Thursday, May 7, 2009

Additional Vaccines - not in government schedule

1. ROTAVIRUS

Rotavirus causes severe diarrhoea among infants and young children. it is contagious too. so it should be administrated to babies, especially in countries like India. GSK has developed a vaccine called Rotarix . 2 doses of oral Rotarix should be given within 4 months of age. Each dose of vaccine costs about INR 1000.

2. PCV:

The only pneumoccocal conjugate vaccine availbale in India is from Wyeth. It is called Prevenar. Though this vaccine is not there in government schedule, it is wise to administer it as it protects the child from meningitis, bacteril pneumonia, septicaemia and bacteria in blood (bacteraemia). Each dose costs close to INR 4000 currently. since this is expensive, most peadiatrecians give it after 8 months of age, after completing the essential vaccines in the government/IAP schedule.

recommended dosage is :
3 doses at least 1 month apart if the 1st dose is given at 6-8 wk of age. a booster can be given at 2 years.
If the 1st dose is given between age 7-11 months, 2 doses should be given with 2 months gap and a booster at 2 years age.
if the child is not given PCV, then 1 dose of PCV can be given after 2 years.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Chaandu Bottu

To make 10ml Chaandu bottu, take 2 tbsp of sabudana/ sago /saggubiyyam /javvu arisi in a tempering ladle and dry roast them stirring continuously. After a few minutes, sago turns into a black spongy mass. When it turns spongy, add little water, enough to submerge the contents. Stir the contents and continue to heat it till it forms a smooth paste. Remove from the stove, cool and store in a dry container. Add few drops of water to chaandu when it gets very dry.

INFANT DIET

It is better to exclusively breast feed babies till the age of 6 months, when not possible, may follow the following diet after 4 months
(recommended by my Peadiatrician; please check with your Peadiatrician)

I recommend using Pigeon Home Baby Food Maker, when weaning babies. It is made of Polypropylene, microwave safe and you can easily sterilise before each use. It comes with different attachments to 1. grate, 2.grind, 3.squeeze and 4. strain baby food.




4th Month
Mid morning :
Fruit juice ~ideally Sweet Lime (Mosambi) (Sathukudi) (Bathayi)
start with giving 1:3 ratio juice and water for 2 days, 2:2 ratio juice and water next two days and gradually reduce the water content as baby gets accustomed to the taste.

* Tip - I use the strainer under the squeezer to get rid of the rind
* add only boiled and cooled drinking water to the juice
* do NOT add sugar to the juice
* utmost care should be taken while preparing the juice ~else baby may get diarrhoea

Mid afternoon:
Mashed fruit puree ~ Apples / Pears /Hill banana
may give 1/2 apple, 1/2 pear or 1 small hill banana at this age

For Apple/ Pear, remove the skin, core, deseed and cut into small pieces. pressure cook the fruit till it becomes very soft. you can mash the pressure cooked fruit. The texture should look like a fine puree.

* Hill banana is different from regular banana. It is said that this can resist cold.

*do NOT mix the fruits
* start with one fruit and give it atleast for a week before starting another.
* notify your doctor if baby develops any allergy

continue BF / formula per baby's demand


5th Month

Morning:
Raagi porridge: To make 3 ounces of ragi porridge, take 30 gms of ragi powder in 2 ounces of water. Mix the powder in water . There should be no lumps. Heat the contents on the stove stirring continuously till a glutinous paste is formed. Also the color gradually changes to dark brown as shown below.



Add an ounce of BM/Formula to this paste. you can feed this to baby with spoon.
* do NOT add sugar to the porridge

To make ragi powder:
soak ragi until it sprouts. Dry the sprouts in sun / dry roast on stove or microwave. grind the dried sprouts into fine powder and store in a clean air tight container.

Mid morning: continue juice
Mid afternoon: continue fruit
continue BF / formula per baby's demand


6th Month
Morning: continue ragi porridge
Mid morning: continue juice
Afternoon: Khichdi
To make khichdi, take 4tbsp of rice, 2 tbsp of moong dal, 2 tbsp of carrot pieces, 2tbsp of cut beans, 2tbsp of cut potato, a few green pea pods in a bowl. Add 3 times the volume water. pressure cook for 5 whistles. Khichdi will become very soft. Grind this khichdi to make fine paste and feed the baby.

* Start with around 2 ounces
*do NOT add salt. Babies under 12 months need only less than 1gm of sodium/day. Their kidneys are fragile and cannot process high sodium content; baby's taste palate is not developed yet, so what we think as not tasty may be very good for them!

continue BF / formula per baby's demand

7th Month
Morning: continue ragi porridge
Mid morning: continue juice
Afternoon: continue Khichdi
Mid afternoon: continue fruit
late evening : Stage 1 Cerelac wheat

continue BF / formula per baby's demand

VACCINATION

Vaccination schedule that is followed for my baby till now...


(will keep updating)