A CHILD is like a precious jewel, which should be carefully looked after. Specialists stress the importance of a child growing physically and psychologically on a sound scientific basis. The child has physical and psychological needs such as nutrition. He also has needs like education and developing his social skills, so that he can learn to communicate well with others. A child also needs love from his mother, according to psychologists. “All these things must be taken into account, so that the child fits into society and doesn't develop health problems,” says professor of psychology at Cairo University Dr Youssri Abdel-Mohssen. “Being cruel to a child is the wrong way to raise him,” he adds. According to him, some mothers believe in punishing their children, even hitting them, at a very early age, even though this is very bad for them psychologically. "Until the age of four, children should learn by playing with their toys,” Dr Abdel- Mohssen says, adding that those mothers, who start teaching their children how to write or read at the age of three, are doing something wrong. He says this should begin at six, the age at which children have to start school. "The child should live in the warmth of his family, enjoying the safety, love and stability provided by his parents. In such an environment, a child eats better, plays better and grows better mentally and psychologically," stressed Dr Abdel-Mohssen at the inaugural session of a conference on childhood held in Cairo last week. He added that the child shouldn't be used as a weapon when his mother wants to divorce his father, because this has a dreadful impact on the child, who swiftly becomes aware that there's a problem between his parents, even if he's not exactly sur what the problem is. During the conference sessions, Dr Aliaa Kotbi, the head of the Children's Heart Unit at Ain Shams University's Paediatric Hospital, gave a presentation on upper airway obstruction. This common complaint can be life-threatening, resulting in respiratory failure followed by cardiac arrest. The disease can affect children when they are very small. Enlarged tonsils are the main reason for airway obstruction, which often makes the child snore, while he's asleep and can even cause night asphyxia, according to Dr Kotbi. Children with Down's syndrome and those suffering from involuntary urination also suffer from upper airway obstruction. "Mothers have no idea that there is an association between night asphyxia and a lack of oxygen reaching the respiratory system, causing airway obstruction," she says. Dr Kotbi warned mothers to be on the alert for their children snoring during their sleep. As for hepatitis in children, Dr Mortada el-Shabrawi, the head of the Children's Liver Unit at Cairo University's Medical School, noted that certain medications couldcause hepatitis, while pesticides and immune diseases might also cause this in children. According to Dr el-Shabrawi, the common types of hepatitis are A and C. "Hepatitis A may infect both adults and children as a result of contaminated food or drinking water," he said, adding that the virus is transferred from one child to another through the infection. The incubation period for the virus ranges from one month to six weeks, and then the symptoms start to appear on the child. The symptoms of HVA include a short, mild, flu-like illness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, weight loss, jaundice (yellow skin and whites of eyes, darker yellow urine and pale faeces) and abdominal pain. Children can completely recover from this disease. As for HVC, it infects people via polluted tools or contaminated blood transfusions, stressed Dr el-Shabrawi, noting that 85 per cent of children infected with HVC develop chronic hepatitis, which could lead to cirrhosis of the liver. Some patients with cirrhosis need a liver transplant. He recommended people not to share needles, razors, toothbrushes, manicure tools or other items that could bear contaminated blood, adding that scientists have yet to come up with a vaccine for HVC.
