Your child needs complete care whether it is emotional, psychological or physical. A thorough evaluation of your child's body and mind is vital at nascent stages. Childs growth should also be checked regularly and monitored. Weight, height and head circumference should be checked and plotted in standard recommended graphs to see if these are normal otherwise timely action can be taken. Childhood vaccinations should be given at right time. These are advised by Paediatrician. If you observe any complaints by your little one that may require medical help, such as:

1. Frequent headaches
Much like adults, children too can experience headaches that last from 30 minutes to 3 hours. A range of primary or secondary headaches like, migraine, meningitis, sinusitis or tension may affect children due to neurological issues.

2. Blurry vision
If you observe either a vision developmental delay or near-sightedness and farsightedness in your child, it might be related to neurological issues.

3. Slurred Speech
If your child is 7-8 months and is not responding to sounds or cannot babble non-sense words, it calls for a neurological check-up.

4. Motor and Co-ordination Delay
Sometimes babies are unable to perform motor skill activities like crawling, walking or using fingers to grip or hold, such delay requires attention of the parent.

5. Fatigue
Check if your kid has become lazy and decreased his physical activities due to fatigue and tiredness suddenly of late.

6. Abnormal Movements

Common involuntary movements or tics like eye blinking, twitching of nose, grimacing or making sounds is in some cases overlooked. Tourette syndrome is an example of such a tic, which has been evaluated as a neurological issue.

7. Tremors or Seizures
Children are prone to febrile seizures (fits) or tremors along with fever that occur between 6 months and 5 years. These are signs of neurological issues that require an immediate check-up.

8. Numbness in Limbs
Neurological complications in your child’s infancy may also cause joint pain and numbness of arms and legs.

9. Behavioural disorders
A change in behaviour or attitude in your child is noticed if he/she is suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, school problems, sleep issues, intellectual disability or other neural conditions.

10. Weakness
This symptom is tricky in children, as it may be confused with general tiredness by your human eye. It may be unheard of but many children face trouble in performing easy tasks. A neurological exam may identify the source for treatments.

An underlying problem to the nervous system can cause harm or impairment in the normal growth and development of your kid. Early diagnosis helps in correct care, recovery and prevention of long-term problems. You can opt for a routine neurological examination if you find such symptoms in your child. These exams check the functioning of your child’s brain, spinal cord, nerves that come from the brain and spinal cord and offers accurate diagnosis.

Many children are affected by constipation; for them, it usually implies pain while passing stool as the stools tend to be hard. In some cases, parents often tend to confuse soiling as diarrhea when it may actually indicate symptoms of impacted constipation (obstruction of faeces). In order to prevent constipation from turning into a chronic problem, make sure your child receives proper treatment at the earliest.

Symptoms of constipation:
Constipation in children can be characterized by its symptoms which are:

1.Your child will experience difficulty in passing stools

2.He/she may also experience pain during the process; trace amounts of blood may be present on the nappy.

3.The stool tends to be large in size and hard by nature

4.The child may not have normal bowel habits; he may pass stools less than the normal number of times.

5.Loss of appetite

6.He/she may experience intense pain in the stomach

7.This condition may cause sudden changes in behavior; your child may become irritated or unhappy very easily.

8.He/ she may experience nausea

9.The child may also often soil his/her clothes by passing feces at irregular intervals

Causes of constipation in children:

Constipation in children may be caused due to a number of factors, which are:

1. Withholding of stool: In some cases, your child may try to forcefully hold back bowels every time he/she may want to go to the toilet. This may happen due to reasons such as lack of toilet training or not wanting to use toilets at certain places.

2. Diet: A diet devoid of fiber may be the cause behind your child's constipation. Also, not drinking enough water throughout the day may cause the stools to harden, thus causing difficulty while passing them. The fiber content in food adds roughage to the diet and thus, helps in facilitating smooth bowel movements.

3. Psychological problems: Constipation may also be caused due to certain emotional problems and drawbacks, such as certain fears or phobias. An example would be when the child feels the need to go to the toilet at night, but withholds it if he/she has a fear of ghosts. A change in the surroundings such as moving to a new place may also cause bowel problems in your child.

Children are as vulnerable as they are adorable. Their immune system is not as strong as that of adults, so they are easy victims to environment borne diseases like cold, cough, influenzas and other infections. Here are 5 practical and easy ways in which you can boost your child's immunity and make sure that your role as a parent is sufficiently fulfilled.

1. Decide judiciously what he is supposed to eat and drink

Your child's daily diet must contain a lot of fruits, vegetables, juices, organic foods and proteins. Healthy fats like butter, pastured eggs, coconut etc. Are also essential as they help in absorbing important vitamins like vitamins a, d, e, k and others. Even your child's water intake should be at an optimal level. Processed food and excessive sugar intake should be avoided as they add to your child's calorie count.

2. Get your child to exercise

Regular exercise is a must. It may include running, swimming, jumping or simply strolling. Screen time should be limited as much as possible as those video games and i-pads are robbing your child of his immunity. Make sure your child spends a few hours outside in the sun so as to absorb vitamin d that is obtained from sunlight, for his immunity.


3. Ensure a clean and hygienic environment for your child

You must make sure that that your child learns to keep himself clean. Teach him to wash his hands whenever necessary and tell him not to sneeze and cough in a way that spreads germs. Maintain a clean and healthy environment in and around your home but make sure that you don't shoo away the good bacteria that prevent diseases.

4. Cut down the stress levels of your child

It is very important for you to recognise and eliminate stress from your child's life to ensure immunity for him. Do not force your will upon your child and let him follow his heart. Help him relax if he is stressed and talk to him patiently about things that are worrying him. Maintain a healthy and loving environment in your family to help your child grow.

5. Ensure you child gets adequate rest

Make sure that your child gets adequate amount of comfortable sleep. It is important for you to make your child understand the benefits of sleeping early. This not only increases his/her immunity but also helps him/her to stay attentive and focussed.

Your kid's weight should be a real matter of concern for you. In today's world, the number of obese and overweight children is increasing at an alarming rate. Gaining excess weight and being obese poses the risk of numerous health problems in children. The disorders are diabetes, heart diseases, asthma and many others. Obese children face a lot of problems in their social lives, are teased and neglected. This causes lack of self-confidence and self-esteem in obese children. They develop a negative body image and depression. However, by taking proper measures, your child can regain normalcy. Eating disorders may also occur in obese children, and they are also likely to develop substance abuse habits.

The major medical conditions that an obese child can face are:

Type 2 diabetes
Asthma
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Problems in bones and joints
Sleep disorders
Liver and gall bladder disorders
Depression

Is your kid having the right weight?

The growth rate in children varies with time and stages. Hence, it is difficult to tell whether your kid is overweight. You should measure your child's BMI to find your answer. BMI or body mass index uses the height and weight measurements of a person to calculate the amount of body fat and is used for screening obesity problems. BMI is effective in general and provides accurate data. In some cases, it may be imperfect. In case your kid has a high BMI for age measurement, other assessments are made to detect obesity. The assessments include skin thickness measurement, diet evaluation, physical activity and family history.

How to check obesity in your kid?

In order to rectify obesity, a lot of changes must be made in a child's regular habits and schedule.

1.Food patterns: You should feed your child a wide range of fruits and green, red, orange and yellow vegetables. Having a proper breakfast reduces chance of obesity and should not be avoided. Focus on healthy cereals and fruits. Other than reducing the intake of chocolates, desserts and fried junk food, food items containing hidden sugar should be avoided. Go for low sugar food items. The meal times of your child should be fixed, and this pattern should be followed. Also limit having outside food. Avoid foods, which contain trans fats.

2.Physical exercise: Your child should be involved in regular physical exercise or workout. Let them go out of home and exert themselves, as this would keep them fit and away from obesity. For obese children, exercise will burn calories and help in losing weight.

Your kid's weight should really concern you. You should avoid your kid getting obese and make him/her follow all necessary precautions. In case you suspect obesity in your kid, get the BMI measured.

Autism is a neurodegenerative disorder that surfaces in a child around the age of 2-3 years. The condition differs from person to person and manifests itself in motor disability, gestural inability, speech problems and a host of other symptoms. Risk of autism in a child often gets linked to mother's health and the phase of pregnancy. It has been suspected that a faulty gene or genes may make a newborn more likely to develop autism along with other factors such as a chemical imbalance, viruses or a lack of oxygen at birth. While experts are still uncertain about all the causes of autism, a new study, appearing in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, shows that babies who are exposed to maternal fever during the second trimester are likely to have a 40 per higher risk of developing autism spectrum disorder.

For the study, the team followed 95,754 children born between 1999 and 2009, including 583 cases of autism spectrum disorder identified in Norway. It was found that mothers of 15,701 children (about 16 per cent) reported fever in one or more four-week intervals throughout their pregnancy. The findings showed that the risk of autism spectrum disorder increased by 34 per cent when mothers reported fever at any time during pregnancy, and by 40 per cent if they reported fever during the second trimester. Further, for children of women who reported three or more episodes of fever after the 12th week of pregnancy, the risk of autism increased by over 300 per cent.

In addition to these results, they also found that the risk of autism was minimally mitigated among the children of women who took acetaminophen (anti-fever medication) for fever in the second trimester. Moreover, no cases of autism were reported among children of mothers who took ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. "Our results suggest a role for gestational maternal infection and innate immune responses to the infection in the onset of at least some cases of autism spectrum disorder," said first author Mady Hornig, Associate Professor at the Columbia University in New York, in the United States.

The researchers hope that this study will help us focus on the prevention of prenatal infections and inflammatory responses that people may take lightly but they can have serious health complications for the mother and child.