune-boosting diet. Here are the biggies:Balance your macro and micronutrient intakesTake care that your diet provides you with enough carbs, proteins and fats, as well as all your vitamins and minerals. One of the ways to do this is by following the dietary guidelines established by regulatory bodies such as the WHO [1], the British Nutrition Foundation [2] or your home country.Although these guidelines vary slightly according to the traditional dietary habits in each country, the overall message is pretty straightforward - eat more veggies and fruits, decrease red meat and replace it with poultry, eat fish at least twice a week, replace high-fat with low-fat foods, drink enough water and limit alcohol intake. [3]Try fastingEarly research in animals suggests that eating normally five days and fasting (consuming just 500-600 calories) two days per week may be good for your immune system. This still needs to be 100% confirmed in humans, but there is some indirect evidence that it works. [4]For example, human clinical trials confirmed that this form of fasting (typically called the 5:2 diet in health circles) can decrease the risks of some cancers, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease - all conditions that have an immune component. [5]There is also another type of fasting known as intermittent fasting (such as the one during Ramadan), and it seems that this method can directly decrease inflammation in your body (not to mention help you lose weight!), boosting immune defense as well. [6] If you’d like to learn more about fasting and how it helps your health, check out this article.Pay attention to your vitamins and mineralsVitamin deficiencies can cause a variety of different problems. But, when it comes to poor immune function, it seems that a deficiency of three of them, in particular - vitamins A, D and C - are the most likely culprits. [7, 8, 9]Some trace minerals such as zinc and selenium also play important roles in keeping your immune system working properly, so you want to avoid mineral deficiencies as well. [10] Although most of studies look at the effects of vitamin and mineral supplements, it’s always better to get your micronutrients naturally, through your diet. Specifically, you can get:vitamin A from beef, chicken liver, eggs, fish liver oils, and dairy products;vitamin D from cod liver, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines) and eggs;vitamin C from citrus fruits, broccoli, leafy greens (turnip greens, spinach), and berries;selenium from brazil nuts, pork, beef, poultry, and yellow fin tuna;zinc from red meat, shellfish, legumes, nutsIncrease your intake of immune boosting foodsAlong with eating a generally well-balanced, healthy diet, it’s also a good idea to increase the consumption of immune boosting foods from time to time. You don’t have to gorge yourself on one specific immune boosting food every day, but having some of these foods on your table a few times a week can definitely help you maintain a healthy immune system.Some of the foods to make sure see regular rotation on your dinner table include:Shiitake and Oyster MushroomsShiitake and Oyster mushrooms are proven immunity enhancers. They reduce inflammation in your body, helping your immune system do its job properly. Researchers think this is likely because these species of mushrooms are rich in beta-glucans and phytonutrients that can help regulate natural killer cell and complement protein functions. [11, 12]GarlicGarlic is another food extremely rich in phytonutrients that can improve your immune health. You can add garlic to meals either fresh or dried. [13, 14]BerriesIf mushrooms and garlic are phytonutrient powerhouses, berries are the whole powerplant. They are positively overflowing with immune boosting phytonutrients, not to mention important vitamins and antioxidants.Actually, the antioxidant content of berries makes them a double whammy for helping your immune system run like clockwork. Antioxidants remove damaging oxidants from your body, protecting your immune cells so they can do their jobs perfectly.Some of the best berries for your immune health are raisins, freeze dried grapes (grapes are actually technically berries!), cranberries (or cranberry juice) [15, 16, 17], and blueberries.Fermented foodsFermented foods are rich in probiotics - live microorganisms that protect your gut healthand boost your immunity. [18, 19, 20, 21] Some common fermented foods you could work regularly into your diet include kefir, tempeh, sauerkraut and fermented pickles.Prebiotic-Rich FoodsBananas, onions, garlic, apples (especially apple skins), chicory root and beans are all excellent sources of prebiotics. Prebiotics are special types of fiber that feed probiotic bacteria in your gut and help boost the health of your natural killer cells. [22]Add some herbal supplementsSome herbs have extremely powerful immune boosting properties. Two of the best examples are North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus). [23, 24] Check out where you can find these herbal supplements and consult with your doctor or pharmacist about the best way to take them.2. Getting enough sleepI’m sure you’ve experienced how a single sleepless night makes you grumpy and unproductive the entire next day. But sleep deprivation, even a single night of it, can also mess with your immune function. Poor sleep increases inflammation in your body, making you more susceptible to the flu, colds and other viruses. [25]In some cases, you may need a whopping three full nights of healthy sleep to reverse the damage to your immune system from just a single sleepless night. [25] If you regularly struggle with insomnia, check out this article to learn more about natural remedies for improving your sleep.3. Getting regular exerciseExercise improves the immunological balance in your body. It is one of the most powerful tools for keeping your immune system working optimally.Don’t be discouraged if you’re not in your best shape at the moment. By simply switching from doing nothing to doing any kind of moderate aerobic exercise (such as walking, playing with your kids, swimming, or mowing your lawn with a push mower) you can enhance your immune defense! [26] Just find what works best for you and stick with it!4. Treating yourself to aromatherapyIn addition to helping you relax and reducing feelings of anxiety and depression, aromatherapy massage can also improve your immune function. Massages using essential oils have been shown to stimulate the production of CD8+ lymphocytes (a type of white blood cells that kill cancer and infected or damaged cells). [27] This is probably due to the high phytonutrient content of essential oils, which exert a wide range of positive health benefits.5. Taking cold showersTaking cold showers to improve your health is an ancient technique that dates back to the Roman period. Ancient Romans used to take heated baths followed by a plunge into a cold pool.Today, thanks to scientific evidence, we know that the Romans were on to something. Bathing in cold water has been proven to stimulate both the cardiovascular and immune systems.In fact, immune improvements are significant enough to show up in large observational studies, such as one study on workers that found that those who ended their baths or showers with cold water (30 to 90 seconds was enough) had to take fewer sick days than those who did not. [28]I don’t know whether you’ve heard about Wim Hof (aka the Iceman), but if you are interested in cold bathing for your health, you may want to check out his 10-week long training program. [29] It’s been scientifically proven to be effective at helping people improve their immunity and nervous system function. [30]6. Starting a yoga and/or meditation practiceFinally, emotional stability and low psychological stress is important for having healthy immune system. This is because there are intimate links between the state and health of your brain, your hormone levels, and how well your immune system functions.One of the methods that can help reduce stress and improve immune function is, of course, yoga. Practicing yoga regularly has been proven to be beneficial in terms of lowering the markers of inflammation in the body, as well as enhancing the response of immune cells and mucous membranes (the membranes that surround and protect the surface of your intestinal organs). [31] If yoga isn’t your thing, you could also try Tai Chi, Qi Gong or meditation for stress relief. [32]I hope you find these suggestions helpful! Try them out and see which ones suit you best. And be patient with yourself! Improving health, especially by natural means, takes time.Referenceshttp://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diethttps://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/healthydiet/eatwell.htmlhttp://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-based-dietary-guidelines/regions/countries/finland/en/https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/52-diet-style-an-immune-booster-study-finds/https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/news-analysis-does-the-52-fast-diet-work/Faris MA, Kacimi S, Al-Kurd RA, Fararjeh MA, Bustanji YK, Mohammad MK, SalemML. Intermittent fasting during Ramadan attenuates proinflammatory cytokines andimmune cells in healthy subjects. Nutr Res. 2012 Dec;32(12):947-55.Meydani SN, Barklund MP, Liu S, Meydani M, Miller RA, Cannon JG, Morrow FD,Rocklin R, Blumberg JB. Vitamin E supplementation enhances cell-mediated immunityin healthy elderly subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1990 Sep;52(3):557-63.de la Fuente M, Ferrández MD, Burgos MS, Soler A, Prieto A, Miquel J. 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