Children’s Health Hornsby

Our Asquith Medical Centre aims to provide Children’s Health care to the local Hornsby and the surrounding community.

Our Hornsby general practice provides a range of child services including: Immunisation & Health Focus, Assessing Development & Progress. This page discusses some of the issues that children face. If you are in the Hornsby area and looking for Children’s health checks call us on (02) 9477 4400.

Our other services include: Chronic Conditions, Senior Health Assessments, Vaccinations, Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Skin Checks, Mental Health, Travel Medicine, Children’s Health Checks, Sports Medicine, Physiotherapy, Psychology, Chiropractic, Podiatry & Dietician.

Our doctors provide you with consistently professional health services of the highest standard in your surrounding local community including Hornsby & Hornsby Heights. Our Asquith Medical Centre ensures our staff are passionate about providing our health services and an incredible experience for our patients.

Children’s Health

Anxiety in Children

Anxiety is a normal part of life and can affect anyone, including children. But as parents and carers, it’s sometimes hard to know the difference between normal worries and something more serious.

In most cases, anxiety in children is short-lived and goes away after a while. Some examples of normal behaviour might be:

• being shy or worrying about being laughed at
• being left at childcare or school
• worrying about schoolwork, sport or their health

But many children experience anxiety more intensely and more often than other children, stopping them from getting the most out of life.

Signs of anxiety in children

If a child is often anxious, they might:

• try to avoid the situation or issue they’re worried about
• get headaches and stomach aches often, especially when away from home
• have trouble sleeping or have vivid nightmares
• overthink
• need a lot of reassurance
• want things to be perfect and get upset if they’re not

Supporting children with anxiety

You can support your child by:

• acknowledging their fears – don’t dismiss or ignore them
• gently encouraging your child to do things they’re anxious about
• waiting until your child actually gets anxious before you step in to help
• praising your child for doing something they’re anxious about
• avoiding labelling your child as ‘shy’ or ‘anxious’

Child Nutrition

Healthy eating is essential for growth, development and well-being of your child. Eating well is a lifelong habit and is very important for your child’s health. Nutrition can affect behaviour, mental health and emotion’s of your child.

What is healthy eating?

To stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight, children need to be physically active and eat the right amount of nutrients to balance how much energy they use.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that children should eat a wide variety of foods from these five food groups:

• fruit
• vegetables, legumes and beans
• cereals (carbohydrates) ,preferably wholegrain
• lean meat, fish, poultry
• milks, yoghurts, cheeses and/or alternatives (children under 2 should have full fat milk, but older children should drink low-fat alternatives).

Children should limit their intake of foods that contain saturated fat, added sugars, preservatives and high in salt. They should also drink water instead of soft-drinks and juice.

How much food does my child need?

Children need to eat more as they grow. For kids who do physical activity often this may vary as they need more grains. Below is the recommended amount of serves per day on average:

• 2 – 3 years: 1 serve of fruit; 2½ serves of vegetables; 4 serves of grains; 1 serve of meat/poultry; 1½ serves of dairy
• 4 – 8 years: 1½ serves of fruit; 4½ serves of vegetables; 4 serves of grains; 1 ½ serves of meat/poultry; 1½ – 2 serves of dairy
• 9 – 11 years: 2 serves of fruit; 5 serves of vegetables; 4 – 5 serves of grains; 2½ serves of meat/poultry; 2½ – 3 serves of dairy
• 12 – 13 years: 2 serves of fruit; 5 – 5 ½ serves of vegetables; 5 – 6 serves of grains; 2 ½ serves meat/poultry; 3 ½ serves dairy.

Large intakes of Sugar and high cholesterol food poses a threat to children and their future.

Cold & Flu in Children

Sore throats are common in kids and can often be in conjunction with a cold/fever.

Treatment

• Give your child all medication as instructed by the doctor.
• Make sure your child drinks plenty of fluids.
• Give your child soft or cold foods (milkshakes), which may help ease throat pain.
• Give children over eight years of age warm salt water to gargle (with ¼ teaspoon of salt per glass of water).

Symptoms

• A fever after taking antibiotics for two days
• Increased throat pain
• Earache
• A hard time breathing
• Skin rash
• Excessive drooling
• Cough
• Severe headache
• Shortness of breath
• Darker urine or chest pain (may occur three to four weeks later)
• A sore throat that lasts longer than four days

There are many types of sore throats such as strep throat. This is commonly caused by Streptococcal bacteria. It is a bacterial infection that if is left untreated can cause complications like heart and kidney problems and rheumatic fever.

Head Lice in Children

Lice in children are very common and is highly contagious. Your child could get them from being in environments with a lot of people in a small area such as a school, childcare. They are not dangerous but multiply rapidly and appear as small black dots in preferably short hair.  Your child might have lice if they:

• Constantly scratch their scalp
• The itchiness doesn’t go away
•  white or red spots on their scalp above the ears.

Lice eggs look like tiny yellow or brown dots before they hatch. Lice lay their eggs (nits) close to the scalp, where the temperature is perfect. Nits look similar to dandruff, but are stubborn and can’t be removed by brushing or shaking them off. The adult lice are about the size of a sesame seed and feed on very small portions of blood from the scalp.

Prevention

• Children should avoid head-to-head contact
• Children should be aware when sharing clothing like hats

Treatment

Head lice can be treated with shampoo or lotion, but if your child is under 4 months old you should do it by hand with water. To remove lice and nits by hand, use a comb on your child’s wet, conditioned hair every 3 to 4 days for 3 weeks after the last nit was seen. Wetting the hair beforehand is recommended because it temporarily paralyses the lice and the conditioner makes hair smoother and easier to get a comb through the hair.

ADHD or ADD in Children

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect your child’s success at school, as well as their relationships and social life. The symptoms of ADHD vary and can be difficult to recognize.

Signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD) are
Inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity as well as:

• trouble focusing or concentrating on tasks
• being forgetful about completing tasks
• easily distracted
• having difficulty sitting still
• interrupting people while they’re talking

In Australia 1 in 20 children have ADHD and of these children, it is more prevalent in boys than girls. The average age of ADHD diagnosis is 7 years old.

Disclaimer

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.