Nature Care For Children

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All Children suffer from common illnesses. For young parents, the young mother in particular, they can be a cause for great anxiety. This book will give them the necessary information they need to look after their children when they are unwell. Use the alternative way to treat your child and keep the doctor at bay.

Dr. H.K. Bakhru enjoys a countrywide reputation as an expert naturopath and a prolific writer. His well-researched articles on nature cure, health, nutrition and herbs appear regularly in various newspapers and magazines and they bear the stamp of authority.

A diploma holder in naturopathy, all his current 13 books on nature cure, nutrition and herbs titled, A Complete Handbook if Nature Cure, Diet Cure for Common Ailments, A Handbook if Natural Beauty, Nature Cure for Children's Diseases, Naturopathy for Longevity, Healing Through Natural Foods, Indian Spices and Condiments as Natural Healers, Foods That Heal, Herbs That Heal, Natural Home Remedies for Common Ailments, Vitamins that Heal, Conquering Diabetes Naturally and Conquering Cancer Naturally have been highly appreciated by the public and repeatedly reprinted. His first-named book has been awarded first prize in the category 'Primer on Naturopathy for Healthy Living' by the jury of judges at the 'Book Prize Award' scheme, organized by 'National Institute of Naturopathy', an autonomous body under Govt. of India, Ministry of Health.

Dr. Bakhru began his career on the Indian Railways, with a first class first postgraduate degree in History from Lucknow University in 1949. He retired in October 1984 as the Chief Public Relations Officer of the Central Railway in Mumbai, having to his credit 35 years of distinguished service in the Public Relations organisations of the Indian Railways and the Railway Board.

An associate member of the All India Alternative Medical Practitioner's Association and a member of the Nature Cure Practitioners' Guild in Mumbai, Dr. Bakhru has extensively studied herbs and natural methods of treating diseases. He has been honoured with 'Lifetime Achievement Award', 'Gem of Alternative Medicines' award and a gold medal in Diet Therapy by the Indian Board of Alternative Medicines, Calcutta, in recognition of his dedication and outstanding contributions in the field of Alternative Medicines. The Board, which is affiliated with the Open International University for Complementary Medicines, established under World Health Organisation and recognised by the United Nations Peace University, has also appointed him as its Honorary Advisor. Dr. Bakhru has also been honoured by Nature Cure Practitioners' Guild, Mumbai with Nature Cure Appreciation Award for his services to Naturopathy.

Dr. Bakhru has founded a registered Public Charitable Trust, known as D.H. Bakhru Foundation, for help to the poor and needy. He had been donating Rs. 25,000 every year to this trust from his income as writer and author.

Dr. Bakhru spent his retired life, devoting all his time to the furtherance of the cause of nature cure and charitable activities under the auspices of the Trust.

All children suffer from common illnesses. For the young parents, the young mother in particular, they can be the cause for great anxiety. This book will give them the necessary basic information they need to look after their child when he is unwell. Some of the illnesses described are mild and can be treated at home through natural methods. Others are more serious and will need a doctor's attention.

The book is divided into 10 sections, each section dealing with diseases in a particular category. The diseases described under each section are arranged on the basis of their frequency .Thus, diseases with higher incidence have been dealt with first and those with lesser incidence later. The procedure for various methods of treatment prescribed for various diseases in relevant chapters has been mentioned in the Appendix at the end of the book.

To avoid unnecessary complicated phraseology, the child is referred to as 'he' and 'him' throughout the book with a few exceptions. The conditions described apply to girls also, unless otherwise stated.

I earnestly hope that young parents would find the contents of the book quite helpful when their children develop a specific disease. They will no doubt learn from the contents the usual course of the illness and the best way to relieve the symptoms in their children. It should also help them to decide whether a child's symptoms are trivial or more serious, necessitating advice and treatment by a doctor. In case of any doubt, it would always be advisable to consult the doctor.

Any suggestions from the parents for improving the contents of the book would be most welcome and implemented in future editions.

The most prevalent of all forms of disease are those of infancy and early childhood. The chief cause of a very large number of these diseases lies in faulty feeding habits. Unless this is realised by parents, there can be little hope of rescue for their children from the various ailments suffered by them.

The young baby is fed in a wrong way, even before its birth. In the womb, the child depends for its nourishment on what the mother supplies to it. And the modern mother generally eats denatured and demineralised foods. This deprives her growing unborn child of the invaluable mineral elements it needs. For proper bone and body building. The child thus enters into the world as a potentially unhealthy baby.

It is therefore of utmost importance that the mother should know as to what foods she needs for her own health as well as for the health of her child. She should understand that rickets, scurvy, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, tonsillitis, dental caries and all the other diseases of childhood are merely the result of refined foods of today, which are deficient in organic mineral salts, but excessive in refined sugar, starchy foods, proteins and fats She should realise the invaluable part played by fresh fruits and raw salad vegetables in preventing such diseases.

During the first two or three days after the baby is born, the mother's breasts do not secrete milk, but yields a yellowish fluid. This fluid, called colostrum, is good for the baby. It is rich in many nutrients and anti-infective factors which protect the infant from infections during the first few days of life. It also takes care of his hunger. The act of suckling during these days will promote the milk flow and soon the breasts will start secreting milk.

All children should be breast-fed when possible. Breast-feed in is the natural and ideal way of feeding the infants. Mother's milk is pure and fresh and contains most of the nutrients necessary for the growth and development of the baby.

Breast-feeding is safe, simple and clean. Milk from other sources is liable to contamination, especially in areas with unhygienic environments. This can result in bowel infection. It is a well-known fact that bowel upsets are less common among breast-fed babies than those who are artificially fed. Moreover, the exercise involved in sucking breast aids in the proper development of jaws, palate, mouth and cheek muscles.

In the beginning, the infant should be breast-fed on demand and all efforts should be made to breast-feed the infant whenever he cries. Once the breast-feeding has been established, it is advisable to train the baby to regular feeding times. In the beginning, he may be given four feeds a day after four-hours of interval, but no feed should be given during night. If the child wakes up at night, only boiled, and cooled water should be given. Babies should be breast fed for atleast six months as this is nature's way of providing all the required nutrients during this period. Recent research has shown that a mother's body is capable of reacting to infections and producing antibodies against them. These antibodies pass through milk to babies and protect them against common infections.

If for any reason, it is not possible to breast-feed the baby, he should be fed on either cow's milk or commercially available milk formulas like Lactogen or Glaxo formula. As far as possible, the baby should not be given artificially prepared, patent or tinned milk foods. When a mother can partly feed the baby, she should give him two feeds of her own and two top feeds or one of her own and three top feeds.

Where babies are entirely breast-fed, they need nothing more than the milk they receive from their mothers. Babies on top-feed should be given some orange juice daily, in addition to the bottle feeds.

Certain precautions are necessary in case the baby is on bottle- feed. The most important of this is to dilute the cow's milk. The chief protein in milk is casein, which is 0.5 per cent in human milk and nearly three per cent in cow's milk. If the milk is not diluted well and boiled properly, it will be very difficult for the baby to digest. This can lead to vomiting and stomach upsets.

Another disadvantage of cow's milk is that it has high phosphorus content, which can lower calcium in the blood. Therefore, if the milk is not diluted properly, the calcium levels in baby's blood can fall dangerously and lead to convulsions. Cow's milk is deficient in vitamins C, D and iron. Children fed on cow's milk should therefore be given extra supplementation of these nutrients.

If the baby is fed on milk formulas, which are mostly dried powders, the milk powder should be prepared properly as per instructions given on the tin. Extra supplementation of nutrients in case of milk formulas is not necessary as their composition is almost similar to that of mother's milk.

Another important point in case of bottle-fed babies is that the milk should be boiled properly so as to kill the bacteria. Contamination of milk can lead to typhoid, diphtheria, T.B. and many other infectious diseases.

Sterilization is also an important part of bottle feeding. It is essential to wash the bottle immediately after the feed and to boil the bottle for 15 minutes prior to every feed. Care should be taken that nipples are washed thoroughly and put into boiling water for not more than three to five minutes, otherwise they will melt.

No starchy food or any other food stuff should be given during this period. If the babies are given starchy foods such as bread and oatmeal before weaning, it will lead to the early development of childhood ailments, as babies lack the proper enzymes needed for digestion before that age.

However, breast milk alone cannot provide sufficient amount of all the nutrients needed for growth after the first six months. Studies on the lactation performance of Indian nursing women have shown that the milk output diminishes after six months of delivery. Supplementary feeding is therefore essential, after the sixth month, for the maintenance of expected growth rate and health of the baby. The best method of supplementing the baby's food at this stage, is to provide cow's milk.

Great care is necessary in selecting and introducing supplementary food during weaning. It is an important period in the life of a baby, when it switches from a solely breast milk diet to other foods. To begin with, fresh cow's milk should be boiled and cooled. This milk should be given to the child, diluted with boiled and cooled water on 2:1 basis, for the first feeds. The amount of water can be gradually reduced so that in the course of a few weeks, the baby receives undiluted cow's milk. About 225 ml. of milk per feed for two feeds is an ideal replacement. A small quantity of sugar may be added to sweeten it. It is of importance to continue feeding 450 ml. of cow's milk right through early and late childhood. Juices of fresh fruits like oranges, tomatoes, sweet lime, and grapes can supplement some of the protective nutrients not present in sufficient amount in breast milk as well as in cow's milk.