Question

Case Scenario: A one-year old child is brought into the clinic for a high fever (greater than 101.4) chills, and a cough lasting five days. The child is lethargic, not eating or drinking. The mother states there was a flu bug in the home, so she thought the symptoms would be resolved, but became concerned when the child was so lethargic that he would not eat or drink.

Question: List three signs and symptoms this parent should be counseled on to watch for in the child and explain why they are important. You will need to defend your answer using specific facts, data, and other information drawn from the textbook and at least one other supplemental source.

Answer 1

The first and foremost sign that the parents should be counseled on to watch for in the child is that they took five days to take him to the hospital. The kid was just one year old and had a high fever of 101.4 with chills and continuous cough. If a child below 2 years of age is having continuous fever and the body temperature is above 100 degree, it can be a serious sign of infection and must be hospitalized within 24 hours. But in this case, the parents were so irresponsible that they took 5 days after he stopped taking food or water.

Though flu bug is not considered to be such a great danger but for a one year old kid, one must call doctor and consult. Sometimes flu can be considered dangerous for all children whether weak or healthy. Additionally, the kid has reached the age of one years and it's time to get him the flu vaccine but the parents didn't take it seriously. May be because they lack the knowledge but this is not good for child's safety and they must understand these little important things. In fact if flu is not properly treated on time, it can even lead to pneumonia and severe condition results death.

The third important reason is that it's parent responsibility to hold special attention to the food and fluid intake of a child with one years of age. During this age, the child requires a proper and timely meal with significant amount of nutrition in it that are responsible for the proper growth and development of the kid as well as it provide the child with a strong immune system to fight infection and other disease.