Tender Loving Care

When your child is unwell, she needs more than just medication. Indulge her and help make her feel better by cheering her up.

Very often we force awful medications down our child's throat when she is sick, with little regard to her feelings. Naturally, we want our children to get better, and if the medicine is bitter, it's just something she has to take. However, very often, there are various alternatives to any medicine, and if your child hates the taste of a particular brand, do speak to the doctor and find out if there are any alternatives. Many parents don't do this, thinking that they or their child doesn't have a choice - when in fact, they do. Your child may hate taking Crocin, and Disprin, dissolved in water, may be more appealing. 

If there are no alternatives to a particular brand, perhaps you can give her the medicine in a form that would be more appealing to her, after checking with your doctor. Find out if if you can mix the medicine with a spoon of honey. Or perhaps, you can crush the medicine and roll it in some chocolate. Let your child know that you are giving her medicine, but you've tried your best to make it taste less repulsive. This is better than trying to trick her into eating it. She may get a nasty shock when she puts the chocolate piece in her mouth, and will want to spit it out. On the other hand, if she knows she's getting medicine, she may be pleasantly surprised to see that it doesn't taste half as bad in this form as she had feared.

Treats 

Allow your child a few treats when she is unwell and relax the rules. Feed her her favourite foods (depending of course on her illness and what her doctor says. Needless to say, if your child has diarrhoea, she will have to stay far away from her faourite foods and eat very light!). Similarly, if she's allowed ice cream, get it for her. When your child is sick she also feels miserable, so do all you can to alleviate some of that misery. Do give her lots of TLC.

Home Remedies 

Along with medicine try giving her home remedies. This should help her recover faster. Home remedies can work wonders if used correctly. Here are a few home remedies for some of the most common illnesses children are prone to:

Cold 

If your daughter has a bad cold, give her 3-4 cups of hot ginger tea through the day. Make a paste with ajwain, ginger and jaggery, and let her munch on this a couple of times in the day. You could also make a steaming hot drink with pepper, basil leaves, turmeric and ginger and give her this to drink. Mix these ingredients with water, place to boil, and when the water has reduced to half the quantity, remove from fire and serve hot.

Sore throat 

If your daughter has a sore throat, make sure she gargles with warm salty water at least twice a day if not more. You could also add turmeric to the water, as it has antiseptic properties and will help kill infections. 

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