Effects of Second Hand Smoking in Children

The 2006 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report has concluded that, “ There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and that, on average, children are exposed to more secondhand smoke than adults”(health effects of second hand smoke in children,2007). Avoiding children to second hand smoking exposure prevents weaker lung development in babies and lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia in older children. Second hand smoke gives asthmatic children more frequent and severe asthmatic attacks. It increases ear infections in children. Children are not able to say" I do want to inhale this poison". Children are precious, keep them healthy and avoid them from second hand smoke exposure.
Tips to protect kids from second hand smoke
· Do not smoke. Make home and vehicle smoke free.
· If you want to smoke , then smoke outside
· Choose smoke free environment such as smoke free restaurants.

Reference
Children and second hand smoke exposure.Retrieved on November 17.2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/features/children and smoke

Smoking,children and open heart valve surgery.Image[2008] (http://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/ )

Technology helps to overcome communication barriers

Technology plays an important role in giving patients the best possible care in health care. Technology helps overcoming communication barriers when it is used appropriately. Technology such as telenursing helps patients to get help from nurses from home at any time. When a nurse talked to a patient about procedure or treatment plan then he or she has to use every day language to explain the procedure. The nurse has to make sure that the patient understands what is being said to him or her. This will help the patient to understand the procedure and feeling comfortable. Time is another communication barrier . Technology such as using electronic health record and electronic medication record reduce paper work which in turn help nurses to spend more time with patients. So, in my opinion, technology helps overcome communication barrier.

Does ketogenic diet treat Epilepsy?

I was happy to see children whose seizures are well controlled by a diet called ketogenic. They do not need to take medication any more. The ketogenic diet is an alternative medical treatment for children with seizure disorder. Treatment process and the usage of this diet should be supervised by physician and a dietician. It is a high fat, adequate protein, very low carbohydrate diet with calorie restriction and it is prepared according to age and activity of the child. There should be no gain or lose in children’s weight if it is properly calculated and prepared. Blood sugar four times a day and specific gravity of every void in observed until the child tolerated the diet. The children are only allowed to eat the prescribed, carefully calculated meals (Ketogenic diet, 2008). The following videos talk about the success rate of Ketogenic diet.


References:
Ketogenic diet (008). Ketogeniic diet. Retrieved on November 08/08. From http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/ketogenic.html
The following video talks about priority and success rate of ketogenic diet.
What priority does the ketogenic diet deserve in the treatment of children with difficult to control epilepsy?[Video]. Retrieved on November 05.2008 from http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=S51xdeDd728.
What success do you see with the ketogenic diet?[Video].Retrieved on November 05.2008 from http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=GV2PNO8uxWM.


http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=S51xdeDd728



http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=GV2PNO8uxWM

Assessing vital signs in children

The vital signs are otherwise called cardinal signs. The vital signs includes: blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, heart rate and oxygen saturation rate. The purpose of taking vital signs is to get a child's baseline reading on admission and to find any abnormalities from the normal state. If there is no prior knowledge of the child’s previous vital signs for comparison, it is important that the nurse be aware of the wide range of normal values that apply to children of different ages. Heart rate and respiration should be taken for a full minute. Any abnormal vital signs in children need to be assessed and monitored closely because it may an indication of underlying health problem. The following video talks about abnormal vital signs in children.(Royal College of Nursing,2008).
Reference:
Royal College of Nursing. Standards for assessing, measuring and monitoring vital signs in infants and children. Retrived in November 7, 2008 .www.rcn.org.uk/
Nursing care of children:Pediatric basics:Vital signs/fever.[video].Retrieved on November 05.2008 from http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=fmPaXxw5gj8.

(http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=fmPaXxw5gj8)