No fear of bumps on the head
Today once again something from the very important category: reassuring parents. It is not uncommon for them to call us worried because they have noticed a lump on the back of their child's neck or head. And this often causes great anxiety.
I won't keep you in suspense for long. The solution is as simple as it is reassuring. There are many lymph vessels in the neck and the back of the head. And especially in young children up to school age or even up to secondary school, it can happen very quickly that a lymph node swells and becomes thick and is easy to feel.
Don't worry: the whole thing is almost always relatively harmless. There is a rule: enlarged lymph nodes above the collarbone are harmless in children. It is important that the child is well, does not have a constant fever or weight loss or appears weak. If the child is well, a swollen lymph node is not an emergency and should not lead to a sleepless night for you, dear parents, out of sheer concern for your child's health.
A colleague friend of mine once put it in a nutshell: "Lymph nodes come quickly and go very slowly." This means that even a mild infection can quickly cause a lymph node to swell - and then stay there for ages without it having any pathological significance.
Nevertheless, as always, if you are unsure, you are welcome to show us the lump and we can discuss it in more detail. It's just important to me that you don't worry and think it's an emergency if you discover a small lump somewhere in the neck or at the back of the head of your otherwise healthy child.
Further interesting tips
Co-regulation
This time there is a combined tip: On the one hand, it is a recommendation for a website with articles on various parenting and development topics. And secondly, it's a specific reading tip on the topic of co-regulation.
Childcare
At what age should children be looked after and how? A question that I am constantly confronted with. Most recently, it was even a political issue here in Schorndorf. Clear answer: There is no clear answer - only many omissions.
Volunteer interpreter service
A sensitive topic, but one that is really important in the everyday life of a paediatric practice - and above all for the health of the children concerned. What do you do if the parents of a (sick) child don't speak German or barely speak it?