Importance of physiotherapy post-delivery

During and post the birth of a child, a woman goes through a lot of changes both physically as well as emotionally. To help keep the physical health in check, it is important to be aware of the following:

To help alleviate issues in the future and to reverse some of the pregnancy related changes, dietary changes and exercises should be incorporated into every woman’s routine after the birth of the child.

Lower abdomen and Pelvic floor strengthening exercises :

• Focus should be given to this during and post pregnancy.
• This involves basic exercises such as squats or kegel exercises that needs to be done to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.
• These exercises can be initiated 2-5 days post delivery of a child. A doctor’s or physiotherapist’s recommendation should be followed before commencing.
• In case of any pain or discomfort, exercises should be discontinued and expert opinion should be sought after.
• These exercises help in controlling and strengthening your bladder and improves bowel control.
• Basic exercises involves squeezing and relaxing of pelvic and abdominal muscles and continuing this for a short period.
• Pelvic tilts and abdominal bracing can help in toning and strengthening these muscles.

Back muscles strengthening:

• New mothers are prone to backache and injury and these exercises help prevent them.
• Maintaining good posture, avoiding heavy object lifting, using chairs with good back support and avoiding prolonged bending or stretching can help avoid these issues.

Good eating habits:

• Incorporating fibre rich foods into your meals.
• Drinking adequate water everyday.

To get a better insight into good habits and proper exercises, it would be best to connect with a physiotherapist.

You can now find and teleconsult a physiotherapist on the Curie connect app!

Contact: https://curie.health , +91-8778826667 for more info.

Effects of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents.

The extended lockdowns and stay at home restrictions put in place to curb the widespread dissemination of the corona virus has tested our mental health thresholds to the maximum.

Children and adolescents are facing a major brunt of these stresses due to the disruption of regular, quotidian activities involving school visits, extra curricular activities and limited interaction with peers coupled with online classes, prolonged periods indoors and limited social and emotional stimulation. So, how exactly does this affect them ??

• Psychological stress symptoms such as low mood, irritability, anxiety or depression.
• Lack of vigour to partake in daily activities or conversations.
• Lack of social controls such as teachers, peers or other outside influences on a child’s psychosocial equilibrium.
• Added pressures and lack of motivation due to sudden and unprecedented changes such as introduction of online classes and cessation of play time, outdoor activities.
• Risk of untoward or inappropriate usage of online resources. Global estimates show a 30% increase in exploitation of children for pornography and exploration of such sites by younger children who have free, unrestricted or unsupervised access to the internet.
• Increased risk of self harm or suicidal thoughts or tendencies. Global estimates show an average of 35% increase in suicide rates or self harm across all age groups.
• Increased risk of child physical or mental abuse. This mainly pertains to those children who have abusive parents, witness domestic violence, live with a caretaker or come from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

So how can a parent support and help a child navigate through this challenging phase?

• Talk to your children openly about the pandemic in a way they can easily process it.
• Explain the advantages derived from this time. This can include points such as increased time with family, opportunity to unwind and relax from mundane routines, time to learn new activities or discover new passions, etc.
• Spend quality time talking, interacting and engaging with your children.
• Find activities such as exercising or family games that you can all partake in.
• Create a conducive environment at home for a peaceful and happy mental status of your children.
• Avoid excessive nagging or discouragement of your children.
• Give your children a chance to open up their feelings or emotions to you.
• Create an opportunity for your child to understand and get a positive approach towards usage of technology in the betterment of education and communication with friends and family.
• Encourage your child to utilise this opportunity to focus on self-development and stay away from negative influences such as bullies at school.
• Instil in your child the need to focus on spirituality and self-love.
• Prevent your own stresses at work or involving finances to overshadow your child’s need for happiness.
• If you have a child at high risk (with previous mental health concerns or physical disabilities), stay in touch with a psychologist and paediatrician through teleconsultation services like Curie Health.
• Identify vulnerable behaviour and address it immediately.
• Help children or families around you that may be struggling to cope. This will also help mould your children to be magnanimous and humanitarian on the long run.

This challenging time could turn out to be the best time for your child’s emotional growth and maturation if he/she receives the optimum level of support and understanding from parents. Therefore, it emerges as a solemn responsibility of each parent to render an unwavering commitment and support to children, in order to induce a favourable outcome at these testing times.

To teleconsult a paediatrician or psychologist, download the free Curie care app from your google playstore.

If you are a mental health practitioner or a pediatrician, sign up with the free Curie connect app to offer your services online!

For more details, visit https://curie.health or +91-8778826667.

Negligible returns from your clinic’s marketing strategies? Ask Curie..

Most clinic owners spend hefty sums of money to pay third parties to carry out various marketing strategies to improve their business. However, many a times, the amount spent on these and the returns they produce fail to add up. So where exactly is the problem?

Majority of these third party companies do not focus on the need to individualise or personalise any strategy executed. They rather juxtapose a common strategy that worked for xyz client on all the clients and these evidently do not always yield positive results.

How exactly can one tackle this issue? Contrary to the popular belief that ‘One strategy fits all’, a different approach should be charted out based on the market research and data analytics of each clinical practice. This is definitely more time-consuming and involves higher monetary resources. However, the resulting success or returns are well worth the initial efforts that are put in.

Curie helps to increase your marketing strategy returns by:

• Offline and online marketing strategies that are tailor made for each clinical practice

• Complete data analysis to determine the most successful areas of business development

• Listing of clinical practices on Curie’s online map

• SEO optimisation and enhanced visibility on online sources

• Devising approaches to improve patient retention

• Focusing on increasing new patient walk ins and referrals

• Complete digitalisation of the clinic and clinical processes, setting the clinic apart from its competitors

• Periodic evaluation of the existing strategies and reforming them according to current market needs

• Building a rapport with old and new clients by SMSs or push notifications

Doctors and health professionals with Curie have seen the following outcomes

• More time to focus on clinical aspects as Curie takes care of operations and marketing

• Improved patient satisfaction and retention

• Increased trust levels among patients/clients and more referrals

• Significant improvement in revenue and patient statistics.

These are some services that make Curie unique and our highly efficient team works around the clock to help you propel your business to the next level.

To know more about how to improve your marketing returns and sign up with us, contact us at https://curie.health/ or call +91-8778826667.

Why and how should you register your clinical practice with Curie..?

Many healthcare professionals are curious about how Curie could impact your practice. Why don’t you sign up with us and see for yourself? We have a free trial period and you’ll be able to witness the vast specs of Curie and some of the advantages you could have if you subscribe to it on the long run.

So how exactly do you register your practice with us? We believe in a user friendly software that can be easily understood and used by anyone from anywhere. Therefore, registering with us to begin your journey with Curie is also a very simple process.

1. Log on to https://curie.health and register your clinic details.

2. Download the Curie Connect app from your google playstore.

3. Once your clinic details are provided, Curie provides you with a code that is unique for your clinic.

4. Share this code with your patients and social circle and allow them to connect with you on the Curie app.

5. Begin teleconsultations on the app, allow patients to find you and book appointments and easily view a patient’s medical records.

The Curie software also helps you to:

• Manage your clinical operations and view your practice related records from anywhere, including the comforts of your home.

• Store all patient details and records on a secure cloud based platform.

• Schedule physical or tele consultations with your patients.

• Allow existing and new patients to book appointments with you on the app.

• Allows text conversations with your patients and audio/video appointments.

• Maintain communication with all your patients by scheduling pop-up notifications and alerts regarding upcoming appointments, health insights and advices, offers and promotions, etc.

• Maintain inventory of your supplies and contact distributors easily.

• Business analytics and inputs to improve your business.

• Digitalised consent forms and feedback.

• Improved visibility of your practice on online sources.

• Offline and online marketing services and strategies.

• Constant customer support for any doubts or queries.

Overall, Curie aims to help all healthcare professionals have better and smoother clinical operations and provide a platform for wider patient reach.

Contact us at https://curie/health or +91-8778826667 to start your Curie journey today!

COVID-19 AND YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH- Tips and common queries

Globally, parents are deeply concerned not just about their health, but about the health of their children. Here are a list of common questions in a parent’s mind and their answers.

Total COVID-19 affected individuals globally: 99% adults and 1% children.

Is my child at risk of COVID-19? 

• Research and statistics until the present day have shown that children are not commonly affected by COVID-19 and in case of an infection, the symptoms are mild and manageable at home. Around 1-2% of the affected COVID-19 cases are children.
• Therefore, ensure the same precautions of social distancing and infection control such as wearing face masks, washing hands, etc.
• If your child has any underlying medical issues such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes, immune disorders, etc., additional safety precautions should be taken.

Should I make my baby wear face masks?

• The WHO does not recommend face masks for children below 24 months. Social distancing and hand washing, sanitising are the recommendations for babies.
• For children above two years of age, face masks and other precautions should be followed similar to that for adults.

My child is showing symptoms of COVID-19. Should I get testing done?

• NO, not all children showing signs of flu such as cough, sore throat, runny eyes, or mild body pain need testing. It is advisable to contact your pediatrician via teleconsultation before visiting a hospital.
• If your child has an underlying illness or is facing moderate to severe symptoms such as breathing difficulty, it is advisable to inform a pediatrician and visit an emergency department.

Should I take my child/baby for his regular appointments at the hospital?

• It is best to contact the pediatrician via teleconsultation to find out if it is okay to visit the hospital or if you could opt for an online consultation or postpone the appointment dates.

• Vaccination appointments should be adhered to strictly unless advised by the doctor.

I am pregnant, should I be worried about my baby?

• Mothers should take all precautions possible to protect themselves and their babies. However, there is no reason to panic.
• Speak to a gynecologist about your fears and keep up all appointments either via teleconsultations or if advised by the doctor, directly in the hospital.
• We have discussed this on our previous blog https://curiedothealth.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/being-an-expectant-mother-during-covid-19/

Can I breast-feed my baby like usual?

• Breastfeeding is advised even during these times and research has not shown any possibility of COVID-19 transmission via breast milk.
• It is advisable to take extra hygiene precautions such as frequent washing/wiping breast with anti-bacterial wipes before and after the feed.
• Speak to a gynecologist or a pediatrician via teleconsultation for any issues about mother or baby.

My child misses school. What should I do?

• It is important to take care of a child’s mental health during these times as they are vulnerable to a lot of mental stress and confusion due to the current scenario.
• Talking openly to your child about what is happening around them in a way they will understand is important rather than hiding the situation.
• Keeping your child engaged is a very important task to prevent any unwanted emotions or thoughts. Make your child engage in activities he/she loves to do.
• Allow your child to stay in touch with his/her friends via social media to avoid loneliness.

A child’s physical and mental health is very important and Curie stands by all parents at this tough time by offering a teleconsultation platform to connect with a pediatrician.

Download the teleconsultation app to stay in touch with your child’s doctor.

Contact us at https://curie.health or call +91-8778826667

Being an expectant mother during COVID-19

This period of uncertainty is definitely creating a lot of anxiousness and stress for a lot of us. However, a pregnant woman is more vulnerable to experience these emotions. Therefore, any expecting mother and the people around her need to be well informed of dealing with this pandemic and the emotions attached to it.

Protecting yourself from COVID-19:

There is NO proven evidence that pregnancy increases the risk of COVID-19. Likewise, there is no proven evidence that an unborn child will contract this disease from the mother in case the mother is infected. Therefore, taking safety and hygiene precautions that have been recommended repeatedly by national and international health agencies should be followed religiously.

Apart from these, a few other important points should be kept in mind:

• Avoid visitors at home or hospital. The close family should be your only contacts as far as possible.
• Avoid unnecessary outdoor activities or visits and always use personal transportation modes for any essential travels.
• Do not participate in crowd gatherings
• Disinfect your house regularly
• Clean vegetables and items delivered to your house thoroughly
• Make sure you stay in touch with friends and relatives using online resources

Doctor appointments

• It is essential to stay in touch with your treating doctors especially in case of a high-risk pregnancy. All doctors and hospitals have operating protocols in place to combat COVID-19 and hence prior discussions with your doctor should give you an idea about how to keep up with appointments in the safest way.
• Tele-consultation using apps such as Curie will help you talk to your doctor from home and avoid unnecessary trips to the hospital unless an investigation or physical examination has to be done.
• High-risk pregnancies will need closer monitoring and admission to the hospital as and when required by your doctor.
• Make sure to discuss your anxiety and your mental health status with your doctor.
• It is important to also know emergency numbers of your regular doctor or hospital and make prior plans on how to visit the hospital in such emergencies. Always keep your spouse or a family member close by in case of such scenarios.
• Post the delivery of the baby, it is vital to continue regular teleconsultations and physical visits to keep up with immunization schedules and monitor the health of the baby.

Post delivery 

• Mothers should be careful to avoid visitors even after the birth of the baby.
• Breastfeeding is allowed and advised unless suggested otherwise by your doctor.
• Utmost hygiene precautions should be followed by the mother and everyone else in contact with the baby

Pregnancy is a time to be cherished and we wish all pregnant mothers a happy and healthy journey sans any anxiety or apprehension. Any expectant mother who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 should follow all instructions given by your doctor to avoid any unwanted or serious complications.

Download the Curie app to consult with your doctor online and protect yourself and your unborn child at all times.

Contact us at https://curie.health or call +91- 8778826667

Oral Health and Hygiene practices for babies

Good oral hygiene plays a major role on the overall health of the child. Poor oral hygiene leads to a higher risk of dental infections, cavities which might in turn lead to difficulty in eating food and chewing certain types of foods and ultimately indigestion. This is in addition to a possible issue with the speech, lower self-esteem of the child, misalignment of the permanent teeth etc. to name a few. 

A child’s tooth is less mineralised compared to that of an adult and is hence more susceptible to dental cavitation. This combined with the ill effects of a sugary diet and poor oral habits can significantly increase the risk of dental caries in the permanent teeth. Habits such as thumb sucking, mouth breathing or tongue thrusting can further increase the risk of having misaligned permanent teeth.

Here are some dental facts and advices based on the age of your baby:

Infants-  (0-1) year: 

Facts:

• The baby is usually born without any erupted teeth. However, tooth formation would have already commenced and these incompletely developed teeth will be present below the gums of an infant.

• Sometimes, a baby is born with one or more erupted teeth and this is called ‘Natal Teeth’ or have teeth which erupt within the first 30days of the child’s birth – called ‘Neonatal Teeth’. These are most commonly a prematurely erupted milk tooth. The dentist will schedule an X-Ray if needed and determine if the tooth is an extra tooth (Supernumerary) or a premature milk tooth. The tooth usually is a hindrance during breast feeding and may cause injury to the baby’s tongue and is hence usually removed by the dentist, especially if it an additional tooth. Parent’s decision to remove or retain a tooth is sought after if it is a prematurely erupted milk tooth.  

Advice:

• It is essential to wipe the baby’s gums or gum pads with a wet cloth after every feed and before and after bed time.

• Around 6 months of age, the first milk tooth starts erupting. Before the eruption of any tooth, a child may experience ‘Teething’ associated pain and discomfort. This may be associated with fever, body pain, restlessness, loss of sleep or appetite, diarrhoea etc. Remedies include cold water massaging with your index finger, cold teethers to chew on etc. Visit your dentist if your baby more tips on dealing with teething.
• Make sure you take your baby to the dentist between 6-12 months, as soon as the first milk tooth erupts.

Toddlers (2-5) years:

Fact:

All your child’s milk teeth will erupt by around 3 years of age.

Advice:

• Never put your baby to sleep with his/her feeding bottle in the mouth and do not leave the bottle in the mouth post feeding. This is essential in order to avoid ‘Nursing Bottle Caries’ which is commonly seen in children between 2-5 years and is characterised by widespread cavities or discolorations on all the teeth.

• The best brushing technique for a child beginning from 3 years of age is by moving the brush over the teeth in circular movements. The ideal brushing time is 2 minutes.
• When a milk tooth is lost either due to an accident or dental caries, it is best to retain the original space occupied by this tooth using ‘Space Maintainers’. This allows enough space to be available for the permanent tooth to erupt and greatly avoids the potential risk of mal alignment of teeth and thereby, the need for braces in later life.

• Children should usually give up thumb sucking by the age of 4 years. If they continue to do so even after your repeated intervention, a dentist could help with some basic intra or extra oral devices that prevent it. This is essential because, a child might develop an ‘Open bite’ or other related mis alignment of teeth that would need braces at a later stage.

• Using toothpastes with fluoride once a week for can help not only with preventing dental caries, but also slows or reverses the progression of existing caries. Only a pea sized amount of paste is required for brushing and the child should be taught how to spit out tooth paste from the moth after brushing.

Visit https://curie.health/ for more info!