Common children's medical issues

Please find some advice and guidance for common medical conditions in children and babies below.

Fever control

• A fever is the body’s normal response to an infection 
• It is often caused by a viral illness and antibiotics will not help
• The fever will often come down with paracetamol and / or ibuprofen – reducing the fever helps to make your child feel better but doesn’t cure the illness, the fever will return when the medicine wears off.  
• It is very common or nursery age children to get recurrent viral illnesses while they develop their immune system
• Children who are hot have higher fluid requirements, its is therefore important to encourage them to drink, using a syringe like medication if necessary. 

Burns first aid

• Following any kind of burn it is really important to run under cool (but not cold) water for 20mins to remove the heat from the burn
  • This will be the action that limits the scaring and will be beneficial up to 3 hours after the burn
• If running water is not available then you can use a wet cloth, each time the cloth gets warm then rinse again with cool water
• To reduce pain you can cover (but do not wrap) the area in clingfilm
• Paracetamol will also help with the pain 

Head injuries  

• Patients who have a head injury often benefit from pain relief such as paracetamol
• A head injury will make people feel sleepy and there is no reason to keep them awake, every hour or so just check they are easy to wake
• The following symptoms would require a medical assessment: more than 3 episodes of vomiting, increasing confusion or drowsiness, weakness to the arms or legs, or worsening headaches. 
• If your child has had a head injury we will give you a leaflet of all the things to look out for.  

Limb injuries 

• Soft tissue injuries can take up to 8 weeks to heal
• Simple pain relief such as paracetamol or ibuprofen can help with the pain
• Elevation and ice packs can help with swelling
• It is important to aid healing and reduce the risk of compilations that you use the injured limb, gradually increasing the movements and usage over time as things improve.   

The fluid challenge - for patients with reduced food/fluid intake, vomiting and/or fever

• Use a medicines syringe to give a small amount of fluid every 10mins
• For babies, you can give 5mls every 10 mins and children 10mls every 10 mins
• The volume can be increased as tolerated
• For breastfed babies, you can give small frequent breast feeds.