An infant is a child under one year of age, also the one who is incapable of any form of independence from its mother. The term ‘infant’ is also used for a premature or newborn child. But, in legal parlance, the term denotes ‘a child up to the age of 7 years’.
There are certain diseased conditions which arc attributed to childhood, for instance infantile paralysis, marasmus, polimyelitis, scurvy, gripes, eructations, spasms, colic, etc, though most of the said disorders could occur to any person at any stage during one’stime. As long as a child remains under care and control of its mother/parents, he is spared the trouble for any botheration or worry, as his movements are eon lined merely within the length and breadth of a bed. But, when he starts troddling or walking, it is the time when his movements should be watched and anything, likely to harm, should be kepi beyond his approach. For instance, the childmay be subjected to following problems ifhe is allowed to have his own way or when his movements need to be watched closely. ‘
May catch cold due to exposure to cold winds.
Burn his body or any body-part, either by gas, fire, chemicals, or geyser, hot ironing press.
May be eletrocuted by inserting his fingers into switch/plug or touching exposed electric wires.
May burn his body by spilling hot water or any food item.
May injure his body by sharp instruments like razor, blades, broken glass pieces, sharp knives, instruments.
May eat some poisonous medicine/object.
Strangulate himself by binding some rope, wire or a piece of cloth around his neck.
Use hair dyes, cosmetics, oils and other cosmetics.
May fall from a height or jump from a window or sustain injury from a fall or slip.
Injure his eyes, ears, and nose and mouth by pricking in some sharp object.
If a child is put on too tight dress, his respiration will be obstructed and too loose dress will cause him discomfort
Children aie intrinsically excellent imitators and try to imitate what their parents and others do. They may not try to imitate actions or acts in the presence of their elders but, when alone, can cause immense harm to themselves. For instance, they may use shaving blades and injure themselves. Little ones may accidentally eat some harmful eatables or medicines, may drink kerosene oil, insert fingers into a table fan when it is ‘on’, dump themselves in a fridge, box or almirah and, thus, choke themselves. There could be many other such unfortunate happenings when life may get endangered.
All the unfortunate mishaps can be averted if the child is not left to the care of careless persons. Remember, a slight negligence might cause immense harm but a careful watch can avert many an accident.
Important Points Regarding Use of Allopathic Drugs
Most of children’s diseases are self-limiting and disappear with due passage of time. The doctor, in order to gain popularity, prescribes such medicines which can cure the disease within a short period. The doctor should not be squarely blamed, as parents are to be held equally responsible for prevailing upon the doctor to quickly cure their child. Such an approach, on both the sides, is deplorable. No doubt the child regains normalcy but at what cost and consequences? He prescribes strong medicines to affect quicker recovery but both sides are absolutely unmindful ofthe side-effects which a particular medicine leaves behind.
In my view, most ofthe diseases, the children suffer from, can be easily treated by modifications and adjustments in diet. A child himself doesn’t ingest anything, he ingests what is served to him. He can neither dissent nor put forth his reason for accepting or rejecting a dietary item nor does he know what are the benefits of a particular food item or what harm can be done to him. He has to accept without any argument/resistance, whatever he is served with. We cannot overlook or ignore anxiety of the parents to see their children in a heallheir state, but that doesn’t mean that only medicines are the only choice left to treat them, as he could otherwise be treated without medicines, even by simple and discreet dietary modifications and change in feeding timings.
Let me quote an example as to how a doctor cured two patients in two different situations. A child was having loose motions and, on being inquired about the diet, the mother replied that she gives him milk with some sugar. The doctor advised the mother to delete sugar from milk, Another mother came to the doctor and complained about her child’s frequent loose motions. When she was asked about diet of the child, she replied; she gives her child milk without sugar. The same doctor advised her to add some sugar to the baby’s milk feed. If we closely look at the above quoted instances, we will readily find that in the first case, use of sugar inmilk caused stomach upset whereas, in the latter case, absence of sugar from milk was the causative factor, even though disorder was exactly the same. An intelligent child specialist will always advise change in diet while the more indiscreet ones would not hesitate to prescribe even strong antibiotics and antidiarrhoeal drugs.
What is the good in prescribing fast acting drugs which leave behind serious side-effects and complications, as you are simply inviting host of problems in treating only one disorder. This approach must be abjured by the doctors and parents. It is not that I am deriding the system, practitioners or parents, but the doctors must not prescribe medicines which are capable of leaving behind side-effect nor should the parents insist upon and compel the doctor to prescribe medicines that give quick recovery. In many cases of infantile cure, even long lasting side-effects have been noticed, when function of vital organs has been adversely affected.
Indiscreet and imprudent use of drugs can also interfere with normal growth pattern of the baby. Use drugs only when all other options have exhausted and if, at all, used, use only a child’s dose and never use it beyond the prescribed period – all this is possible when a child in treated by a child specialist.
Dosage
Dosage and repetition of dose should always be determined and decided by a doctor. In most of the cases, overdose and prolonged use, even when actually not required, are the two monsters that spoil a child’s health. It is very necessary to remind the parents that kidneys and liver, sweat glands and process of expulsion of excreta are in a developing and formative stage and are not competent and strong enough to absorb the side-effects nor fall-out symptoms. In fact a metabolisation process is also in highly underdeveloped stage and also binding capacity of proteins for drugs is also too low due to which large amount of drugs remain in free form which, in turn, is responsible for adverse and excessive side-effects. Premature neonates (new born children upto 30 days from birth) are more likely to suffer from such deficiencies. Formula for working out correct dosage is being indicated as under.
For Children below one year
Child’s Approximate dose = Age in months x adult’s dose
For Children from 1-12 years
Child’s Approximate dose=Age in years x adult’s dose
Age in years+12
Example : In case of 5 month old child his dose will work out to lOmg if the adult dose is 300 mg, and, in other case, if a child’s age is 8 years and an adult’s dose is 8 limes, it will work out 120 mg. For children above 12 years, generally an adult’s dose is given. The said formulae may be marginally modified, if the situation warrants; as the above guideline is merely an indication of an average dose.