School season has begun and as thousands of children put on their school uniforms and venture forth, paediatricians say parents should take care to ensure their children stay healthy.
Diarrhoea, urinary infections and respiratory issues are some of the health problems that children could face, said Janani Sankar, Kanchi Kamakoti Childs Trust Hospital.
Hygiene and diet have to be taken care of to prevent infections, she said. “We are already seeing some cases of diarrhoea. Their food and water must be clean,” she said.
“Maintaining cleanliness is most important,” said Padma Appaji, consultant paediatrician, Vijaya Group of Hospitals. Diet is also crucial, said Dr. Appaji, and parents should ensure children are drinking enough liquids.
“Breakfast should be carbohydrate-rich but not fatty. Children should have at least one fruit a day,” she said. As there was a likelihood of picking up infections from other children, a balanced diet would boost immunity.
Urinary infections could be caused by children not using the toilet in school, but parents must encourage them to do so, said Dr. Sankar.
Checking childhood blindness
It may now seem normal to teach children how to use computers even before they start pre-school. But health educators disagree. They say it is unhealthy to allow a child to look at the computer screen or use the cell phone to play games for long. The estimated prevalence of childhood blindness/low vision in the country is 0.8 per thousand.
While computer vision syndrome is a new problem faced by children, refractive error, another easily correctable disorder, continues to be one of the major causes of childhood blindness.
The aim of the National Programme for Control of Blindness is to bring down the prevalence of childhood blindness to 0.2 per cent by 2020.
A.P. Irungovel, patient educator and counsellor with Sankara Nethralaya, says: “Every year, we conduct a survey of school children. Last year we found that around 25 per cent of children in Chennai Corporation schools were unaware that they had refractive errors.”
Since more than 75 per cent of the learning process is visual, it is important to watch for changes in the way the child holds a book.
“Make 20-20-20 the rule. That is, every 20 minutes, take your eyes away from the computer, blink 20 times for 20 seconds,” he adds.
Parents and teachers can pick up children by observing how the child holds his book or if s/he sits too close to the monitor. It is also important to ensure that a child wearing spectacles is not teased about it, he says.
(Reporting by Zubeda Hamid and R. Sujatha)
