A common childhood illness could be Tonsillitis; this is an infection of the tonsils. Symptoms include swollen tonsils, inflamed and red tonsils, pain when swallowing, fever, coughing and headache another symptom could be an earache. A young child may not want to eat, feels sick, sleepy and tearful and may not seem itself. Another main childhood illness is Chicken Pox; this is highly contagious before the spots come out. Symptoms of chicken pox are headache and a red rash before developing into itchy, fluid-filled blisters that the child will want to scratch; you have to encourage them not to scratch as this leads to scaring.
Another childhood illness could be an ear infection; symptoms would include earache, reduced hearing, tinnitus and fever. A child might be tearful and sleepy as their ear may hurt whilst they are sleeping and cant get to sleep, as well as when the child is walking. The flu is another common illness that children can get really easy this is by not covering their mouth when coughing or sneezing etc. Flu is a viral infection of the nose, throat, ears and sinuses. Signs and symptoms of the flu include a child developing a stuffy, runny nose, sore throat, cough and high temperature or may also develop a headache and severe aches and pains, plus exhaustion.
To prevent flu we try to encourage children to wash their hands before every meal, use a tissue to sneeze or cough in to and then throw it away, we also teach the children to cover their mouths when they cough as this spreads germs around. In my setting I would recognise and manage gastroenteritis as if a child was having diarrhoea then we would manage this by calling up the parents and letting them know, if the child was to have two more loose poos then the parent would be called and asked to come and collect the child from school.
Also if the child was to be sick then we would manage this by getting the child to sit by first aid with a bucket underneath them and we would call the parent to come and collect the child as this is contagious. I would recognise measles as if a child was to have cold like symptoms such as a runny nose, watery eyes, swollen eyelids and sneezing and the child would have tiny greyish- whit spots in the mouth and throat and would have a high temperature which may be around 40c .
In this case we would immediately call the parents and ask for them to come and collect the child to take him/her to see a doctor. I would recognise a child who was meningitis if a child had a high fever, vomit and refuses to be fed; also other signs are sensitive to the light and may turn away and cry. Also they may have a red rash that appears under their skin, which if you roll a glass tumbler over the rash it doesn’t fade. I would call the parents straight away and also call an ambulance for medical help immediately as meningitis can be life threatening.
If I was unsure of what was wrong with the child I would contact one of our many first aiders for advice and she would give advice to me, I would contact the parents and if our first aider recommended we would call an ambulance. I would also log all incidents in the first aid book, with times and log what was wrong with the child and when they started to become unwell, also who dealt with what and when. I would recognise a child who has a febrile convulsion as the child would be having a seizure. The child may arch their back, stiffen their body and have clenched fists.
They look red-faced, are hot to touch and sweating. I would immediately make their surroundings safe by putting pillows around them; I would also try to reduce the temperature by removing some of their clothes to cool them down. After their seizure is over I would help them to rest on their side with their head titled back. 007 2. 2, 2. 3 009 4. 2 4. 3 5.
1 In my setting we deal with children that are unwell by noticing a child having symptoms of sickness and diarrhoea for example we would monitor a child who has complained of a bad stomach by monitoring the type of poos they do and if they do more than two loose poos we contact the parents and ask them to come and collect the child. If a child is sick at school we immediately contact the parents to let them know and ask for the parent to come and collect the child, so that they can get medical advice from a doctor.
At my setting we have a policy that the child can not return to school for 48 hours after they have left, just to make sure that that child doesn’t return to school unwell and then spread their illness onto other children. We also deal with children who complain of feeling hot and unwell by monitoring their temperature and if it is around 37c we will continue to monitor the child’s temperature for the next hour if it goes up further we would need to send the child home however if it goes down then we send the child back to class but ask that the teacher keep an eye on the child.
However if the child’s temperature was at 39c we would need to send the child home straight away, so we would contact the parent and ask that they collect their child. If the child’s temperature goes above 40c then we would immediately tell management and they would call an ambulance to come to check the child and to see what is wrong with the child and to make sure the child is healthy, we would also need to contact the child’s parent so that they know what is happening with their child.
If a child is fitting or would have symptoms of meningitis we would seek medical help from a doctor. 009 4. 1 A common sign and symptom that show a child has had an accident or injury is if the child is crying and screaming, they might be bleeding or you might see a visual bump on their body where they have hurt for example on the head.
Some children might tell an adult what has happened by pointing to where it is hurting them. If the child has hurt their foot they would be limping or if they have broken a bone they wouldn’t be able to move the particular body part and would be screaming. A minor injurt could be if a child has fallen over and grazed their knee, this is common in a school setting, the child would be crying and pointing to where they have hurt themselves. The child may have bumped their head and a bump or bruise may have come up on their head or body.
I have dealt with minor injuries in my setting as a child fell over in the garden and grazed her knee, I checked to see if the cut was a minor cut as if it wasn’t I would need to get a trained first aider to come and treat the child however if its just a graze I can deal with it myself, I wiped the area that the child hurt with a sanitized wipe we keep in our medical cupboard. Once I had wiped all dirt and tiny bits of blood I then give the child a plaster and ask if he/she is okay, if they tell me yes I then tell them they can go and play. I would then write down what happened, where it happened, what time it happened and how I dealt with it in the first aid book, I would also need to make sure I write my name down in the book as the person who treated the chid.
A major accident that has happened in my setting was when a child was running and fell over and managed to cut his head open, I noticed this and informed a trained first aider who was in the playground with me she then took him to the first aid area where they cleaned it up and applied a bandage round his head. His mum was contacted immediately and asked to come pick him up to take him to the hospital; this was all documented into the first aid book.