Things to do when kid has fever

Source UnKnown | FW by Saranya

Cold Compresses

As soon as your baby develops a fever, the first thing to do is put a cool, wet washcloth on your baby’s forehead. As the water from the wet washcloth evaporates from the skin, it will draw the fever out and the temperature will come down quickly.

Put some cool tap water in a bowl.
Soak a clean washcloth in the water.
Wring out the excessive water, then place the wet cloth on the baby’s forehead.
Once the cloth warms, remove it and repeat again.
Do this until the fever has gone.
You can also use the damp washcloth to sponge areas like your baby’s armpits, feet, hands to reduce the temperature.

Note: Never use very cold or ice water, as it may cause the internal body temperature to increase.

Lukewarm Bath

A lukewarm bath will help relax a fussy baby and help regulate the body temperature. It will even help your baby sleep better, which is needed for faster recovery.

For babies younger than 6 months, give a lukewarm sponge bath 2 or 3 times a day.
For babies 6 months or older, give them a regular bath in lukewarm water a few times a day.
After each bath, dress your baby immediately.

Note: Never use very hot or cold water, as it may cause the internal body temperature to rise.

Breast Milk

For babies younger than 6 months old who have a fever, breast milk is very important. It offers a unique balance of nutrients that strengthens a baby’s weak immune system and is tailored to fight a baby’s illness.

Breast milk is quickly and easily digested. It will even keep a sick baby properly hydrated, which is essential for faster recovery.

Try to breastfeed your young baby frequently. If your baby refuses to nurse while experiencing a fever, try different nursing positions. You can keep the baby upright while breastfeeding to make your baby more comfortable during feeding sessions.
If your baby regularly refuses nursing, pump out the breast milk and feed it to your baby using a spoon or bottle.

Give More Fluids

For sick babies, it is important to increase fluid intake. Fluid will help cool them down and replace the fluid lost through sweating to prevent dehydration.

Dehydration may lead to various other complications and delay recovery.

Due to having a fever, babies may refuse large amounts of fluid at a time. So, try to give them smaller amounts more often.

Give oral rehydration solutions (either homemade or readily available in the market) along with lukewarm water to help replenish fluids and electrolytes.

Keep Your Baby in a Cool Place

When taking care of a sick baby, it’s important to keep a close eye on the room temperature. It should not be too hot or too cold.

Dress Your Infant Comfortably

Many parents make the mistake of bundling up their sick child with layers of clothes or extra blankets. This is something parents should avoiding doing, as it may keep the temperature from going down or even make it go higher.

Infants cannot regulate their temperature well, hence when bundled in layers, it will be harder for them to cool down once overheated. Too much clothing will even prevent radiating body heat into the surrounding air.

Dress your baby in one layer of lightweight clothing. If needed, use a light blanket when your baby is sleeping.

Also, keep your baby in a comfortable room, where the temperature is not too hot or too cool.

Foot Massage

Rubbing the soles of your sick baby’s feet with some warm oil is one of the best ways to calm your fussy baby. Apart from relaxation, it will promote better sleep, which is necessary for quick recovery.

Foot massage also helps regulate body temperature.

Rub some warm olive oil on the bottoms of your baby’s feet.
Apply gentle pressure on the soles with your thumbs.
Finally, give a nice massage to the whole foot.
Do this for just a couple of minutes and repeat as needed.
When it comes to foot massage, be careful not to do too much.

Basil

For bringing down a fever, basil is suitable for babies older than 1 year. The herb can help reduce the heat in the body. It works as a natural antibiotic and immune booster.

Boil a handful of basil leaves in 2 cups of water, until the solution is reduced to half. Add a little sugar and give it to your little one, a few times a day.
If your baby is big enough to chew basil leaves, give him or her some thoroughly washed basil leaves to chew at regular intervals.

Monitor Body Temperature

Another important thing when your baby is having a fever is to regularly monitor his or her body temperature with a thermometer.

Remedies for cold and cough:
Camphor

Heat coconut oil and add little powdered camphor in it. After it has cooled, pour 4 to 5 drops to your palm and apply it evenly over the chest of your little one. Please take care to use very little camphor as it may irritate the baby skin.

Eucalyptus oil

Allow the baby to inhale the eucalyptus oil.The oil can be also be sprinkled in the baby beddings.

Turmeric

For infants, take a dried turmeric piece and burn it in a candle or diya flame, allow the infant to inhale the smoke from the burning turmeric for a minute. The smoke arising from the burning turmeric will be like a thread only, so no fear of smoke inhalation!!!
For kids above 2 years, a little turmeric can be added to milk and given.

Garlic

Peel the skin of 2 garlic pods and allow them to steep in 50 ml of hot water for 10 minutes. Let it cool, feed 2 sips of the garlic water to your little one every 2 to 3 hours. This can be done for kids above 4 year.

Ginger

Ginger thins out the mucus and so is very helpful for treating blocked nose. Grate a small piece of ginger and add it to hot water and allow it to cool for about 10 min. This can be given to children above 2 years.

Chicken soup

Clear chicken soup can be given from 8 Month onwards.

Tulsi/Basil leaves

Tulsi leaves have great medicinal properties, they can be either added to water or milk. Allow them to soak in water for more than a hour and feed the water in sips to kids above 2 years.

Honey

For Babies above 1 year, a half a teaspoon of honey can be added to the milk and given twice a day.

Ajwain

Roast Ajwain on low flame in a pan, wrap it in a kerchief to make a potli and allow the kid to inhale it or hold it near the nose of infants.

Lemon

Lemon is rich in Vitamin C and helps in developing immunity. For babies above 1 year, mix lemon juice with honey and lots of water.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon has an antioxidant effect and acts as an effective antibacterial and antifungal agent. This can be given kids older than 1 years of age.
Mix 1 teaspoon of honey with 1/4 spoon of cinnamon, feed this mixture every 4 hours throughout the day when the first signs and symptoms of cold surface.

Mustard Oil

Mix 5 to 10 teaspoon of mustard oil with crushed garlic and ajwain seeds and tadka. After it is cooled, strain the mixture and store in a bottle. When needed, warm a little and apply on the child’s chest, forehead and throat.

Steam Inhalation

Never let the child do steam inhalation as done for adults. Fill the buckets or bathtub in the bathroom with piping hot water, hold the baby in the arms for 10 minutes in the steamy bathroom to thin out the phlegm.

Ghee

For dry cough, heat 2 tablespoon of ghee and add 2 to 3 pepper in it, grind it and give a little of it throughout the day. This can be given for children above 1 year.

Author: Saranya

I’m HomeMaker and a mother of 1 year old baby girl. I have 6 yrs of IT experience with Accenture and IGATE and currently taken break to take care of my little one. I have an interest towards home made ancient recipes which is very healthy for kids and adults and hence started preparing all those at home and thought of sharing the same with all parents.

Simple and smart ways to spot adulterated food

Generations back, everyone had their own backyard and everything was home grown which used no chemicals or any adulteration items.But now, be it milk, paneer, tea or oil, nothing comes in its purest form. Until the time it reaches you, it is adulterated and it then becomes harmful.. Read on these simple tricks and stay away from adulterated food..

Forwarded by : Lakshmi || Source : Unknown

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 2

  1. Tea: The chai you are drinking isn’t coming straight away from the Assam fields.
    Fake check: In order to check whether the chai powder is pure, put a teaspoon of it in cold water; if the cold water turns brown then your chai is adulterated!
  2. Frozen peas/green peas: We stock frozen peas in our refrigerators because they come in handy. However, some packets consist of a dye compound called ‘malachite green’, which can trigger stomach related ailments.
    Fake check: Take water in a kadhai and put some peas and stir. If the water turns green, then immediately discard the packet as they are unsafe to consume.
  3. Cinnamon sticks: You can find out if you have bought authentic cinnamon sticks.
    Fake check: Smash the sticks with your hands, if your hands get coloured then they are authenticate, if not then they aren’t.
  4. Turmeric root: Even if you’re crushing the turmeric roots and consuming it, the roots can be fake.
    Fake check: Take a turmeric root on paper and pour cold water over it. If the root leaves colour, it’s a polished one and is impure.
  5. Apples: A polished apple will not keep you away from the doctor, but will take you to one. Did you know that apples are polished with wax to give them a ‘fresh’ look?
    Fake check: To see if your apple isn’t wax covered, take a knife and slowly scrape the skin of your apple. If the knife extracts white, then that’s wax!
  6. Black Pepper: Even pepper can be adulterated with mineral oil!
    Fake check: An adulterated pepper would shine and emit kerosene smell.
  7. Cumin seeds: Cumin seeds (jeera) are very essential part of cooking as we use it in our tadka daily. They can be coloured with charcoal dust.
    Fake check: Crush the seeds in your palm, if your palm turns black then they contain charcoal.
  8. Milk: Our milkman not only fools by adding water to it. Milk can be adulterated with detergent and synthetic milk too.
    Fake check: Mix 10 ml of water and milk in the same proportion. If you notice foam or lather, then the milk contains detergent. To detect synthetic milk, boil the milk. If a yellowish lather forms, then the milk is synthetic milk.
  9. Coriander powder: There could be sawdust in your coriander powder.
    Fake check: Put some coriander powder in the water, the flakes of sawdust will float on water.
  10. Coconut oil: Coconut oil can be adulterated with other cheap oils.
    Fake check: Put the coconut oil bottle in refrigerator, the solidified layer is coconut oil, whereas the liquid oil is an adulterant.
  11. Honey: To find granules of sugar is not a foolproof way to check the purity of honey.
    Fake check: Take a cotton wick and dip it in honey. Then try to burn it. If the wick burns readily then the honey is pure, and if it crackles then it’s not.
  12. Paneer: That paneer in your paneer mutter is not really paneer. It’s starch. Paneer is one of the most adulterated items in our country.
    Fake check: Take water and put a cube of paneer and boil it. Once it cools down, put some drops of iodine solution on it. If the paneer turns blue, then the starch is present in it.
  13. Chilli powder: Did you know you could be eating brick instead of chilli powder? That’s because crushed red brick looks exactly like chilli powder and therefore it is put in your masala.
    Fake check: Put a teaspoon of chilli powder in a glass of water. If the solution emits colour then your chilli powder is adulterated.

Author: Priyadarshini Somasundar

Priyadarshini is an Engineering graduate in Electronics and Communication. She used work for Dell, Later shifted to Chennai after marriage and worked in Ericsson as system analyst. I have always been passionate about our tradition and curious to know about our ancient wisdom and practices, which made me join this group.