Coronavirus Care- Stay Home and Virtually Consult a Digital Paediatrician for your Child Health

COVID-19 has transformed legacy medicine practices from traditional face to face consultation to a technology backed Virtual Consultation. Telemedicine technology is proving to bring medical care closer to patients while mitigating the risk of Coronavirus transmission among patients, emergency workers and Medicare professionals.

Children below 10 and Senior citizens above 65 are in the high-risk group and advised to stay at home thereby restricting their movement even for emergency shopping and care. Thus, in this scenario, telemedicine consultation assumes far greater importance, especially for children for whom receiving health care, can be a stressful experience particularly when the caregivers are strangers. E-healthcare apps like Gigadocs enables paediatricians to comfort their young patients with verified healthcare from anywhere, anytime.

During a virtual consultation, a digital paediatrician working with children should calmly speak with their young patients, listen to what they are saying and work with their families collaboratively to understand their medical concerns more emphatically.

Benefits of Virtual Consultation for Young kids

Safe Consultation– Parents can discuss all their questions with a digital paediatrician from their homes, without the fear of Coronavirus infectivity and risk of transmission to their young kids while going to the clinic or at the premises.
Digital Prescription– Telemedicine App like Gigadocs available on play store and app store helps you to store your child’s prescription securely in a digital platform.
Specialised Childcare- All the paediatrics registered on the Gigadocs app ensures your child gets the best care for all their medical concerns.
Consultation at your convenience– Gigadocs, smart practice management app let’s worried parents consult a telemedicine digital paediatrician at a time convenient to them and their child, choosing Voice, Video or Chat mode of consultation that best suits their needs.

Consulting a Digital paediatrician for your Child

Common Seasonal Illnesses

Seasonal changes bring influenza, sore throat, cough, nosebleeds, or pink eyes. Parents must take additional care and understand that every flu, cold and cough is not Coronavirus, and consult a digital doctor immediately if their child is showing any common seasonal illness symptoms.

Skin Irritations and Allergies

Children may face many skin irritations as they are growing up, these include lice, eczema, pinworms, rashes, fungal skin infections, warts or scabies. Digital children specialists on the Gigadocs app assists you over a video consultation to evaluate your children’s symptoms online.

Gastrointestinal Concerns

GI ailments are quite common among children, digitally consult a paediatrician on the Gigadocs app for your child’s constipation or diarrhoea concerns.

Minor Injuries

Children get minor injuries as they play and walk and run. These may include minor cuts, burns, bites which if not consulted can lead to a huge discomfort.

What Questions Parents Must Ask Their Digital Paediatrician?

For an effective digital consultation, as a parent you must ask questions on how to safely administer prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to your child, during a virtual consultation:

The purpose of the medication, its dosage, and for how long the medicine should be given.
How the medication should be given to your child, whether it is to be given orally, or inserted into their eyes, ears, or applied to their skin.
How long you can store medicine and how you should discard it.
Discuss the common side effects or reactions to children.
Share all the medicine that your child takes, and also the consequences of your child misses a dose.

Child Safe Medication Precautions

Medical prescription and medicines depend on a child’s weight and height, make sure your digital paediatrician has updated the vitals about your child’s weight and age. Too little amount of medicine can be ineffective while extra dosage can be harmful if the medication is prescribed otherwise.
Inform your child’s paediatric about any ongoing medication or allergies that your child may be susceptible to.
Do not give any cough or cold medication without a paediatric consultation, over the counter (OTC) medication to children below 6 years is an absolute No.
Complete the dosage of the prescription medicines as prescribed by the digital paediatric- even if your child recovers, the infection could come back otherwise.
Check the expiry dates of your child’s medicines, never use leftover medicines, throw them out.
Never give your child medication, which is meant for adults, or prescribed to other children in your family and friends. A child’s medicinal dosage depends on their age, height and weight.
Never refer a medicine to be a candy to make your child have it, this is dangerous and can backfire. Thinking of it as a tasty treat, a child could accidentally ask for more doses which may cause an overdose.
There are many times when a child spits out or vomits a medicine. In that case, do not give another dosage and immediately call your child’s digital doctor for instructions.

What if a Child Does Not Want to Take the Medicine?

We must admit, we do not like medicines or syrups, think about the little ones, it is understandable if your child says no to taking the medicine. What you should do in that case?

Cold Medication– Some children prefer chilled medicines, in that case, check with your digital paediatrician if chilling the prescribed medicines are safe to give to your kid, as refrigeration may alter the effectiveness of some medicines.
Mixing with Food/ or Liquid- Mixing medicines with food/ or liquid is often considered by parents, but before doing that check with your pharmacist to make sure it does not harm its effectiveness. Try using only a small amount of food and make sure your child eats the complete food and the medicine along with it. Do not mix medicine in your baby’s bottle, chances are you baby may not finish the entire bottle and miss getting all of the medicine.
Cursing the Medicines- If your child has difficulty swallowing a capsule or a tablet, discuss with your digital pharmacist the possibility of crushing and mixing the capsule with soft food and give it to your child.

Booking a Virtual Consultation on the Gigadocs App

To book a digital paediatrician for your child, download the Gigadocs app, on the play store or the App store, and follow these easy steps-

Check whether you have an uninterrupted internet connection, to book and subsequently virtually consult a digital paediatrician for your child.
Go through the available time slot of the paediatricians and book a slot which is convenient and does not hamper the daily schedule of your child.
Provide digital access to your child’s virtual paediatrician so that they can view the electronic health records.
After you have booked a paediatrician and given your digital consent, Gigadocs will share your appointment details and a reminder on the Gigadocs app.
Make sure you have all your child’s medications, reports on the date of the digital consultation.
You can choose to consult a paediatrician available online from a dedicated team of digital paediatricians registered on the Gigadocs app.

To Download Gigadocs app-