Child Specialist

Vitamin D deficiency is becoming more common these days. This is chiefly due to less intake of milk and milk containing products such as eggs, cheese, butter etc. In addition, sunlight plays a very important role in active conversion of vitamin D. According to Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla-A Child Specialist in Karachi People have started living in flats with little or no ventilation, and no sun light. Children do not play outside in the parks. They are busy doing homework, watching TV or playing games on the computer or mobile. Therefore, they are not exposed to sunlight. All these factors contribute to vitamin D deficiency. Children complain of aches and pain in the body, especially leg pain. Diagnosis is through testing vitamin D levels as well as X-Ray diagnosis.   Treatment is with Vitamin D administration generally in the form of drops. Treatment continues for at least 2 months depending on the severity of deficiency. In addition, exposure to sunlight must be ensure...

Pneumonia is common in children in the cold weather. All respiratory infections are not pneumonia but sometimes simple cough and cold can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is responsible for nearly 17% of deaths in children under five years of age. Basically, pneumonia means infection of the lungs. Sometimes, there is consolidation of the lobe of the lung, called lobar pneumonia. This occurs in older children. In others the whole lung may be involved in a patchy manner known as broncho pneumonia. According to Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla-A Child Specialist in Karachi , this initially starts with common flu like symptoms, fever, cough and cold. However, gradually the fever starts getting high grade and the cough increases. The respiratory rate tells us a lot about the pneumonia. If the respiratory rate is more than 50 breaths per minute in infants or more than 40 breaths per minute in children less than 5 years, which is considered as a dangerous sign. Other signs include presence of a depressio...

Tuberculosis is a dreaded disease in third world countries. It is considered disease of poverty. The disease generally occurs due to close contact with the infected person and the droplets causing infection. Tuberculosis of the lungs, known as Pulmonary Tuberculosis is most common. There is generally a history of tuberculosis in the family. The child suffers from low grade and sometimes high grade fever. There is history of weight loss for months. The fever also continues for months, and does not respond to general antibiotics. There is a continuous dry cough though it is not too severe. Sometimes, you can feel lymph glands like nodules. These lymph glands are matted, hard and rubbery. They may also occur in the axilla. According to Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla-A Child Specialist in Karachi , X-Ray of chest is quite diagnostic in this regard. The physician by looking at the X-Ray can make a clinical diagnosis of tuberculosis. In addition, the ESR is raised. Another diagnostic test is M...

Food poisoning has become quite common these days due to increased consumption of food from outside. Children not only eat burgers, pizza etc but also street made French fries, bun kebab, chips etc. Interestingly, food poisoning has become more common after eating food from high class restaurants. Food poisoning occurs due to eating stale food, left over food, expired food, improperly cooked food and food prepared in unhygienic conditions. Canned juices can also cause food poisoning. The symptoms start within 2-24 hours after eating contaminated food. Initially, there is severe vomiting. The child starts projectile vomiting and cannot tolerate any food. This is accompanied by abdominal pain and fever. This should immediately alert the parents. The vomiting lasts for 3-4 hours with the child unable to eat anything. In this condition, mother should try to give sips of water and ORS; otherwise the child will get dehydrated. Then the diarrhea starts which is very loose and watery. The vo...

A premature newborn is one who is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, needs lots of special care. The most important thing is to keep the baby warm. This is done by keeping the baby in the incubator which provides the same warmth as in the womb of the mother. This is because the temperature regulation centre of the baby is not yet developed. The lungs of the baby are not developed too. The baby generally has difficulty in breathing. Initially oxygen is given but even then if the baby has respiration difficulty then the baby is put on a ventilator.   In some cases, a special medicine surfactant is added to improve lung maturity. This helps in early maturity of the lungs. The liver is immature too and the newborn is liable to develop physiological jaundice which takes 2-3 weeks to disappear. Due to liver immaturity blood clotting factors are not developed and the baby should urgently be given Vitamin K, otherwise the baby will develop hemorrhages and bleeding. Accordin...

Measles is a viral condition characterized by a maculopapular rash. It can occur in any age group. Initially, there is fever which gradually becomes high grade. The eyes of the child become red. The child gets runny eyes and runny nose. It initially looks like a case of flu. Then, the ears start getting red. In a day or two, the measles rash appears. First the rash appears on the face. It is a maculopapular rash. Blotchy, red spots appear all over the body. Rash initially starts from behind the ears. After this first the face, then gradually over a period of days the body and upper limbs and finally the lower limbs get affected. The whole process takes four to five days. As the rash starts to appear on the lower limbs it starts disappearing on the face. The fever starts to come down. The child is very itchy. Measles can be accompanied by a mild cough or diarrhea. However, in some cases, the cough may increase and there might be chest infection, which can go on to become ...

Typhoid is a disease caused by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. According to Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla - child specialist in Karachi , In recent years, typhoid has become more wide spread. Many resistant strains of typhoid have emerged so that patients do not respond to simple treatments. The clinical symptoms include high grade fever going up to 102 -103 °F. The fever does not touch the normal temperature and generally stays for more than a week. The child looks sick, toxic and lethargic. The tongue is coated white and a bad odor comes from the mouth. The child does not feel like eating and feels nauseated. There may be pain in the abdomen and diarrhea may develop. As time passes vomiting may start too. If not treated in time ulcers may develop in the intestines which can be very dangerous. There may be bleeding from the ulcers leading to blood in the stools and the ulcers may burst, which is a surgical emergency resulting in urgent surgery. ...

Constipation is becoming more and more common worldwide over recent years. According to Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla, child specialist in Karachi , this is chiefly attributed to dietary changes in children habits. Children tend to eat more fast food, which is refined and contains less fiber; foods such as pizza, burgers, noodles, white bread, cakes, white refined flour, french fries, chips etc. Due to which children tend to initially pass less and less stools. The stool then starts getting hard. The child has difficulty in passing hard stools so he tries to hold the stools. As the child holds the stools they become more hard. The child cries in pain while trying to pass stools. It is a very painful condition. The hard stools can cause a fissure in the anus, which is even more painful and may result in blood trickling with the hard stools. The child holds the stool even more and gets more constipated. A vicious cycle is thus set up. The child is irritable, does not like to eat. C...