Beware of drowning!
Anyone who knows me from practical experience knows that I am usually very relaxed and not very anxious when it comes to parenting and development issues and often advise people not to take a too tense view of things. But when it comes to today's topic, there is simply zero room for compromise. It's one of the most important issues in paediatrics: the risk of children drowning.
The rules are clear - and they should ALWAYS be strictly followed:
A child who cannot swim very confidently and is not at least of advanced primary school age must never be left unsupervised near water for even ONE second. Regardless of whether they are wearing water wings or not. And water doesn't just mean a pool or a lake, but also water in a rain barrel, a very shallow paddling pool, a really small stream or the bathtub at home. No child unsupervised! Never!
Accidents are part of children growing up. And for us parents, it is often difficult to find the right balance between protecting and overprotecting, allowing children to gain experience and at the same time limiting unnecessary risks. Fortunately, children usually have a well-functioning guardian angel when it comes to climbing accidents, bicycle accidents, falling down stairs, etc. Unfortunately, this usually fails completely when it comes to water accidents.
Once again: it is not the depth of the waterhole that is decisive, but its accessibility. What many people don't realise is the phenomenon of "dry drowning": In children up to pre-school age, sudden contact with water can lead to reflex breathing arrest and such a massive cramping of the larynx that this can have a fatal outcome.
If you are in the garden with your child at the paddling pool and the telephone rings in the house, you have to go to the toilet or the postman arrives: either tuck your child under your arm, no matter how much they protest, or let the telephone or postman ring and postpone going to the toilet - because your eyes must always remain with your child.
Further interesting tips
Certificate of suitability for kindergarten
Again and again, and unfortunately more and more often, we see families in our practice who are completely desperate because they can't find anyone to sign a form that is a kind of "certificate of suitability for kindergarten".
Worms
Something from the disgusting box again today. It's about worms. This is actually a very, very common story in small children - and often causes a lot of disgust in the children concerned and their families, even though the whole thing is a fairly harmless story from a medical point of view.
Tics
Today we are talking about tics - a topic that causes great anxiety among parents. So let's start with the good news: for most children, a tic disorder is only temporary. And in most cases, it resolves itself. Sometimes after weeks, sometimes after months - but it goes away again.