Mind your medicine
Nursing your child to health can be a dicey affair. Some doctors may call for a hundred blood tests, medical reports and pump the child with antibiotics from the word go, whereas others may prescribe a ‘wait-and-watch’ policy before recommending the tabs. The dire consequence of over-medication alarms you as much as causing your child harm by negligence. You are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Here’s how you can walk the fine line between the two extremes..
COUGH IT UP!
The medicine cabinet of an average mother is no less complex than Pandora’s box, the one thing you will find for sure is cough syrup. However, not every mother knows much about the efficacy of these syrups; especially for the age-group of zero to five; one needs to be careful about the alcoholic content in them and the harmful effects. According to an expert and paediatrician Dr Geetanjali Shah, “Anything alcohol-based should be completely avoided in infants. When you need to use something for coughs for children above three months, use dextrometorchan, which soothes the throat and, more importatly, is safe. For dry coughs, you need syrups—soothers which have menthol in addition to dextrometorchan. These are safe for children beyond two years. Most children below that age need to be decongested and given anti-congestive chlorpheniramine medicines. For seven-to eight-month-olds, this is safe. We may also use ambroxol hydrochloride, which is a mucolytic agent, i.e., it breaks down mucous. It is also interesting to note that sometimes, the sneezing may be because of an allergy or irritation, in which case, one must administer the cetrizine group of drugs for children above six
