How to care for children with hand, foot and mouth disease and dengue fever at home

Currently, the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and dengue fever (DF) in children is on the rise. Parents and caregivers need to know how to care for children at home to help reduce complications of the disease.

Examination and treatment of hand, foot and mouth disease for children at Phu Giao District Medical Center

Proper care for children with TCM

Hand and foot lice are often associated with poor personal hygiene and environmental hygiene, especially hygiene skills for children; not washing hands with soap regularly. Doctor Tran Van Chung, Deputy Director of the Provincial Center for Disease Control, said that children with mild hand and foot lice (only blisters and mouth ulcers) can be cared for and treated at home. Regarding nutrition, parents should give their children plenty of cool water, eat easily digestible foods and avoid making their sore throat worse by using a soft spoon to feed them, not letting them suck on plastic nipples, and not giving them sour or spicy foods or drinks.

Regarding medication, children should only use it as prescribed by a doctor. In case of fever, paracetamol should be used to reduce fever and relieve pain. Parents and caregivers should rehydrate children if they have a high fever; clean the child's mouth regularly with antiseptic solutions; gargle with diluted salt water if the child can gargle; apply antiseptic solutions to areas of skin damage to avoid secondary infection.

Parents and caregivers need to isolate sick children from other children in the house. Adults who come into contact with and care for sick children should wear masks for themselves and their children, and after contact, wash their hands with soap and clean water to limit the spread of infection when caring for healthy children. Clothes and diapers of sick children should be soaked in a disinfectant solution such as chloramine B or boiled in boiling water before washing with soap and clean water. Children's personal eating and drinking utensils such as milk bottles, drinking glasses, bowls, spoons, etc. should be boiled and used separately for each child.

Parents and caregivers should bathe and gently clean their child's body every day with clean water to avoid infection. In particular, families should closely monitor the condition of the disease; within 7 days of illness, in addition to home care and prescription medication, the child should be taken for a daily check-up to detect any unusual developments early.

Be careful when using fever-reducing medicine when children have dengue fever.

As with TCM, with dengue fever, Dr. Tran Van Chung recommends: When children have a high fever above 38 degrees Celsius, they should be given fever-reducing medicine in the appropriate dosage, not regularly but every 4-6 hours. If children take too much fever-reducing medicine continuously, it will lead to liver damage, including rectal fever-reducing medicine. The best way to reduce fever for children is for family members to dress them in thin clothes, lie in a cool place, and apply a towel soaked in warm water to reduce fever. Parents should absolutely not give their children medicine arbitrarily without a doctor's prescription.

Families need to provide enough water for children, let them drink slowly, in small sips, divided into many times a day, avoid drinking too much at once. Parents need to give their children more water than usual with the following types: Oresol electrolyte water, filtered water, boiled water, fruit juice, orange juice, lemon juice. Parents also need to provide more vitamins from fruits, increase immunity, resistance for children's bodies to fight diseases.

Children with fever usually lose their appetite, so parents need to feed them soft, liquid, easily digestible foods, many times a day, a little at each meal. If the child vomits, do not feed them again immediately, they need to rest for 1-2 hours, when the vomiting subsides, feed them less gradually. Parents need to bathe and clean the child, do not abstain from water and take the child to see a doctor according to the doctor's appointment.

There are four different types of dengue virus, so people who have had dengue fever can still be infected with dengue several times. Doctor Chung reminds that when taking care of children with dengue fever at home, parents and caregivers need to take the child to the hospital immediately when they see the following signs: cold hands and feet, lethargy, not playing, not breastfeeding, not eating or drinking; the child has a stomachache, vomiting a lot, dry heaving; the child is fussy, restless, uncomfortable or has nosebleeds, bleeding gums, vomiting blood, black stools.