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Monsoons bring in much relief from the scorching summers. While you want to enjoy the weather, you also want to be sure that your baby is well-protected this season. Babies are prone to infections during monsoons because a range of microorganisms are active during the rainy season and as such can cause infections, especially in babies and children whose immune system is still developing.
Some of the most common infections you can expect during monsoons:
Dengue
Dengue virus is normally transmitted by mosquitoes that bite during the day. Babies might show the following symptoms:
- Fever
- Runny nose
- Cough
- Mild Skin Rash
- Joint and muscle pain
- Pain behind the eyes
- Nosebleeds
- Vomiting
- Weakness
- Tiny red spots on the skin
- Abdominal pain
- Dark-colored stools
Visit your doctor right away should your baby show any of these signs.
Malaria
Babies don’t catch malaria in the first two months of their lives because of their acquired immunity from the mothers. But as they grow up, that immunity declines and they become susceptible to catching malaria. Malaria can be severe in children below five and the symptoms begin to manifest between ten days to four weeks after being bitten. The key symptoms are as follows:
- Fever
- Shivering
- Poor appetite
- Sleeplessness
- Shivering
- Cold
- Drowsiness and irritability
- Vomiting
- Rapid breathing
- Stomach ache
A child older than five might have symptoms like that of an adult with 48-hour cycle of shivering and extreme sweating apart from chills, vomiting, headaches, loss of appetite, etc.
Diarrhoea
Make sure that your baby is fed from sterilized feeding bottle if your baby is on bottle-feed. For making his formula, use boiled and cooled water. If your baby is on solid foods, make sure that everything is freshly prepared and boiled or cooked well. Vegetables and fruits must be washed well before they are pureed for your baby. Milk and water must be boiled and cooled while feeding apparatus must always be sterile.
Viral infections
Viral infection is usually not cured by using antibiotics, but your pediatrician could give medicines to relieve your child of the symptoms. Most viral infections are characterized by coughs, sneezes, chills, joint pain and fever. Also, your baby must stay away from people who have contracted the flu, conjunctivitis or other viral infections. It’s important that adults also make a conscientious effort by not touching the baby without first applying a hand sanitizer or wear a mask if one is suffering from a cough or cold.
Respiratory conditions
Your baby could be vulnerable to allergens and germs that are passed on through someone sneezing or coughing in the vicinity. It could lead to respiratory problems in your child. Therefore, stay away from a child if you are running the flu or want to cough or sneeze.
Leptospirosis
It’s a bacterial infection that spreads through dirty water and can cause meningitis, jaundice, damage the liver or can cause renal failure. Symptoms include:
- Cough
- Blood-tinged saliva
- Chest pain
The symptoms might call for immediate medical attention.
Prickly Heat
The humidity that accompanies monsoons can make babies perspire. Sweat can cause fungal infections, allergies or rashes in babies. Prickly heat can very easily pop up in the creases of your baby’s skin. Keeping your baby dry and dressing it right, using the fan, air-conditioner or cooler, applying prickly heat powder specifically meant for babies is one way to tackle prickly heat. However, ensure that your baby does not inhale the talcum powder. Also, make sure you give your baby a warm bath with some neem oil added to its bath (1).
Other conditions such as gastrointestinal infections, typhoid and cholera are also common during monsoons. So you need to bear caution for your baby.
What you need to do to save your child from the infections during monsoons:
- Protect babies from mosquito bites
- Protect from damp clothes to avoid cold and fungal infections
- Your baby should always wear dry clean clothes. Make sure your baby has extra underclothes too.
- Be careful with what you are feeding your baby. Your baby’s feeding bottles or apparatus must be sterilized.
- Water and milk must be boiled and cooled before serving to your baby. If your baby is on formula milk, even then it would need sterile water.
- Before touching your baby, make sure either you or whoever comes to hold the baby has his hands washed, so simply ask them to apply an instant hand sanitizer.
- Never sneeze or cough in the vicinity of a baby.
- If you know you are sick; there is no harm in staying away from the baby for until you feel better.
- Make sure that food is properly covered away from flies and mosquitoes.
- Fruits and vegetables must be washed well before they can be pureed for babies. Food should also be well-cooked.
- Kids should avoid playing in rain water because water in puddles harbors a range of microorganisms which can only be harmful to your baby.
- Get a pre-monsoon check done on your house, so your house and surroundings remain clean and free from infection causing agents.
- Use germ-free solutions or disinfectants to keep the floor clean and free from pathogens.
- Don’t let leaky faucets stay the way they are. Ensure that all the plumbing works are fixed this time around.
- Keep your bedsheets washed and cleaned after every single use.
- There are a lot of bugs and insects that can invade into your surroundings during monsoon.
- Try keeping your baby indoors most of the times when it rains.
- Give your baby easily digestible foods.
- If your garden requires pruning, then do it before monsoon can harbor a lot of germs in your backyard.
- Trim your and baby’s nails. You don’t want the underside of your nails to harbor pathogens or bacteria.
- Make light and easily digestible pap for your baby.
- Sunlight is scanty during monsoons, so make sure your home and surroundings are mopped and kept hygienic most of the times.
- If you have to take your baby out for any reason, keep him well covered and protected.
