The management of sickness can be divided in two. One is for the physician to prescribe "big things" like surgery or medication. The other is for "little things" to be recommended.
You would think it's the big things that matter. In fact if you don't do the little things, the failure rate for the big things is high, very high.
Take a look at something learned years ago for treating diaper rash. Man, you can apply all the creams and anti-fungal ointments that you want, unless you expose the baby's bottom, it just ain't going to get better or, if it does get better, it'll take far longer.
You not only have to take that diaper off and leave it off for some hours a day, you have to change the diaper as soon, repeat as soon, as the baby urinates or stools. If you don't, that rash is not going to improve.
One of the advantages of living in the Caribbean is that you can prescribe six hours by the seashore for diaper rash. Just that, just that, makes the rash better. The opposite is not so. Just medicine does not help.
This business of sea, salt and sand or salt water, sun and exposure will help most irritant rashes. It is also ideal for sinus problems. Not the common cold or asthma which are often worsened by a day at the beach, but their first cousin, sinus, as in chronic runny nose, morning cough, sneezing and yampie in the eyes, and a persistent gravelly throat.
I reckon a tumble in the Maracas waves and a good flush out of my nasal passages has done more for my sinus than any nasal spray.
Another good reason to live near the beach but if you do not, any of the many saline sprays available OTC, is mandatory for sinus problems.
The opposite of exposure is protection as in keep away from. That's what you need when your child is vomiting or has diarrhoea. The mainstay of treatment for any vomiting or diarrhoea, is staying away from certain foods. It is not medication which is almost useless. It's diet.
Almost immediately the symptoms will lessen and you will feel better. The traditional acronym for this diet is BRAT or banana, rice, apple and toast. Adding green tea gives you a local acronym and another source of energy and hydration, one that sick children will not always appreciate. Older ladies will cherish that extra T.
The rational behind this diet is that there are foods that have the potential to damage the stomach and gut and that when those organs are already irritated and inflamed, certain foods worsen the inflammation. Examples are milk or any dairy product; grease, oily or fried items; foods with lots of fibre (legumes, greens and grains); most fruits except apples, banana and its cousins, plantain and green fig. Of course junk food. Even after 40 years it continues to surprise me when parents come in with a vomiting child who has just been given a lunch of chocolate and dinnermint. Or buy the child doubles after a particularly explosive diarrhoeal session.
Staying home from day care or pre school or school itself is another prerequisite for improvement of colds and coughs especially nowadays when classrooms are air-conditioned.
Carpet and air-conditioning, the double whammy of persistent runny noses and hacking coughs, like whiskey drunk straight from the bottle at Test matches, is a staple in the breathing diet of our children since the 70's oil boom.
It's not only the physical environment, it's the stress. No matter how much the child enjoys school, there is no place like home for rest.
Rest, the sleep of dreams and peaceful breathing, secure in the embrace of mummy, makes children better! If mother can afford to stay home, that is! Well then, granny? No, tantie? No? Well, take yuh bounce, little one. Back to the day care.
Soap is another wonderful little thing that is hardly mentioned anymore.
Yet soap is a useful disinfectant when used in small amounts. It's cheap too. Wash wounds, scrapes and insect bites with soapy water to prevent infection. There is no need for more expensive lotions or creams. Even when there is infection, washing with soap hastens the healing process and prevents spread.
Little things also help big people who break their hips. The necessary operation is only half the treatment. If you don't exercise that hip after the operation, it will never be the same.
Too many people do some therapy with the physiotherapist for a few weeks and limp around the rest of their lives.
Therapy hurts but exercise seldom kills anyone and laying around after surgery is an almost sure guarantee of clots and heart and lung problems.
Simple things, little things. Expose the rash. Salt water, natural or made up for noses, eyes and throats. Diet for Gastro.
Rest at home for colds with fevers. Simple soap! And exercise for old, aching bones.