Saturday, July 07, 2007

Health Tips for July 7

Health Tip: Having a Pet Can Help Children

Pets can help build your child's self esteem and self-confidence, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

They can also enrich your child's emotional development by:

* Offering your child important exposure to issues like reproduction, birth, illness, accidents, death and grief.
* Teaching your child responsibility.
* Providing a connection to nature and teaching respect, empathy and patience for other living things.
* Offering unconditional love, loyalty, affection and comfort.

Health Tip: Symptoms of Scabies

Scabies is a skin disease caused by a mite. It can be very contagious via skin-to-skin contact, or by sharing bedding or towels with an infected person.

The itchy rash that characterizes scabies is an allergic reaction to the mite.

Here are other common symptoms, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

* Itchiness, especially at night.
* Very thin, pencil-mark like lines.
* Abrasions, caused by scratching and digging at the rash.
* Small blisters.

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