Why your child deserves proper care this rainy season

It’s the mid-year season accompanied with rains. This period can be frustrating for parents, as it exposes little ones to viral infections and illnesses. Hence, it is important to keep children safe and healthy this season.

While you can never control when it rains or how much it rains, what you can control is how to protect your kids from falling sick. Diseases that set in at this time include jaundice, typhoid, cholera, cough and cold. Babies are even more prone to these diseases due to their low immunity.

Here are a few ways to protect your child this season especially as they go to school and exposed to the weather:

Equip your child with proper rain gear. Umbrellas, raincoats, cardigans and rain boots should be a part of your child’s outing needs, especially as they go to school. Most school uniforms do not protect children better from the cold, especially in the early hours of the day. Therefore, parents should warm them properly before leaving the house.

Restrict your child from having outside food, especially the ones sold by roadside vendors. This season is odd as it attracts infections due to improper hygiene conditions of the surroundings.

Your child’s water should be filtered before consumption. For small babies boil and cool water and then ensure storage is also maintained. Special care has to be taken for the water intake. Avoid outside water, carry a bottle of water when you plan going out with the baby.

Teach your child to wash hands properly using antiseptic handwash or sanitiser. Make sure that his/her washes hands before eating. Your child should also wash hands every time he comes from outside because they carry disease-causing germs which make their way from the hands to the mouth and then to the stomach which is a major cause of illnesses.

Provide your kids with healthy food and boost their immunity through proper nutrition. Give them lots of fruits, vegetables, fruit juices and avoid roadside street food during this season which will help keep them and their immune system healthy. Educate children in the rainy season about the ill effects of eating unhealthy food.

Diseases develop when the body experiences a sudden drop in the temperature, which generally occurs when your kids get wet in the rain. Taking a shower after getting wet in the rain helps the body by stabilising the cold temperature and brings it back to normal. Also, after taking a shower, give them something hot to drink like tea.

Flies will be high in the external environment therefore make sure that all cooked foods are covered so it is not infected. Ensure to keep your surroundings clean too by removing stagnant water, prevent wet walls and keep windows closed while it’s raining. This prevents mosquitoes, flies and other disease-carrying insects from swarming all over the place. This step is very important to protect children in the rainy season.

Also, nails are a major source of bacterial infection. Therefore trim nails on time and ensure your child does not bite his nails to reduce chances of infection. Damp clothes also lead to skin infections. Since the sunlight will be scanty this season, make sure to iron your child’s clothes appropriately.

Although the rainy season comes with its peculiarities, it also definitely comes with its showers of happiness. Parents should therefore be proactive enough to help children benefit from the goodness of the season rather than ill health.