1. Keep a humidifier in the room of your child overnight. This will help in loosening his tight and congested cough. Make sure that he sleeps keeping his head a bit elevated; ask him to use an extra pillow for that. The humidifier functions by realizing water vapor in the air; this loosens up congestion and also prevents cough. You should clean the humidifier carefully before using it, as a dirty humidifier can release harmful bacteria instead of pure water vapor. Clean the device using water and vinegar before using it for preventing spreading of bacteria.
2. A child suffering from cough should consume a lot of liquid. This will work towards reducing dehydration and removal of congestion from his body. A combination of lemon and honey is a tested remedy for congestion; these two ingredients loosen the cough and allow the child to breathe more comfortably.  Mix 1 teaspoon each of lemon juice and honey with a glassful of warm water and ask your child to drink the mix. Breathing the steam coming out from this mix will also help in relieving congestion of the lungs and nose.
3. Chicken soup, especially the homemade ones is known to offer anti-inflammatory effects. Having chicken soup will accelerate the mucus movement and thus will not allow the mucus to settle in the child’s nasal passages, back, throat and lungs. If you are offering canned chicken soup to your child, you should ask him to drink extra fluids as the sodium content of these soups are extremely high.

Premature graying:

Medically, this condition is referred to as canities.  Hair follicles contain a cell type known as the melanocytes. These cells possess the responsibility of producing melanin, a pigment giving the hair its dark color. As the aging process begins, the melanocytes become less active and there’s a drop in the amount of melanin produced by them. This results in graying of hairs. If a child’s melanocytes become less active due to some reason, he can also develop gray hairs; the condition is referred to as premature graying.

Deficiency of vitamin B12:

One of the most common causes of graying of hair in kids is deficiency of vitamin B12. Children are rarely deficient of this vitamin unless they are strictly vegans; this is because vitamin B12 is mostly found in animal food sources like eggs, fishes, meats and milk. If your child is suffering from vitamin B12 deficiency in spite of having a diet containing meat, eggs, fish and milk, then there’s a possibility that his body lacks the molecules needed for absorption of the vitamin. Children undergoing stomach surgery can also become deficient of vitamin B12; this happens because after a stomach surgery often our body fails to digest and absorb the vitamin. If it is diagnosed that the graying of hair in your child has occurred due to vitamin B12 deficiency, the doctor might suggest increase intake of the vitamin for preventing progression of the graying.

Genetics:

Graying of hair in children can also be an inherited condition. If one of the child’s immediate family members developed gray hair at a young age, the child is at higher risk of suffering from premature graying.

Diseases:

Certain medical conditions can lead to pigment loss resulting in gray hair in children. Examples of such conditions include: tuberous sclerosis, vitiligo, hypothyroidism and some anemia types.

The best non-medicinal way of controlling fever is keeping the environment comfortable. You can do so by keeping room temperature cool and making him wear light clothing. When your child feels like sleeping, allow him to use light blanket; however, if you find that the child is shivering, you should offer him an additional blanket. A child suffering from fever should consume adequate amount of fluid. This will not only cool down his body, but will also help the child to avoid being dehydrated. The healthy liquids that a child with fever can have include gelatin, popsicles, clear soups and of course water. If the child with fever is below 1 year of age, an oral rehydrating solution can be used for keeping his body hydrated.

Like adults, kids with fever should take proper rest. This will accelerate the process of recovery. Rest is particularly important for children experiencing persistent fever. Lukewarm baths can also help in lowering the temperature of the body of a child. Medical experts suggest soaking your child in a tubful of lukewarm water for 5-10 minutes. However, you must make sure that the water is not too warm; this is because soaking your child in too hot water can end up increasing his body temperature. The child specialist might ask you to give acetaminophen to your child before taking him for bath for preventing shivering.

1. When you find that your baby is bitten by bugs, apply a corticosteroid cream of low strength (hydrocortisone) on the affected skin area topically.  You can purchase it as an OTC medication. The cream is not known for causing any serious side effect in your child. However, medical experts suggest not applying it to the child’s skin folds (the cream when applied to the skin folds might get trapped leading to irritation) and face. The ideal time of applying the cream is before the infant’s bedtime; it is the time when the itching sensation turns worse. Other than that, you can use the cream whenever you experience irritation in the affected skin area.
2. If you find that your baby has not experienced any improvement on using hydrocortisone; you should inform the matter to the pediatrician. He will probably recommend a topical steroid of prescription strength. These topical medications are used when the bedbug bite results in serious skin discomfort or get worse due to scratching. You must use this medication as directed by the doctor for avoiding side effects.
3. If the bedbug bites lead to allergic reactions in the child, the doctor might prescribe an antihistamine. Antihistamines should not be given to a child without consulting his pediatrician.

A color-blind kid can see colors, but not in the same way that a person with normal vision would do.  According to the current statistics, 0.5% girls and 8% boys in the US are color-blind. Often due to misdiagnosis, colorblindness is identified as learning disabilities or laziness or inattentiveness; this makes the child more confused. Misdiagnosis often forces color-blind children to undergo therapies that they do not require. To avoid such situation, children having problems in identifying colors must under a test that will determine their color vision deficits.

Let us first know what color blindness actually is. Color blindness is caused by a genetic deficiency of X chromosome. This deficiency leads to formation of less ‘cone cells’ in our retina. Human eyes possess 3 cone types that allow us to view colors. A color-blind kid misses a few of these cones; the missed cones might belong to 1 or 2 of the cone types or all 3 cone types. This absence of cones in their retina stops color-blind children from distinguishing every single hue like any other normal child; color-blind kids can identify only some colors. The more will be the number of absent cones, the more severe will be the color blindness.

How will you know that your little one might be a victim of color blindness? The simple answer to this question is: if your kid is color-blind, he will surely find recognizing colors extremely difficult and will fail to differentiate between colors. Particularly, color-blind children often find it difficult to distinguish off shades and pastels. These children might not identify their toys if you name them with colors. They may use wrong colors while drawing. For instance, they may color Santa’s suit brown instead of red. A test for knowing whether you child is color-blind can be done any time after your kid completes 3 years.

One of the most widely used tests for judging color vision deficits is Ishihara plates. The other term used for Ishihara plates is pseudoisochromatic plates. This procedure was the creation of Dr Shinobu Ishihara. The Ishihara plates were primarily developed for testing the color vision deficits of the members of Japanese army; but, now this procedure is used as a color blindness test for people belonging to all professions and living in different corners of the earth. However, the original plates of Ishihara underwent some modifications; the Japanese characters on those plates have been replaced by numbers. The numbers are formed using color dots of different colors, surrounded by a cluster of color dots, which also possess different colors. A color blind individual will not be able to identify the number; to them the plates will appear to have only a cluster of dots. These Ishihara plates are mainly used for testing the color vision deficits of adults and older children.

To test the young kids for color blindness, Ishihara plates containing numbers can result in misdiagnosis as often even a normal child below 5 years of age fail to identify numbers correctly. For them the numbers are replaced by simple objects. The most commonly used objects on the Ishihara plates used for testing color blindness in young kids are shapes; for instance squares, circles, triangles etc. Color-blind children will fail to see the shapes hidden within the dots.

The time at the school becomes extremely difficult for children with color blindness; this is because teachers often use colors as the primary tool of introducing new things to the children. This more true for the young children. For instance in the class, if a color-blind child is asked to count the blue beads, or to read lines from the chalkboard written using pink chalk or to fetch the yellow colored chalk to the teacher, she will fail to accomplish each one of these tasks correctly due to her color vision deficits.

For managing the problem in a scientific way, proper diagnosis is extremely important. Once diagnosed with color blindness, a child can be treated using alternatives strategies both at home and school.

The impulsive eye exercises :

These exercises are designed for improving a child’s ability of staying focused on a particular object for a prolonged duration. This eye exercise includes the following steps:

• The child should first sit down on a chair.
• You should sit in front of the child; there must be a distance of 2 ft between two of you. You must hold color pencils of different shades in each of your hands.
• Lift your hands so that the color pencils reach the level of your child’s eyes.
• Ask the child to look at the color pencil you have asked him to and concentrate.
• After some time (10 to 20 seconds), ask the child to look at the other color pencil.
• As your child to repeat the same action 5 times on each pencil alternately.
• Once the exercise is done, ask your child to close his eyes and rest of 5 minutes.

The eye circles :

This exercise helps in strengthening the eye muscles of the child. Eye circles are also performed for relaxing the eyes of the child. The steps of eye circles are:

• Ask the child to lie down over the floor or sit on a chair.
• Next, ask him to move both his eyes clockwise forming small circles.
• After continuing the clockwise movement for 1 minute, ask him to close his eyes and repeat the same movement keeping this eyes closed.
• You must make sure that while performing this exercise, the child is not moving any other muscle of his body. Moving other muscles of the body will reduce the efficacy of eye circles.

The focus eye exercises :

One of the major eye problem found in children is the inability of promptly focusing on said items. Performing this eye exercise will help in training children for quickly focusing on objects positioned in differing distances. The focus eye exercise includes the following steps:

• Ask your child to sit down in the backyard or at a park.
• Place 4 objects in the yard; each of these objects must be placed at varied distances from the child. When you are arranging these objects, you must make sure that the eyes of your child stay closed. You can keep your child’s eyes blindfolded temporarily. This is done for preventing the little one from seeing the positions of the objects prematurely.
• Once you have completed placing the objects, ask the child to open his eyes or rid him from the blindfold.
• Ask him to locate the objects; the process should start with the nearest object and end with the object positioned farthest from where he is sitting.
• The child will keep on becoming more and more prompt as he will gain experience in performing this eye exercise.

Children can suffer from blood loss induced anemia after undergoing a surgery, incurring an injury or experiencing problems like intestinal bleeding, issues related to blood clotting etc. The anemia type triggered by severe destruction of the RBCs is medically knoawn as hemolytic anemia. The RBCs of the patients suffering from this anemia type hs a life span shorter than 120 days. RBC destruction might occur spontaneously or can be induced by stressors like spider or snake bites, kidney or liver disorders, exposure to a harmful chemical, infections, severe burns or medications like anti-seizure drugs and antibiotics. The other main cause of anemia in children i.e. insufficient RBC production mostly occurs either due to iron deficiency or because of inherited defects. There are instances where a child drinking excess quantity of milk has developed anemia due to inadequate RBC production in his body.

Anemia occurring due to iron deficiency is most common among kids below the age of 2 years; the condition also affects a large number of teen girls after they start menstruating. Deficiency of vitamin B12 and folic acid might also induce anemia in children. Anemia triggered by this factor is prevalent among children who consume very low quantity of meat and vegetables containing high levels of folic acid. Infants who are fed with only goat milk are also at high risk of developing anemia due to a deficiency of vitamin B12.

Foods rich in vitamin D and calcium: Calcium is extremely important mineral for ensuring proper bone formation and growth in kids. Vitamin D on the other hand helps in improving calcium absorption, which makes bones of growing children healthier and stronger. Food items containing vitamin D and calcium include: eggs, dairy products like milk, yogurt and cheese etc.

Vegetables and Fruits: A balanced diet for children must include vegetables and fruits in high quantities. Vegetables and fruits act as the source of important nutrients like Vitamins A, C and E and minerals like potassium, folate etc. Kids must consume a minimum of 5 servings of vegetables and fruits every day for ensuring proper growth in their weight and height.

Protein and other minerals: Protein is extremely important for proper muscle growth of a child’s body. The food items that contain beneficial proteins include poultry, lean meats, nuts, seeds and sea foods. These protein rich food items are also good sources of essential minerals like zinc, iron and magnesium.

Starches and whole grains: Starches and whole grains act as the source of carbohydrate; these food types offer the energy required by growing children for staying active. The other nutrients that children obtain from starches and whole grains include: magnesium, selenium, B vitamins, iron and fiber. Each of the above mentioned nutrients are extremely important for ensuring that the child is growing properly. The whole grains should cover the largest share of the daily calorie intake of a growing child, particularly if the child is reaching puberty. Examples of starches and whole grains include brown rice, whole wheat cereals and breads, popcorn, pasta etc.

Lack of proper dental hygiene:

This is probably the most common cause of bad breath in children. There’s a common belief that children are not as much susceptible towards developing gum disease as the adults; however, that is not right. Children should have equally good dental hygiene as the grownups. Like the adults, they must also brush, and floss at least twice every day. You must teach your little one, the right way of brushing the teeth; teach them how to clean their tongue. The kids should never use mouthwashes, fluoride toothpastes and rinses.

Dry mouth:

In daytime, most of the bacteria and debris causing bad breath get washed away through saliva. At night the production of saliva reduces, which results in production of more odor causing debris. This might lead to bad breath in children when they wake up in the morning. Dry mouth is also caused when the child breaths through mouth (happens more frequently in case of congested nose due to cold). The other common causes of dry moth include: the habit of thumb sucking, sucking or chewing the blanket and certain medications. The production of saliva can be augmented by sucking sour candies and chewing sugar free gums.

Tonsillitis:

Tonsillitis is another common cause of bad breath in children. The chances of tonsillitis triggering bad breath are even more if food particles get caught in cervices of a child’s tonsil.

Diabetes:

Juvenile diabetes is also known to cause bad breath in kids. If your child has been diagnosed to be suffering from diabetes, ask the physician about ways of fighting bad breath.

Unfamiliar odors:

If your child’s breaths smell like ammonia, violets, bitter almonds, dead fishes or celery, it might indicate occurrence of serious medical disorders. In such situations, you must consult a medical expert immediately.

A child can suffer from 3 rheumatoid arthritis forms; they are: pauciarticular JRA, polyarticular JRA and systematic JRA. The last form i.e. systematic JRA is the most severe form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, but is an extremely rare condition. This condition is marked by joint aches that can spread to different organs of a child’s body. A comparatively higher percentage of children develop polyarticular JRA; this condition worsens as time goes by. The other form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis i.e. pauciarticular JRA is a rather mild condition. Children with pauciarticular JRA suffer from ache in no more than four joints.

Why does a child develop rheumatoid arthritis? The exact triggering factor behind the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis in kids is still not clear. However, according to some experts genetic factors may be responsible for onset of JRA.

The popular belief suggests that there’s no treatment for rheumatoid arthritis; but the truth is that juvenile rheumatoid arthritis can be treated successfully using a combination of medications, proper diet, physical therapy, exercises and eye care. If the condition is diagnosed at an early stage, the chances of getting rid of the condition completely are even higher.