‘Prevailing hot weather affects children’s health badly’

BSS, Dhaka :
Changes in weather patterns, burning sun, huge sweating, dehydration in the country are playing a crucial role in increasing high health risk among children.
As children are very weak and tender, a little change in season can cause several problems in their health including cough, cold, fever, dehydration and diarrhoea. “Children are more sensitive to get sick in this hot and humid weather as they get dehydrated and germs multiply in their bodies easily”, said Professor Dr MR Khan, an eminent pediatric expert in the country.
He said infants and children have relatively low body weights, making them more vulnerable to the effects of fluid loss or dehydration that occurs when more fluid is lost from the body than is taken in and causes an imbalance in important minerals. Prof Khan said, “Infants are very easily affected by viral infections in these changing seasons which cause a lot of irritation, running nose, fever, breathing problems as breathing passage is filled with cough”.
Director of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Professor Dr Manzoor Hussain stated that the hospital is receiving more patients in this season of changing period affected by various diseases including high fever, cold, cough and diarrhoea. He emphasized importance of eating extra food by pregnant women and taking more rest during this heat and this would ensure good health of unborn babies.
Regarding the children in villages, emergency medical officer of Pirojpur Sadar Hospital Dr Sakil Sarwar said, “They are getting sick in this weather as they take bath for a long time in the ponds or canals. Sometimes their parents don’t notice that the children are in the water for a long time.” When these children come out of the water and start playing in the fields under burning sun, sometimes with wet body, they get sick. The dust is also bad for the children. “Children under 5 should not be given baths right away when they are hot and sweaty and have just come from being in the sun”, he suggested.
An ICDDR,B medical officer said, each year during the hot season, especially in the months of March and April, which is considered as ‘peak season’ for diarrhoeal diseases, ICDDR,B Dhaka Hospital and Mirpur Treatment Centre receive at least 500 patients a day suffering from diarrhoea.
The doctors advise the mothers to take extra care at this changing season giving children plenty of clean drinking water, lemonade, green coconut water for making the balance of sweating and reducing body heat which help to avoid dehydration.