How to give medicines and put an enema
How to give medicines. Sometimes it is very difficult to get a child to take medicine. The first rule is to give the medicine as if by the way, as if you do not even think that the child can refuse. If you do this with a guilty look and with lots of explanations, you convince the child that you are expecting a refusal from it. Speaking of something else, give him a spoonful of medicine in his mouth. Most small children open their mouths automatically, like chicks in a nest.
Tablets that do not dissolve, finely rastolkite and mix with some tasty food like apple puree. Mix the medicine only with one teaspoon of puree - in case the child says that he no longer wants. Bitter tablets can be mixed in a teaspoon of water with sugar, honey, maple syrup or jam. Eye ointment and drops can sometimes be used in a dream.
When giving a medicine in a drink, it is better to choose an unusual kind of grape or plum juice that the child does not drink regularly. If you mix a bitter medicine with milk or orange juice, a child may be afraid of these drinks for months.
Making a small child swallow the whole pill or capsule is difficult. Try to put it in something viscous and sticky, like a banana, quickly give a drink with something that he likes.
Do not give medication without doctor's instructions and do not continue giving after the specified period. Here are some examples showing why this can not be done. The child has a cold and coughs, and the doctor ascribes a cough medicine. Two months later, the child starts coughing again, and the mother gives him the same medicine without consulting a doctor. The medicine seems to help for a week, but then the cough is so intensified that the mother still needs to call a doctor. The doctor immediately determines that this time the cough is caused not by a cold, but by whooping cough. He would have suspected it a week earlier, if he had been called in time. In such a case, the child would be immediately isolated and not infect other children.
A mother who several times treated with the same way a cold, headache or abdominal pain, starts to consider herself an expert. In a certain, but very limited sense, it is. But she has no special training, like a doctor, and she is not able to establish a diagnosis. For her, two cases of headache( or abdominal pain) seem to be the same. But for the doctor, they testify to two completely different diseases and require different treatments. People, whom the doctor treated with antibiotics( such as penicillin), sometimes with similar symptoms, are tempted to take them on their own. They reason as follows: the medicine brings amazing results, it is easy to take, I know the dosage. Why not accept?
Sometimes, taking such medications causes a strong body reaction: fever, rash, anemia, blood from the kidneys, difficulty urinating. Fortunately, such complications are rare, but the more often medications are used, the more likely they become, especially if the medications were used incorrectly. That's why the doctor prescribes them only if he believes that the danger of the disease and: the probability of a beneficial effect of the drug outweigh the risk.
For no reason should you not use laxatives, especially with abdominal pain, without consulting a doctor. Some people mistakenly believe that abdominal pain is always caused by constipation, and first of all they want to use a laxative. Pain in the stomach is caused by many causes. In some cases( such as appendicitis or intestinal obstruction) the laxative worsens the condition. Since you do not know the cause of the pain in the stomach, it is dangerous to take a laxative.
Enema and candles. Sometimes, if a child suffers from constipation, especially if he is generally sick, the doctor prescribes an enema or a candle. In some diseases, they are safer than a laxative taken through the mouth, because they do not cause vomiting or irritation of the small intestine. The physician can prescribe enema from severe pain due to gas, as in the case of colic in three months, or after surgery.
While the doctor has not diagnosed and prescribed the remedy, the parents should not put the enema and candles on the child or give a laxative with constipation and abdominal pain. It is especially important not to put an enema or candle often with a tendency to constipation, because gradually the child's attention is concentrated on the anus and the entrails.
The candle from the constipation is inserted all the way into the anus and dissolves there. It contains mild irritants that attract moisture to the rectum and stimulate fecal excretion. Sometimes the chair of a small child is stimulated by simply inserting a thermometer or the tip of a syringe smeared with petroleum jelly into the anus. This is an urgent measure taken on the advice of a doctor. It is harmful to use often with constipation or when accustoming to a pot.
The doctor will explain to you how to prepare an enema. Soap enema is prepared as follows: a piece of non-alkaline toilet soap is dissolved in water, which becomes slightly turbid. Such an enema is slightly irritating, and it should not be done to a baby often. Enema can also be prepared with half a teaspoon of table salt or a teaspoon of baking soda, dissolved in a quarter liter of water. Water should have a body temperature. Infant infants are given 100-120 g of water, a one-year-old to a quarter of a liter, a five-year-old to half a liter.
Put an oilcloth on the bed and cover it with a bath towel. Put the child on its side and lift his legs to the chin. Place a pot nearby.
For a baby or small child, it is safer to use a rubber syringe with a soft rubber tip. Fill the syringe completely so as not to introduce air. Lubricate the end of the syringe with vaseline, soap or cream;Carefully insert 3-5 cm into the anus. Slowly and not very hard press the pear. The slower you do this, the less likely that the child will feel an unpleasant sensation, and the longer the water will stay in the rectum. Internals contract and relax undulating. If you feel resistance, wait until it stops, and do not press harder. Unfortunately, the child, feeling something in the anus, immediately begins to squeeze it, so you are unlikely to be able to introduce a lot of water.
While pulling out the tip of the enema, squeeze the baby's buttocks to hold water for a few minutes until it softens the stool. If the water does not come out in 15-20 minutes or if it comes out without feces, you can repeat the enema. The danger is that the water stays inside, no.
An older child can be put an enema with a hard tip and a rubber tube. Do not hang the enema above 30-60 cm above the anus( height determines pressure).The smaller the height, the slower the water enters, the less unpleasant the sensations and the better the results.