Health Tips for August 1

Health Tip: If Your Diabetic Child Gets Sick

Managing your child's diabetes is challenging enough, but it's compounded when the youngster becomes sick from something else.

The American Diabetes Association offers these suggestions:

• Don't stop giving your child insulin, even if the youngster doesn't have much of an appetite. Call the child's doctor if you're not sure about how to administer insulin during a sick day.
• Try not to make major changes to your child's diet. For a child with an upset tummy, offer liquids with carbohydrates, including broth, gelatin, sports drinks, fruit juice and frozen fruit bars.
• Make sure your child drinks plenty of water. Avoid any beverage with caffeine.
• Check with the doctor before giving any over-the-counter medication. Many drugs have sugar and/or alcohol that can affect your child's blood glucose levels.
• It's critical to carefully monitor your child's blood glucose and ketone levels during an illness, so make sure you check the blood every few hours and urine several times daily.

Health Tip: Managing Your Child's Asthma

It's difficult to prevent your child's asthma symptoms entirely, but you can help control them so they don't interfere with your youngster's daily life.

The American Lung Association offers this advice about controlling asthma:

• Avoid any triggers, which commonly include allergens, cigarette smoke and strenuous exercise.
• Talk to your child's pediatrician about asthma-controlling medications.
• Consider allergy shots. Although research is still being done on their effectiveness against asthma, they are proven in preventing allergic reactions that can be associated with asthma symptoms.
• Both you and your child should be well-educated about ways to manage asthma, including the use of an asthma inhaler and how to evaluate breathing with a peak flow monitor.