Children's Health

Illness in children tends to fall into 3 broad categories:

• Uncomfortable or annoying: nappy rash, coughs and colds, slightly raised temperature.
• Debilitating or temporarily incapacitating: asthma, chickenpox or german measles.
• Life threatening or disabling: measles, meningitis or pneumonia

Pain and fever

Common causes of pain in children are injuries (knocks and bumps), teething, infections (eg ear, chest, throat etc), post immunisation jab, viruses (eg chickenpox) and gastro-intestinal (eg nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea).

Fever (above 38 degrees celsius or 100 degrees Farenheit) in a child has many possible causes, most common is a viral infection eg coughs and colds. Other causes are teething and immunisation.

Fever can be treated with Paracetamol or Ibuprofen, as well as rehydration including breastfeeds if appropriate.

Coughs, colds and flu

These are caused by viruses and therefore can't be cured, but the symptoms can be eased to make the child feel better.