| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| I have a son that is 5 and a half, what are the recommended Immunizations for his age? |
| C.U. |
| Dear C.U. |
| At 5 years of age he should be getting a DTaP booster(#5) and an oral polio(#4). At 4 years of age he should have received his second MMR. At 18 months he should have had his DTaP(#4) and an oral polio(#3). At 15 months he should have had his first MMR and the HIB booster. Prior to that he should have had 3 DPT's and 3 HIB vaccines (sometimes combined as a Tetramune), and 2 oral polio vaccines. He also should have received 3 Hepatitis B vaccines somewhere along the line. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| I have a child diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) How serious is this? Should I treat him differently? Should I have different expectations? |
| JB |
| Dear JB |
| The disorder is fairly common and is not serious in a medical sense. In order for your child to succeed in school and in the real business world he needs to be able to focus and learn. When you have ADD you are unable to do this. In some cases a resource room will help him learn, but in most cases he will need medication to allow him to focus in school and be able to do his work. This okay and the medication is tried and true. Your pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist will help you with this. As for how you should treat him, you should be understanding when he is not doing well in school and get him help or tutoring when he needs it. You and the school will become good friends as you work together to get your son to do his best. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| I am living in Italy and my daughter has been complaining of headaches almost on a daily basis. She is 12 years old. She says that her head hurts off and on right above and around the temple area. I have given her advil, tylenol, etc. and she says that it does not help. She has no other complaints, no blurry vision or dizziness. I thought it might be sinus, or I have heard that children sometime experience headaches before the onset of a period. Should I have this checked by a doctor here or wait until we visit the States in August. I would very much appreciate some advice. Thank you very much. |
| M.F. |
| Dear M.F. |
| Headaches are not an uncommon complaint but when they start to occur on a daily basis they should be looked into. Most of the time they are stress related but they can also be due to lack of sleep, certain foods, medication, blurred vision, illness and of course-very rarely-space occupying lesions. Most tension headaches run across the forehead from side to side but they may be in the temple region as well. Sinus headache is most commonly over the frontal sinuses, which is over the eyebrows. Migraines are usually unilateral, very severe and may end in vomiting. My advice is that you have your daughter seen by a doctor now, just to rule out anything physical. He may want you to see a neurologist if he can't come up with a good reason for the headaches. I wouldn't wait for August. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| I have a 3 month old baby girl, and she has a lot of dryness her scalp towards the front. Is it okay for me to apply almond oil to her scalp twice a week.How can I get rid of this. I am sure its irritating for her. |
| S.P. |
| Dear S.P. |
| Please check out my topic on craddle cap, on my web site, which is what your daughter seems to have. It has the entire regimen for this problem. I don't know anything about almond oil so you would have to go by your own experience. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| My new nephew was just born on June 21. He was 6 lbs 3 oz. They doctors have found blood in his stool and are not sure what is causing it. They have put him in intensive care. Can you give me some ideas about what this could be? |
| L.L. |
| Dear L.L. |
| Blood in the stool of a newborn may be a sign of a serious intestinal or bleeding problem. The question is whether this is fresh red blood vs swallowed maternal blood that may show up 2-3 days later. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| My child, who is 4 1/2 mts old is having a hard time sleeping. I usually try to give her cereal twice before bed and then a bottle before bed, or when she wakes up after going down @ 8:00pm. She wakes sometimes every few hours, however, expecting to eat, or just awake. I thought her digestive system was suppose to shut down for the night. Should i pat her on the back then leave for a few minutes? I'm very sleep deprived. Also, she seems to do ok every other night as opposed to a consistent schedule. Shed gets the same routine before bed each night. Help! |
| M.M.M. |
| Dear M.M.M. |
| Generally speaking a 4 1/2 month old should have 2 solid feedings a day ... once for breakfast and once for dinner. At 5 months of age I start a 3rd solid feeding for lunch. The number of bottles varies but on average every 4 hours while awake. My own opinion is that up until 5 1/2 months of age an infant is entitled to have a bottle in the middle of the night. After that age, no more feedings and you would have the baby cry itself back to sleep (a la Ferber or otherwise). It usually works. Good luck. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| Our 9 week old has not had a bowel movement in 9 days now. Although his doctor at his checkup 2 days ago said that this is not abnormal it has us concerned. Just what is going on up there? Up until now he had several a day. Is it going to be very impressive when things do loosen up? |
| D.&B.; |
| Dear D.&B.; |
| Honestly, I have never had a baby in my practice that has not gone for that length of time. I would suggest that you give the baby an infant glycerin suppository. Insert it about 90% of the way up the rectum. This should stimulate the baby to go. I would guess there has to be a lot of stool up there. If this is not a chronic problem I would wait to see if it happens again before putting the baby on something to make it go. I usually wait 48 hours before having a parent use a suppository on a baby. One BM per 48 hours is my upper limit. If your baby does not go with the suppository then I would suggest you get in touch with your pediatrician right away. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| My 11 month old daughter has experienced 4 ear infections since birth, she always has had fluid in her ears which her doctor said was normal but he has never performed any additional tests on her such as a tennogram (I think that is what it's called). Will she develop problems later on if this is not corrected??? Also, please feel free to send additional advice or other options. Thank you, |
| K.F. |
| Dear K.F. |
| Four ear infections in a year is not a tremendous amount, especially if the ears go back to normal after each infection... but if she always has fluid behind her ear drums I would be very concerned, this is NOT normal. Having fluid may mean that her hearing is muffled and at this age when she is first learning how to say words she just wont hear them correctly and she won't be able to speak correctly. Your daughter should have a hearing test and a tympanogram by an audiologist. If she does indeed have fluid she needs to be seen by a pediatric ENT doctor who may want to put myringotomy tubes in the ear drums to preserve her hearing. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| My daughter has chickenpox since 6/26/96 but she continues to run high fever upto 103. she is on amoxicillin for possible throat infection for last 3 days but has not made any difference to her fever. do I need to worry about anything else? |
| E. |
| Dear E. |
| Chicken pox is usually a 7 day illness from start to finish. It can be a little less or a little more. Fever may persist and if it does(as in this case) a reexamination by your pediatrician would be in order. A blood count might be helpful in deciding whether there were a secondary bacterial infection or not. Since your child is already on an antibiotic this fever may just be part of the illness(or this antibiotic may just not be working). Prolonged fever usually goes along with a more severe case of chickenpox. Complications of chicken pox could be otitis media, bronchitis/pneumonia, viral encephalitis. These are all fairly obvious and would not be missed. |
| DRS4KIDS |
| Dear DRS4KIDS |
| My 17 month old daughter has had a fever of 102 for 24 hours, now her fever has increased to 104 and i've noticed her pulse is 170. She has had her normal amounts of fluids so we don't believe it's dehydration. She is miserable and at first we thought it was another molar coming in but this strong rapid pulse really seemed... after consulting our physician we gave her motrin and this brought the fever down to 100 but at 3 am while asleep her pulse was till 160. any ideas as to what this is. (She is on her way to the pediatrician now.) |
| R.M. |
| Dear R.M. |
| Young children have rapid pulses under normal circumstances anyway, but fever will increase the pulse by 10 % for each degree above normal. The average pulse rate of an 18 month old is about 115/min. If you added 50 % to that number you would get upwards of 175/min for a temp of 104. I think taking her to the pediatrician for this kind of fever was a good idea. |
| DRS4KIDS |
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