Three Day Old Child with Rash

Today i will discuss with you a case i came across while in the clinics.

A 3 day old baby was brought to the clinic by her maternal aunt, the aunt said that the baby had developed a rash on her face, chest, back and legs. On inquiring we were told by the aunt that the mother was hep B positive during her pregnancy and that the was not given any vaccinations what so ever. When we asked the aunt as to how many times the child is fed in a day and how the child is being taken care of, she was not able to provide us with any satisfactory information. Moreover she told us that the baby's grandmother had given the baby
some tea the previous morning and the rash came later.

Now there are several things in this history to take note of, firstly the baby must have been accompanied by her mother and not the aunt, because the mother knows better about her child and the daily schedule that the child follows and thus she would have given us better and accurate answers.

The second thing to take note of here is the fact that the baby was given tea by her grandmother the previous morning before the rash developed. This is a serious matter that needs to be addressed. The people around us need to understand that a new born child does not have the digestive system of an adult and thus the baby cannot digest anything other than the mother's milk.

It is necessary for us to spread the awareness that a child up to 4 to 6  months of age should not be given anything except the mother's milk as food and the child must be fed as many times a day as the child demands. At the age of 6 months the child must be started on soft food, then after a few months chopped food and then slowly the child should be put on the normal diet follow by the family members. One more thing to remember here is that the child must be breast fed for up to 2 years of age, for the first 6 months exclusive breastfeeding and then after that the child must be put on top food and along with that breastfeeding should be continued until the child is 2 years old.