Head Injury: Symptoms of Head Injuries

Kids, especially toddlers as they are learning to walk and seem to want to climb all over everything, often fall and hit their heads.
They may fall so much that you have even thought of making them wear a helmet all of the time, not just when they are riding a bike or scooter.
Of course, that would be going too far in all but the most extreme circumstances.
It is much better to childproof your home, encourage them to wear a helmet when appropriate, and supervise your kids well when they are playing to try to prevent most head injuries. Keeping your kids safe in the car, including using an age-appropriate infant car seat, booster seat, or seat belts can also help to prevent a head injury in a car accident.
Accidents do happen though, so it is also a good idea to know what to do if you child does have a head injury.

Head Injury

A head injury often follows a fall, but can occur after any blow to the head.
This can include:

• getting hit by a ball, bat, golf club, or hard toy, etc.
• car accident
• child abuse, including shaking
• a fight

Most head injuries in children are caused by falls, though, including infants who might roll off the bed, toddlers and preschoolers who might fall while climbing or trying to walk down the stairs, and older children who often fall while riding their bike, skateboard, heelys or a scooter. Older children and teens often suffer head injuries while playing sports, too.

Head Injury Symptoms

One of the scariest things about head injuries is that sometimes, what seems like it should be a minor head injury -- like a fall from a short distance -- can sometimes cause more serious symptoms than a fall from a second story window.
That makes getting as many details about the head injury and your child's symptoms right after the head injury occurs very important.
It can be especially important to know if your child:

• had any loss of consciousness immediately after the head injury
• had a change in behavior immediately after the head injury, such as becoming irritable, lethargic, not remembering the injury or other things (amnesia), or having poor balance, etc.
• begins vomiting after the head injury, especially if he develops persistent vomiting, which is usually defined as vomiting more than three or four times
• has a seizure immediately after the injury or later that day
• can open his eyes fully after the head injury
• develops other symptoms after the head injury, such as a severe or worsening headache, stiff neck, or photophobia (sensitivity to light), etc.

In general, a loss of consciousness, seizure, persistent vomiting, or any change in behavior after a head injury would require immediate medical attention.
You should also usually seek medical attention if an infant under six months of age has a fall, even if they don't have a loss of consciousness or other symptoms.

Minor Head Injuries

Fortunately, most childhood head injuries are mild, and the child will not have a loss of consciousness or other serious symptoms.
These children usually cry when they first hit their head, but quickly settle down and return to their normal behavior.
Most of these children don't need a trip to emergency room or a CT scan. Instead, parents can usually treat and monitor their child at home, which might include:

• first aid for any areas that are bleeding
• ice or a cold pack on swollen areas of the scalp for 15 to 20 minutes or as long as your child will tolerate
• rest
• providing an age-appropriate dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil) for mild headache pain
• observing the child for 12 to 24 hours for symptoms of a more serious head injury, such as persistent vomiting, severe or worsening headache, seizures, poor balance, or any change in behavior

Be sure to seek medical attention if, even after a very mild head injury, your child later begins to show symptoms of a more serious head injury.

Minor Head Injury Myths

Some common myths about head injuries include:

• Head Injury Myth: You shouldn't let a child go to sleep after a minor head injury.
  
  Fact: If you are too afraid to let your child go to sleep, then you should usually seek medical attention for your child's head injury. Most children with minor head injuries that don't have any serious symptoms can go to sleep if it is bedtime or time for a nap. Just check on them regularly (every few hours) to make sure they are sleeping comfortably, but you usually don't have to wake them up unless your doctor has told you to. For most young children, if you keep them up when it is time for bed, then they likely will become irritable, which will make observation difficult.
  
  
• Head Injury Myth: If you don't have any scalp swelling (a 'goose egg') after a head injury, then that means that the swelling went 'inside' and you have a skull fracture.
  
  Fact: Most children without scalp swelling will not have a skull fracture.
  
  
• Head Injury Myth: If you don't have a loss of consciousness, then it isn't a serious head injury.
  
  Fact: While your child is more likely to have had a serious head injury if he has a loss of consciousness, your child can rarely develop more serious head injury symptoms after having few or no symptoms at first, including not having any loss of consciousness.

This article is taken from- http://pediatrics.about.com/od/firstaid/a/509_head_injury.htm

Child Health Care Tips

Body Care

• Instead of soap you can sometimes use a mixture of gram flour (besan) and milk to bathe the baby.
• To massage the baby you could use
  
  
  • A mixture of gram flour (basen) and cream with a pinch of turmeric. Apply the mixture on the baby's body and gently rub it off.
  • Take a small ball of wheat dough. Apply some massage oil on it. Massage the baby with this ball by rubbing it over the baby's body. The strokes should be against the hair growth. This is an excellent remedy for removing body hair from a newborn.

• A rich moisturizer can be made by melting 2 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 tbsp lanolin, 2 tsp glycerine and 3 tbsp olive or almond oil, over a double boiler. Beat well.
• Boil a handful of neem leaves and basil leaves and wash your hair regularly with it to get rid of lice.
• To get rid of Band-aid or ugly gray plaster marks apply some lukewarm coconut oil to the area and leave it for 15 minutes. Wash off with soap water.
• To remove paint or fast colour from your skin, apply curd on the effected part. After few minutes rub and wash it off.

Dandruff Control

• A mixture of 2 tbsp of curd and a few drops of honey is an excellent anti-dandruff agent when rubbed on the scalp.
• Lemon juice mixed with mustard oil is an excellent cure for dandruff.
• For lustrous and dandruff free hair, apply a paste of cooked channa dal and fenugreek leaves and rinse off.
• To get rid of dandruff, apply a mixture of 10 gm pepper powder, 1 tsp lime juice and ½ cup milk on the scalp.
• Leave it one overnight and wash off next morning.
• Onion juice, when massaged on the scalp acts as a wonderful anti-dandruff agent.

Chewing gum Menace

• To remove chewing gum from clothes -
  
  • Place the garment in a plastic bag and freeze it. You can then flick off the hardened gum easily.
  • Soak the garment in white vinegar and then wash off.
  • Rub the area with egg white before washing it off.
• To remove the chewing gum stuck to the floor ,clean it with a little kerosene.
• To remove chewing gum stuck to your hair, rub a little honey over the hair and the chewing gum will come off.

 
Clothes Care

• To prevent colours from running, soak the garment in salt water for 10 minutes before washing it.
• Nappy washing
  
  • Stains disappear if you dry the nappies on the lawn or even on a plant, perhaps the extra oxygen exhaled by the plant helps.
  • Half an hour of sunshine is enough to disinfect the nappies.
  • Ironing takes care of any further fear of germs.
  • If washing in a machine the temperature setting can be raised to effectively disinfect the nappies.
• Stain Removers
  
  • To remove ice cream stains clean with a sponge dipped in borax solution.
  • Curry stains on clothes can be removed by applying white toothpaste to it and washing after two hours.
  • Ink stains can be removed with a slice of tomato.
  • Sprinkle talcum powder on ink stains before washing off with soap and water.
  • Ball pen ink marks can be removed easily with nail polish remover.
  • To remove ironing stains from garments apply a little salt over the area and wash.
  • Cuffs and collars, if turned inside out before being put in a washing machine, get cleaned very well.

Household Care

• Pest Control
  
  • Burn dried orange peel in a corner of the house. The smoke will drive away the mosquitoes.
  • Turmeric powder is a good repellent for ants. Just sprinkle a line of turmeric powder to cordon off the ants.
  • When boiling water, boil some extra water. Pour this down your sink. This will kill cockroaches and remove their eggs.
  • To eliminate cockroaches, knead some wheat flour with boric acid powder and make small balls. Place them near drains and damp corners of your house.
  • To keep flies at bay, add a little salt and a few drops of kerosene to the water for mopping the floor.
  • Betel nuts kept in the corner of a cupboard will help ward off cockroaches.
  • Sprinkle borax powder under the paper covering book shelves and kitchen shelves to keep off silverfish.
• Before placing a photograph in a frame, lightly dust it with a little talcum powder to prevent it from sticking to the frame.
• Stick posters on walls with the help of toothpaste. The toothpaste can be scraped off later and does not damage the wall.
• Some castor oil mixed into coconut oil prevents the latter from freezing in the winters.
• Add a few drops of olive oil to the dried shoe polish and keep it overnight the polish will be as good as new the next morning.
• To clean the soiled edges of books, rub with very fine sand paper.

Craft Tips

• If the end of the cello tape is lost, keep it in the freezer. After few minutes take it out and you will easily be able to find the end.
• A handy colour palette can be made from an old ice tray.
• A little vinegar added to hardened gum makes it spread evenly
• If the cap of gum bottle has become tight and cannot be removed, immerse it in a little glycerin to open it.
• To ensure that the chalk doesn't rub off the slate, just spray it with some hair spray.
• Chalk dipped in milk and used on brown paper gives a fantastic sheen.
• When using the cutting blade make sure you have kept a wad of old newspapers below the design to give it support.
• Always remember to close lids of varnish and enamel tins tightly.
• In the long run small tins of varnish or enamel paints are more economical than bigger packaging.
• Once a varnish tin is opened a wasteful skin begins to form on top, because of which always store the tins upside down as this makes sure that the skin forms at the bottom of the tin and therefore doesn't cause problem in usage.
• The golden rule for brushes for varnishing is always to buy the best quality brushes. You don't want to waste time and effort of having to stop constantly to fish out stray bristles.
• Keep a separate set of brushes for use in varnish as once used in varnish they are not good for use in any other medium.
• Never use damp brushes for varnishing. Always dry the brushes properly after having washed them.
• Sharpen scissors against the neck of a glass bottle.
• Sharpen a sewing machine needle by running the machine on sandpaper.
• Before painting terracotta pieces, soak them overnight. Once dry they will absorb paint better and the paint will not chip off easily.

This information is taken from- http://www.indianmoms.com/aide/helpinghands/childcare.htm

Premature Infants May Later Have Problems in Day Care

One of the health risks that very premature babies face is a condition known as chronic lung disease of prematurity, or CLDP. These children can be prone to respiratory infections and a recent study supported by the National Institutes of Health shows that kids with CLDP have an even greater increase in risk when placed in daycare.

Serious Respiratory Nearly Four Times as Likely

Normal gestation for humans is 40 weeks. Babies born at 38 weeks and less are considered premature. Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity occurs in about one-fourth of babies born before 26 weeks of gestation, but can also develop in babies born as late as 32 weeks. Most children with CLDP improve with age as their lung mature, but about one-quarter continue to have respiratory problems even into adulthood.
Sharon McGrath-Morrow MD MBA of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center studied 111 children, aged 3 years and younger who had CLDP. Twenty-two of the children attended daycare. The parents were interviewed about infections, symptoms, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and use of medications.
Read: US Preterm Birth Rates Improve, But Still Poor
When placed in daycare, those children had a 3.7-fold increase of going to the emergency room with a serious respiratory infection over children not in daycare. Those children also were twice as likely to need corticosteroids and/or antibiotics. Children in daycare were also nearly three times more likely to have breathing problems at least once a week compared to those not attending daycare.
"Daycare can be a breeding ground for viruses and puts these already vulnerable children at risk for prolonged illness and serious complications from infections that are typically mild and short-lived in children with healthy lungs," said Dr. McGrath-Morrow says in a statement.
This article is taken from- http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/premature-infants-may-later-have-problems-day-care

Parents Don't View Bullying as Top Concern

According to a survey by the Strategic Planning Initiative for Families and Youth (SPIFFY) survey parents concerns vary and bullying isn't always their concern. SPIFFY took 380 South Hadley parents at fall open houses this year, ranked teen alcohol and drug use and Internet behavior and safety as top concerns across all three age groups.
The third-highest concern for parents of seventh- and eighth-graders was bullying. That is compared to the third-highest concern for parents of high school students was supervised and unsupervised teen parties and for the parents of fifth- and sixth-graders, the youngest age group whose parents were surveyed, the third- and fourth priorities were tips for raising teens and mental health. Bullying ranked as fifth in importance for parents of fifth- and sixth-graders and for high school students
Yet 30 percent of students who responded to the 2005 survey reported being bullied, which was higher than the Massachusetts state average. The survey also reported 16.4 percent of students seriously considered attempting suicide, while 14.6 percent reported attempting suicide.
"I think it showed despite all the perception of bullying the biggest concern was drug and alcohol abuse," said Superintendent Gus Sayer. He stated that he was not familiar with the SPIFFY survey, but that the results reflected concerns that drug and alcohol abuse, which had previously been decreasing in the school district, was again on the rise.
According to a 2008 Internet Safety Technical Task Force report, "Along with the positive aspects of Internet use come risks to safety, including the dangers of sexual solicitation, online harassment, and bullying, and exposure to problematic and illegal content." The report states that while sexual predation and increases in risky behavior is a large concern, "Bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline."
This survey has demonstrated that parents concerns vary and despite the suicide and suicide attempts, many parents are still more concerned with teen alcohol and drug use and Internet behavior.
This article is taken from- http://www.emaxhealth.com/1357/parents-dont-view-bullying-top-concern