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Handling a Child’s Fever: Top 5 Tips

According to most contemporary healthcare practitioners, a person has a fever if they have a body temperature of 37.8°C or higher (taken with a mouth thermometer). An elevated body temperature can be worrisome or even downright scary when it happens to your child, particularly if they’re very young.

However, do note that it’s normal for kids to get a fever every so often. Usually, it’s because they have a minor infection like a cold. What’s more, fever is not an illness; rather, it’s a symptom that indicates an illness and that the body is fighting off the cause of that ailment.

Causes of a fever can include viral diseases, heat exhaustion, and even receiving certain medicines or vaccines. Your child may also experience a fever if they’ve recently undergone a medical procedure (e.g., blood transfusion), or is suffering an autoimmune condition.

If your child has a fever, you can try these home remedies to help bring down their body temperature. Just remember that it may take some time for the fever to be completely gone, so be patient.

Give Fever Reducers

If your child is old enough (make sure to ask your pediatrician), you can give them fever-reducing medicines like acetaminophen or paracetamol. It doesn’t matter if it’s a branded one or a generic medicine Philippines-based companies produce and sell in trusted drugstores. As long as the right active ingredients are present, it will provide some fever relief.

Of course, make sure that your child isn’t allergic to any of the components. You should also check the label so you can give the correct dosage at the right intervals. Most importantly, don’t give aspirin to infants or toddlers. When in doubt, consult your doctor.

Dress Your Child in Light Clothes

One of the most persistent old wives’ tales in the Philippines regarding fevers is that you have to sweat them out. Thus, a lot of mothers dress their feverish kids in warm clothing or bundle them up in extra thick blankets. Depending on when you were born, you’ve probably experienced this (or even done it to your own child).

However, this practice actually causes a further increase in body temperature and even results in discomfort. The better thing to do is to dress your child in comfortable, breathable clothing so that they can feel cooler as they recover from their illness. This doesn’t mean that you should crank up the setting of the electric fan or air conditioner to maximum, though. Rather, simply ensure that your child feels at ease and isn’t getting overheated.

Try a Lukewarm Bath

If dressing your child in light clothing doesn’t do much, try giving them a lukewarm bath or sponge bath. Using alcohol isn’t recommended, since it dries quickly and can result in shivers; in turn, this can cause a further increase in body temperature. A quick bath or shower will do.

In case you have a bathtub, don’t leave your child unattended even for a few seconds. Get them out of the tub after a couple of minutes and make sure they’re completely dry before dressing them up in cool, comfortable clothes.

Hydrate

Sometimes, your child might lose their appetite or find it difficult to eat or to swallow their food when they have a fever. This can cause a lot of problems, especially since the body needs to stay hydrated to regulate body temperature.

If your feverish child isn’t in the mood or thinks that plain water is boring, try giving them fruit-infused water instead. You can also try fruit juices or even popsicles. When it comes to food, soups are a great source of fluids and electrolytes. Meanwhile, small treats like flavored gelatin can also help a bit with hydration and whetting their appetite.

Let Them Rest

Finally, your child needs a lot of rest to let their body recover from their illness and fever. Minimize their screen time and let them sleep as much as possible. If it’s time to drink fever medicine but your child is still asleep, don’t wake them up. Unless you have to adhere to a strict schedule, just give the medicine once your child wakes up and then adjust the timetable as needed.

Final Words

A fever can certainly be nerve-racking but it’s not always something serious. If your child is still active, alert, as well as able to eat and drink (and keep it down), then they’re probably only dealing with a minor infection. 

However, if your child is unnaturally pale or flushed, be on the alert. Take note of their body temperature, and if it reaches 40°C or higher, go to the hospital right away. A high fever in children, particularly infants, is a serious matter and often caused by severe infections.

You should also get immediate medical attention if your child’s fever goes on for days. If your child is younger than 2 years, a fever that lasts for more than a day is a cause of concern. If your child is 2 years of age or older, go to your doctor if the fever persists for more than 3 days.

4 Tips for When You’re Shopping for Baby Products

Buying products for your baby can be stressful for so many reasons. They can be expensive, and you want them to last, but most importantly, you want to make sure that they’re safe for your little one. 

Commercial products are all full of chemicals and other potential dangers – all our food, beauty products, cleaning products, and even our clothes and furniture. With a baby’s immune system that’s still building and strengthening, you want to do everything you can to keep them safe from potential harm.

Here are some tips to help you navigate the shopping process and understand what to buy. 

Understand Toxins and Dangers

First of all, before you scare yourself silly and panic about nothing, make sure you do a little research to really understand what is considered a toxin, or what might be dangerous for your baby. There are certain ingredients or fabrics you might want to avoid, but that doesn’t mean you need to be fearful of every product. 

When it comes to clothing, rather opt for organic cotton baby bodysuits instead of cheap fabrics. Be aware of ingredients in formulas and early baby food, and try to choose gentle, baby-safe bath products and cleaning formulas for your home. 

Talk to Your Paediatrician

If you’re concerned about certain products or items, you should feel free and comfortable talking to your paediatrician about them. Their professional opinion is valuable, and they will be able to tell you whether or not a product is worth worrying about. 

They will also probably have recommendations for safer alternatives that you could use in the case that you have brought up something that they advise against. 

Ask Other Moms

Of course, one of the most comforting things to do is to get advice from another mom who feels the same way you do. 

If none of your friends or close family members are parenting babies or young kids right now, you might feel a little alone in your journey. Joining a moms group is a great way to find people to relate to, ask for advice and share your struggles with.

Try to find like-minded people who share your values and ideals when it comes to parenting. You’ll be more likely to feel comfortable using something if you know it’s a product trusted by someone who feels the same way you do about certain issues. 

Use Trial and Error and Trust Your Gut

Even with all the advice in the world, everyone is different. Every mom is different and every baby is different too, which means that just because a product is recommended to you, doesn’t mean that you or your little one will love it.

After all the research is done and advice given, it’s up to you to buy what you think is right for you and your baby and decide for yourself whether or not you like how it feels and works. When you become a mom, your gut instincts about your baby will be your best way of knowing what’s right or wrong. 

4 Reasons Small Businesses Should Accept Card Payments

Photo by energepic.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-payment-terminal-2988232/

When you own a small business, you want to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay you. You don’t have time for complicated billing systems. If you own a small business and don’t have the resources or desire to install an on-site POS system, then card payments are right up your alley. Card payments are convenient and secure, making them the perfect solution for small businesses. Even if you don’t feel like you have the time or cash to invest in new equipment, it might be worth your while to take a look at accepting card payments as a form of payment from customers. Let’s look at why this is so beneficial for your business…

Increased Credibility

Accepting card payments at your business increases the convenience of your customers, but it also gives your business a boost in credibility. While customers may not immediately realize what accepting card payments does for your business, they will see it as a sign that you are a legitimate business owner who knows what they’re doing. Plus, you’ll be able to accept payments from customers who prefer not to use cash, which can be a big selling point for some shoppers. When someone pays with a card, they are less likely to try to take the business to court over a bad transaction. There’s just less to fight over. If a customer uses a credit card and their transaction is disputed, they could lose between $50 and $200, depending on their card type.

Increased Sales

Studies show that customers who pay with debit or credit cards are more likely to purchase from you than those who pay with cash. This boils down to people being less likely to put extra money into your business. If a customer has $20 on them and wants to get something for $40, they might walk away because they don’t have the cash to put in your hands. With cards, this isn’t an issue. With card payments, customers are more likely to spend more. You can even see this with online shopping. Customers who pay with debit or credit cards are more likely to spend more than those who pay with cash. This can be a good thing if you want to sell more products or services. You’ll make more money from your customers with card payments, which can be great for your business.

Convenience

It is easier to have a card on you to pay for items than cash these days. In fact, with the rise of Apple Pay and Google Pay, more and more people are paying with their devices and don’t carry their cards or cash anymore. If you don’t have a card reader that can accept these payments, you are missing out. Customers like convenience, and taking different payment methods is more convenient for them.

Increased Competitiveness

If you want to remain competitive in the current climate, you need to be keeping up with the competition. With over 60% of small businesses closing within the first three years of business, not accepting card payments can put you at a severe disadvantage. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes… if two businesses offer the same thing at relatively similar prices, but one takes cards, and the other is a cash-only business, and you rarely have cash on you, where you are going to shop? Using this logic, you can easily see that your competitor has the upper hand, and this is where you will struggle to keep up.

Top Tips for Working More Efficiently at Home

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

Whether you work remotely for a company, or you are running your own business from home, working more efficiently can make your day better and give you more time to focus on things that are important to you. One of the biggest factors that can slow down your work is your laptop or mac. When you first purchased your laptop, it probably ran fast and smoothly. Over time, its performance and speed will slow down. From slowly opening programs to not having enough space to download any files, it can become frustrating and impact your work.

Making some simple changes to your device will significantly improve your efficiency and the way you work. 

Here are some of the best ways to improve your laptop performance and efficiency. 

#1 Free up space 

Freeing up space on your device can be one of the most helpful things that you do. Even if you don’t need to download files on a regular basis, your device will still need empty space available on the device for virtual memory, to perform tasks and run programs. You must aim for completely clean MacBook storage. Start by removing any old programs and files that you don’t need, delete any temporary files and uninstall any unnecessary or unwanted software. 

#2 Check your device for malware 

Sometimes your device might not be running efficiently due to a virus, adware, spyware or another malicious software or program. This can take up a lot of space, and use a lot of resources on your device, as well as put your security at risk. You should regularly check your device for malware by running a virus or threat protection check in the settings, to ensure your device is running as best as it can. You should also download anti-virus and anti-malware on your device. These steps will keep your device running efficiently, and ensure you do not hit any costly or detrimental disruptions later down the line, that may stop you from being able to work altogether. 

#3 Service your laptop 

You should get regular service on your device, especially if you use it every day. You can do this yourself by watching YouTube tutorials by professionals. Alternatively, you can find a reputable company that can service your device for you. This service will increase the speed and performance of your laptop, by making sure everything is running properly. A service will focus on the hardware, rather than the software. When dust and debris build up on your device, it can impact its performance. All the parts of your device, including the circuit board and other components that sit inside, require cleaning at some point. If you choose to service your laptop yourself, make sure you are careful and put everything back properly. You should also try to avoid eating in your workspace to reduce the crumbs that fall into your device and keep your workspace clean. 

#4 Regularly reboot your device 

When you regularly lock your device or reboot it, you are providing it with the chance to improve its performance automatically. During this time, your device will fix any bugs, reduce memory leaks, and flush the RAM. If you don’t have anything of importance on your laptop, you may also consider the option of resetting your laptop. Over the years, you may have built up many files and programs that you don’t want or need. A reset is quick and will get rid of all the files, and set it back to the way it was when you first purchased it. 

#5 Increase the Random-access memory (RAM) 

RAM is the short term memory of your device. While you might not be downloading a file during your workday, the RAM is used to process all the tasks you are working on. Without RAM or a sufficient amount of RAM, your programs or any activity to try to do on your device, will not work. It works by reading files, temporarily storing them for you to use, and loading applications. Depending on what you do for work, will dictate how much RAM your device requires. For example, if you just use your laptop for basic activities, then 4GB of RAM should be sufficient. If you are running bigger and more demanding programs, for activities such as programming, graphic design, or gaming, then you will need 8GB of RAM or more. Review the tasks that you complete regularly, and consider if increasing the RAM will help your device run more efficiently. 

An efficient workday heavily relies on the performance of your laptop or mac. Follow these top tips to help you improve your working day. 

Why You Should Be A Business Mentor

When you started your business, there would have been challenges and issues that you had to face, and you probably faced them alone. Getting over those hurdles took time and could have cost you dearly if you hadn’t successfully navigated your way through. If you had had a mentor right at the start of your business, everything would have been a lot simpler to deal with. The challenges would still have been there, but you would have known which way to step to deal with them. 

Now that you are more established, is it time you became that mentor for a younger generation of entrepreneurs? There are many reasons why you should. 

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

Strengthen Your Learning 

Over the years, you will have learned many important lessons. You know what to do and what not to do now, and that’s a hugely positive thing for your business. If you now choose to pass on that information to someone else, not only are you helping them to succeed as you have, but you will also be strengthening your own learning. That means that you will be even more able and confident to deal with anything that comes your way. 

Helping others is another way of helping yourself, and there is no better way to clarify ideas and think about challenges than by dealing with those someone else has to meet. 

Reinforce Your Customer Service Model 

If you have hit upon a great way to help your customers and offer exceptional customer service, you can teach this system to someone else, reinforcing your own model in their business. Why is this a good idea? It’s because customer service is of paramount importance when it comes to running a business; without good customer service, no matter what else you do, you will never reach the heights of business success that you would otherwise do. Therefore, if you can teach a new business owner just one thing, let it be that customer service is important and how to do it right. 

Learn New Things 

Although you may think of mentoring as teaching someone else everything you know about business, sometimes it can work the other way around; sometimes you can learn new things that will benefit you as an individual and your business. 

By talking ideas through with someone else, you will often see a different side to the idea, either positive or negative, that can have an impact on what you are doing, or how you are going to implement your new plans. You might find out more about the best live chat software for business that you hadn’t realized existed, but that would make a big difference in your business. Or you could start to look at artificial intelligence because your mentee likes the idea of using it. 

Leave A Legacy 

Being a mentor is about ensuring that someone else has as much success – if not more so – as you did in your business. It’s a way of leaving a lasting legacy, especially if your mentee then goes on to become a mentor themselves, passing on information to the next generation. This kind of business immortality is exciting and something that many people want.