CHILD HEALTH AND NUTRITION GUIDE
By Edwin Amuga
This guide seeks to provide information that will help children’s caregivers to identify health germs and how to prevent them from spreading among children by offering universal precautions that are needed when dealing with body fluids and blood. The guide also provides information on how to avoid accidents at home and schools that are likely to happen to children and how to quickly and appropriately respond to them when they occur (WHO, 2013). The guide offers steps that are helpful in preventing and treating childhood illnesses.
The Effect of Germs on Health
Germs are microscopic organisms that can get children sick upon gaining entry into the bodies of children. Germs spread in many ways including the sneezed air, contact with human urine and/or feaces, touching things or surfaces with germs on them, and through contact with body fluids and blood.
Practicing sanitation and cleanliness at home and in the community all the time is the best way to stop the spread of germs.
Universal precautions
It is essential to treat all blood and body fluids with utmost care to prevent the spread of such diseases as HIV among children. It is therefore vital to take precautions that are aimed at protecting them from harm such as teaching them not to touch blood and body fluids from other people, giving hurt children immediate medical attention, using latex or rubber gloves, or even plastic bags when handling cuts, open sores, and bleedings and when cleaning up spills of blood, keeping children in one place until all the bleedings are controlled, covering grazes, open wounds and cuts with clean bandages or pieces of cloth, safely covering bloody clothes or paper in double plastic bags before disposing them in the dustbins and cleaning the areas stained by blood with disinfectants and soaking mops or cleaning cloths in solutions with disinfectants and drying them in the sun.
The Importance of Hand Washing
Hand washing minimizes germs on the hands that have been contacted from bodily fluids and contaminated surfaces or touching dead animals. It also breaks infection transmission chains reducing their spread from one person to another. Hand washing must, therefore, be practiced by caregivers and staff who provide care to children; children must also be instructed on proper handwashing techniques and situations that require handwashing with soap and water to kill many germs allowing their elimination thorough rinsing.
Teeth brushing
Children need to be taught how to take care of teeth and gums to keep them healthy. Children should not be put to sleep with bottles containing juice, milk, sweetened drinks or formula since these liquids cause teeth to decay (WHO, 2013). Too many sweets, cakes, or bubbly cold drinks should not be given to children since they rot teeth. They should also be taught to brush their teeth on a daily basis using a toothbrush with toothpaste or salt and soda bicarbonate in case of families that cannot access toothpaste.
Latrines and Toilets
Children should be taught the need to use toilets or lavatories and to wash hands with soap after using the toilets properly. In the case of environments with no restrooms, proper human waste disposal ways should be used such as covering it with sand or soil (Unicef, 2017). Adults must inspect children after using toilets to ensure that they hand not mishandled themselves with wastes making sure that they are cleaned and their hands washed. Toilets should also be kept clean using disinfectants mixed with water to stop the spread of germs.
Children safety
Children should be protected from such hazards as choking, burns, injuries and falls, poisons, childhood illnesses, and drowning by ensuring safety precautions are adhered to. Such safety precautions include always checking water temperatures before bathing children. They should also be kept far from hot objects and beverages or appliances near infants or their temperatures checked before they are offered to children. They should also be monitored to stop them from squeezing themselves into open cracks and they should not be overdressed before sleep to prevent suffocation. To prevent choking, small objects that can be swallowed by children should be kept away from children including seeds, coins, nuts, beads, pins, buttons, coins, small fruits, and other sharp objects.
Children should be watched at all times since they could roll over unexpectedly and should also not be left alone near water sources as they can drown in waters of very shallow depths and can lose lives in minutes. Buckets should be covered with lids and children and infants kept away from springs, rivers, and wells. Environments, both indoors and outdoors, should be regularly checked to ensure dangerous objects and animals are out of their reach including glass pieces, plastic bags, rotten foods, and poisonous plants (ACA, 2014). Children should also be taught safety measures around rivers, fire, water-filled dams, pits, and cliffs. In addition, they should be kept from rubbish bins as they can contact germs and even get ill from breathing poisoned air or getting in contact with waste products, flies, rats, and mice that reside in the bins.
Helping hurt children
It is crucial to seek help from local health and social services in the community as first aid measures are done to the child or children that have developed health complications due to injury or sickness (ACA, 2014). Care providers should always have contact information for local emergencies. Such contacts should include police emergency numbers, hospitals, local health clinics, police emergency, child protection services in the locality.
In case of serious falls or injury, clean clothes should be placed on the wounded parts to keep pressure to stop bleeding. Universal precautions should be applied to prevent contact with blood. In case of burns, cold water should be applied to burns for around ten minutes before the child is taken to a hospital.
Child nutrition should include proper breastfeeding procedures and provision of nutritious complementary foods to children, strengthening care provider-child relationships for smooth breastfeeding, and engaging them in playing, learning and communication. Caregivers should also be sure to introduce nutritious complementary foods to children at the right age with the proper procedures of food preparation, the quantity and the frequency of offering foods for young children and encouraging them to eat. Growth charts should be used in counseling on child development progress.
References
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2014). National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education. Caring for our children: national health and safety performance standards.
Unicef. (2017). Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries (No. inreca07/19).
World Health Organization. (2013). Persistent organic pollutants: impact on child health.
