Practice 13: Taking Care of a Sick child

Continue to feed and offer more fluids, including breast milk, when children are sick.

• Talk about health problems, like vomiting by a pregnant mother or child having diarrhea, that can be treated at home.
• Ask the mother what is done in case a pregnant woman or children are sick. Are they given home treatments such as ORS or are they taken to the health facility for treatment?
• Listen attentively.

• Appreciate if family knows that the illnesses that can be treated at home.
• If not, talk to them with the help of pictures.
• Discuss the reasons. Do they have enough knowledge?
• Tell them that small steps like giving ORS in diarrhea or medicine for fever in acute respiratory infections can improve child’s condition and save money.

• Recognize the danger signs.
• Decision when sick children should be taken to the appropriate providers.
• How to make ORS
• How to measure medicine for fever or amount of ORS for a child.

• Parents and families should recognize the danger signs and symptoms when children are sick: watery diarrhea more than four times, high fever, cough etc
• Giving extra fluids in diarrhea can be life-saving.
• Know the types of illnesses that can be treated at home, and when to consult the health provider. Early treatment reduces further complications.
• Give sick children and pregnant woman appropriate treatment as recommended by the health worker.