Mosquito-borne Diseases, Dengue Blogs February 5, 2019

Easy Ways to Detect Dengue Fever in Child at Early Stages

In the past few years, the rate at which the mosquito-borne diseases have been spreading has increased considerably. People are affected in millions and a huge population has lost their lives due to diseases like Dengue, Malaria and Zika virus etc. The most common one is Dengue and has already claimed a lot of lives. The dengue is quite asymptomatic especially when it comes to children. Younger the child, the symptoms are more severe and it only gets detected four days after the infection grows.

Here’s a list of dengue symptoms in a child you need to keep an eye out for:

• Flu-like illness: If your child is running high-temperature with runny nose and cough this can be one of the symptoms of dengue. Though these symptoms are similar to regular flu, it’s always advisable to consult the paediatrician after 24 hours of fever and do the necessary tests to detect whether it is dengue or not.
• Behavior change: As compared to adults, kids are unable to understand what exactly is happening to them. This leads to more agitation and irritation in kids and there will be no apparent reason for it. They will throw tantrums and often you will see that they are losing their appetite.
• Physical distress: Children affected with dengue experience severe joint pain, backache and headaches and so on. Keep talking to your child to understand what they are going through so that you can explain it well to the doctor.
• Gastrointestinal problems: There are symptoms like nausea, vomiting etc., which can be mistaken for gastroenteritis. They can experience shooting pain in the abdomen too.
• Skin problems: One of the most common problems that kids experience if they are infected with dengue is skin rashes. It appears in patches like measles. Another symptom to look out for is constant itching.
• Bleeding: Due to the drop of platelet count, children experience bleeding in their gums and nose. Immediate measures need to be taken in such cases as in rare cases this can turn fatal with conditions like hemorrhagic fever or shock syndrome.

Is your child showing any of these symptoms, here are the measures you need to take:

• Consult your pediatrician immediately who will suggest the measures to be taken further to cure
• Make sure your child is not getting fatigued. They will need at least 15 days to a month of bed rest depending on how harsh your child’s symptoms are
• They need to be given light meals like soups, fruits, steamed vegetables etc.
• If your child is on breastfeed, make sure you don’t skip any feed. In case of older kids, they will have to be hydrated. Consider oral hydration options like Electrolite etc.
• Placing cloth soaked in cold water or a cold water sponge will help in reducing the temperature

To ensure that your child doesn’t get infected by Dengue, here are some preventive measures which you can take:

• Ensure there is no stagnant water around your kids. Not just in your house but even your locality. Maybe collaborating with your neighbours to take action on this will help too.
• Fumigation: When your child is not around, get your area fumigated by pest control professionals.
• Have your child wear clothing that’s covered as much possible.
• Use mosquito repellants. Goodknight has a huge range of mosquito killers which are easily available in the market.
• Make sure each family member is following basic hygiene like showering twice a day. Sweat also attracts mosquitoes.

Most part of India faces tropical climate and that’s where Dengue epidemic hits the most. If your child is showing any dengue fever symptoms, do follow the measures shared in this article. Moreover, make sure the preventive measures are taken, it’s best to never get infected by it, don’t you think so?