Child Health Services
Children are always very much ready to fall ill. They get lot more shots or health problem than adult as their immune system is just developing. Some common health conditions and diseases are always directly or indirectly associated with their diet and personnel hygiene.
A well balanced and healthy diet and hygienic environment and habits can help to keep your child fit and healthy. Malnutrition and unhealthy diet practices can cause many malnutrition symptoms like marasmus and kwashiokar. This protein energy malnutrition (PEM) is usually seen in poor household. Positive parenting can also improve the physical and emotional health of a child. Child getting love and care from their family is less likely to have mental and emotional disorders and is also seen to stay away from drug and alcohol abuse in future.
There are a lot of programs and services provided by the public health care centres, that take care of the child's health. Child health promotion is a program initiated by national Service Framework (NSF), it includes preventive care like immunization, childhood screening of disease, assessment of child and family need, intervention for fulfillment of these needs and promotion of healthy children. The promotion program provides antenatal care which checks for any complications during pregnancy, advices on diet and exercises to be followed by pregnant mothers, and also prepare the woman for the journey to motherhood. Soon after birth they screen the baby for any infections, jaundice and inborn error, they also see to the immunization and aids in health promotion practices for mother and child. Weekly and monthly reviews are made to assess the normal development of the child. When the child gets into school, the reviews are made based on the school level, the height, weight, immunization and childhood diseases are taken care of up to 19 years.
The child health clinic provides reasonably priced health care for children by a group of doctors. Regular visits and immunization is given to take care of health and well being of children. Child health nursing is the holistic care provided for the child's health and well being. As the child can't properly express his problems, these nursing are provided with the help of family members. Nursing infants, and adolescent and taking care of their need to reduce illness are a challenging job but can be accomplished if dedicated nursing and monitoring is made available.
The mothers health, during and after pregnancy affects the health of her children. Improving the mother's health during pregnancy can decrease the rate of infant mortality and illness; it also reduces the complication during delivery. The maternal and child health services are given for expecting mother or new mothers. It will provide parenting tips and breast feeding advices and also help the new mothers to cope up with postpartum depression. It helps the mothers to know their child and understand his sleeping, feeding and behavioral problems. The maternal and child health services are made available to family with a child in the age group zero to six years.
The pediatric health care service sees to the health care of children, some also provide home based services as they know home is the best place to get well. They provide family based support and educates the parents about the best diet, treatment and practices to keep their child fit. They give free services to uplift the health conditions of tomorrow's citizen. Adolescent health care services are provided for the teenagers. Adolescence is the age where a lot of negative health practices are taken up and followed like, use of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs and are these children are at high risk for different chronic diseases. So health care services are important at this age and they should be preparing the adolescent to adopt healthy practices. They should be also made aware of a balanced and healthy diet and advised against crash dieting. Changing the negative practices in a large majority of the teens and making them adopt a healthy life style can bring down the statistics of many diseases.
Making the children adopt healthy practices and making them immune to diseases can improve the life standard and health of today's children. This can indeed help to make a healthier world tomorrow.
