Category Archives: Child Care

Is Eczema Stopping Your Child From Having Fun?

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Whether your physician says that your child has eczema or Atopic Dermatitis, you will need to know more. It is important for you to know and understand the disease, its symptoms, causes, treatments, and what can be done at home. It is important to know that the disease is not contagious.

Eczema is often used as a synonym for Atopic Dermatitis, even though it is a general term which covers any inflammation of the skin. Neither race nor gender has any correlation with the disease, which affects 10% of people worldwide. Instead, a combination of environment and heredity tend to be the culprits causing the disease.

Eczema is characterized by skin that is scaly, dry, inflamed, and itchy. It is possible for the affected areas to form blisters which break open, becoming open sores. Scratching does not alleviate the itchiness; rather it becomes worse and can be the cause of the open sores. Determining factors for diagnosis include:

Age, Eczema symptoms usually begin to manifest in early childhood, especially infancy.

Itching

Location, Eczema is usually found on the face, behind the knees, and on the inside of the elbows. It can affect other parts of the body as well, such as hands, feet, or scalp.

Appearance, the skin is usually scaly and dry, but the disease can look different from one person to the next. Skin can have open sores, tiny blisters, or thickening.

Heredity, Children who have a genetic history of asthma, eczema, or hay fever are more likely to have it than others.

Causes

Too many inflammation producing cells are released into the skin when an affected person comes in contact with a trigger. Triggers include: various environmental factors, having too mush stress, or having an infection. This release of cells is a normal bodily reaction, but in eczema patients the cells continue to be released even after the trigger is gone.

What kinds of things make symptoms worse and what can I do?

The different things that set off a flare up (worsening of symptoms) are called triggers and are different for everyone. Different triggers include:

Allergens, These may be food related or airborne. Airborne allergens can be dust, pets, and pollen among other things. Avoiding allergens (possibly having your pediatrician prescribe allergy medication) will help reduce eczema flare ups.

Dry skin, People who have eczema have to keep plenty of moisturizer on their skin because their skin does not moisturize itself like it is supposed to. To help avoid this, use plenty of moisturizer; apply in the morning, at night, after bathing, and during the day when dryness causes itching. Do not use lotions as they have ingredients that can actually cause further drying. Creams with a petroleum jelly base provide the most relief. These should be applied to wet skin.

Infection, Infections from breaks in the skin (often due to scratching) often trigger flare ups. Keep nails cut short and wash with anti bacterial soap regularly (do not forget to moisturize,as described above, afterward).

Irritants, Man made products that irritate the skin when your child comes in contact with them. Try to not let your child come in contact with chemicals that irritate his skin.

Stress, It has not been determined why, but stress often precludes a flare up. A good support network is important, as is learning stress management techniques. Make sure your child knows about and understands his eczema.

Sweating, Sweat tends to irritate the skin of eczema patients. Bath as soon after sweating as possible, remembering to moisturize, as described above.

Temperatures, Extreme heat or cold as well as sudden temperature changes can affect eczema.

What kind of treatments can I expect?

It is important to realize that eczema has no cure. Treatments will alleviate the symptoms, but they will not make the disease go away permanently. Eczema is considered a chronic disease, meaning that it is incurable and it is very long term. Some children seem to outgrow eczema, but often they are actually just in remission for a number of years.

Topical medications, Often the pediatrician or dermatologist will prescribe corticosteroid medications that are applied several times daily. Be sure to apply these exactly as your doctor prescribes. Too few applications or inadequately spaced (in terms of time) applications will not help relieve the symptoms. Likewise, applying too often can cause other problems, such as thin skin and stretch marks.

Antibiotics, Any skin infections may require antibiotics to destroy the bacteria that are causing skin irritation.

Allergy medications, For airborne allergy triggers, your child may have to take an antihistamine regularly.

An Overview of Children Day Care Services

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Children day care facilities can be divided into 3 types: preschools, day care centers and family care homes. While all these types of services involve the supervision of kids while their parents are either working or unavailable, every setting is distinct in its own way.

Child day care providers, as the name connotes, take care of children during daytime, when most parents are working. They may either own the licensed care center or just work here. Owners of family day care centers do not necessarily have a license; they usually take care of one or more kids together with their children. The duty of a such a service provider is to supervise children, provide snacks and things to do.

When children come to the day care in the morning, the provider may let them play freely. Before noontime, most providers let the kids participate in structured activities, like reading books or doing art projects. At times, they bring the kids to a museum or a sports center, where they can swim or skate on ice. Good providers focus on activities that enable children to have fun while learning. Parents appreciate them more than providers who let their kids spend time watching television. After all, they pay a fee to these providers to take care of their children.

Child day care providers must supply a healthy lunch and snacks to the children. Also, if an older child is under their care, they are in charge of bringing him/her to school and back to the center right after. Bigger centers that supervise kids of different ages should have workers particularly assigned to look after younger kids, as well as workers to take older children to and from school.

It is the duty of day care providers to look after the welfare of kids at all times. For this reason, a lot of care centers have a fence surrounding their outdoor play areas. The service providers should accompany the children whenever they are outdoors. They can bring the kids to the neighborhood parks as long as they supervise their activities. Most situations that occur at these centers involve kids of different ages. That is why providers should make sure that all children are safely playing together.

It is best for child day care providers to engage in some activities with children such as singing songs, doing craft projects and playing games or sports. Such activities should be suitable for their age and at the same time, be fun as well as safe for them. Though family child care providers may not have as much organized activities with kids, some devote time to read stories, do craft projects or bake with them.