The Female Organs
The female organs consist of the external genitals, near the surface of the body between the thighs, and the internal genitals, inside the body. They connect with one another through the vagina and the cervix of the uterus. The external female organs are composed of the vulva and the vagina. The vulva has two large major lips and two smaller minor lips. Between the lips of the vulva is the entrance to the vagina.
High up, surrounded by the minor lips of the vulva, is the clitoris. This is a small, firm structure about the size of a pea, and just below it is the exit of the urethra. It is through the urethra that urine is passed from the bladder to the outside.
The female organs the vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries are shown here in relation to structures which surround them. These structures are the urethra, the urinary bladder, the ureters, and the rectum. All of these organs are located way down low, at the bottom of the abdomen. This area is called the pelvis.
The vagina in a young girl is covered by a thin membrane with holes in it. This is called the hymen, or maidenhead. The vagina is a canal, lined by mucous membrane, which extends in for a few inches and connects with the entrance to the uterus. In a grown woman, the vagina receives the sperm that the man places there during intercourse. The vagina stretches widely when childbirth occurs, and, as we know, the newborn child comes out through the vagina. The internal female organs consist of the uterus with its cervix pointing down into the vagina, two Fallopian tubes, and two ovaries.
A channel, called the cervical canal, runs through the middle of the cervix up into the uterus. It connects with a cavity, the uterine cavity, in the middle of the uterus. And the uterine cavity connects with a channel running through the Fallopian tubes. The ends of the Fallopian tubes are wide open and are located next to the ovaries.
It is amazing that so few girls-and grown women, too-have much knowledge of their female organs. Maybe it is because most of these structures are inside the body, where they can’t be seen. Many people don’t even know that females have more organs than males.
The female organs in a girl under eleven or twelve years of age are not active. When she reaches that age which we call the age of puberty-the ovaries begin to supply larger and larger amounts of hormones. When these hormones get into the bloodstream, they influence certain other organs. The girl’s breasts begin to grow, her uterus enlarges, she gets hair under her arms and over her external organs, and her figure begins to take the shape of a woman rather than of a little girl. At about this time, or perhaps a year or so later, the ovaries begin to manufacture mature eggs. One of these mature eggs, or occasionally two of them, comes out of one or the other ovary each month. When an egg leaves the ovary, it is called ovulation.
An egg from an ovary is only about the size of a pinpoint, and can really be seen well only through a microscope. It travels from the ovary into the open end of the nearby Fallopian tube. When it gets there, one of two things happens to it:
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1. If sperm from the male are in the tube, the egg may become fertilized. This means that one of the sperm has joined with the egg to form an embryo. At this moment, the woman has become pregnant. The fertilized egg then travels down the three inches or so of the Fallopian tube into the uterus. The journey down the tube takes three to five days. When the fertilized egg reaches the uterus, it buries itself in the lining of the uterus and begins to
grow and develop. It will take nine months for it to grow into a fully developed child.
2. If there are no sperm in the tube when the egg arrives, the egg remains unfertilized and passes down the tube into the uterus, out of the uterus through the cervix into the vagina, and out of the vagina and the body.
Each month when an egg leaves the ovary, the uterus prepares itself so it will be ready if pregnancy is going to take place. The cells lining the inside of the uterine cavity grow and swell, and more blood comes to the uterus. This will make it easy for the fertilized egg to take root, much like a seed takes root in the earth. However, if the egg is not fertilized and a pregnancy does not take place, then the uterus sheds some of the cells lining its cavity. These cells, along with some blood, are passed out of the uterus into the vagina, and out of the vagina to the outside. This is called menstruation. It usually takes from three to five days for all these cells and blood to leave the body. Therefore, a menstrual period lasts about three to five days.
When the menstrual period is over, the uterus starts all over again to make itself ready for the next month. The ovary, too, gets ready for the next month when it will ripen another egg.
Ovulation, the ripening and the discharge of the egg from the ovary, usually takes place about two weeks before the menstrual period.
So you see how wonderful Nature is. It gets the female ready to become pregnant every month from the time she is a young girl of about twelve until she is a woman of about fifty years of age. By the time a woman reaches fifty, the ovaries usually stop manufacturing ripe eggs.
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The Male Organs
The male organs are the penis, the prostate gland, the seminal vesicles, the testicles, and the epididymis with its attached tube, called the vas deferens. These appear to be difficult words, but it is not difficult to explain what these organs are and how they work.
The penis is made up mostly of a special kind of elastic and muscle tissue, which allows it to get smaller and larger from time to time. Through the middle of the penis is a tube called the urethra. The urethra connects with the bladder, and urine is passed through it. The male urethra also connects with the prostate gland surrounding the bot¬tom of the bladder and with the seminal vesicles that lie on top of the prostate gland.
Sperm are produced in the testicles. They then travel to the coiled tubes called the epididymis. There, they mature rapidly and are stored, ready for use. During intercourse, they Travel up a long tube called the vas deferens, and eventually leave the body through the urethra of the penis.
When the urethra is being used to carry urine from the bladder, sperm and semen are blocked from passing through it. And when the urethra is carrying semen and sperm, urine is blocked, from passing through it. There are structures like valves, called sphincters, which prevent the urethra from carrying urine and semen at the same time.
Sperm cells are produced by the testicles, beginning when a boy reaches anywhere from twelve to fourteen years of age. There are hundreds of millions of sperm cells, each one so small that it can be seen only through a microscope. Sperm travel from the testicles to the epididymis. The epididymis is a small structure made up of one long, curled-up tube. Sperm that have been manufactured in the testicles are stored in this tube.
The seminal vesicles are glands that are filled with a fluid called semen. When the sperm cells are ready to come out and be placed in the vagina of the female, they travel up from the epididymis through a long hollow tube called the vas deferens. As the sperm get near the seminal vesicles, the seminal vesicles secrete the fluid, semen, which mixes with the sperm. Then the semen, which now contains the sperm, passes out through the urethra of the penis.
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Anesthesia and Surgery
It doesn’t hurt to be operated upon because one goes to sleep and feels no pain while the surgeon is doing what he has to do. No matter what the operation, whether it is the removal of tonsils or the appendix, or the fixing of a hernia, pain is never felt. Oh, there may be a little pain when a patient awakens from the operation, but most of that pain, too, can be gotten rid of by giving special pain-relieving medicines.
The word anesthesia means absence of feeling. There are lots of ways to see to it that the patient feels nothing during an operation. Some of them are:
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1. Giving special medicines an hour or so before the operation while the patient is still in his hospital bed.
2. Giving an injection of a medicine that makes the patient go to sleep on the operating table in the operating room.
3. Giving the patient an anesthetic gas to breathe.
There are several different gases that can put a person completely to sleep, unable to feel pain. Here are the names of some of them: fluothane; cyclopropane; nitrous oxide; ether; ethyl chloride.
These gases are breathed in through a special anesthesia mask that is attached by a rubber tube to an anesthesia machine that contains tanks of the
gases. And, as we have mentioned before, the gases are given only after the patient has been placed in a nice, relaxed state by medicine received even before being brought to the operating room. The doctor who specializes in anesthesia will choose the gas he or she thinks best for the particular patient and the particular operation the surgeon is going to perform.
Before the operation the surgeon or anesthesiologist visits a young patient, makes friends with her, and explains how anesthesia will be administered to her.
Here is what usually happens when a child goes, with his or her mother or father, of course, to the hospital for an operation:
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1. The day before the operation the anesthesiologist (the doctor who specializes in anesthesia) visits the child in the hospital room and explains everything that is going to happen about anesthesia.
2. Anesthesiologists often show the patient the anesthesia mask that will be used in giving the anesthetic the next day. A child might want to practice breathing through it, even though it is not attached to an anesthesia machine.
3. An enema may be given the night before the operation so the stomach and intestines will be empty. That often does away with any uncomfortable feeling in the belly after the operation is over.
4. No food or drink is given to the patient after the evening meal in the hospital the night before the operation. This will keep the stomach nice and empty so one won’t feel sick to the stomach after the operation is over.
5. A sleeping pill, or even an injection, may be given the night before, just to make sure the patient has a good sleep and isn’t restless the next morning before going to the operating room.
6. A special medicine is injected an hour or so before going to the operating room in the morning. This makes certain the patient feels relaxed and comfortable when given the anesthetic gas to breathe.
7. The morning of the operation, the patient is given a special shirt to wear to the Operating room. After the operation, the patient will put on his or her own pajamas or nightgown again.
8. To travel to the operating room, a patient is put on a special stretcher. A child says goodbye to mother and father, but will see them again soon after waking up after the operation.
9. The operating room is usually on a different floor—called the surgical floor—in the hospital from the patient’s room. This may mean a ride, while on the stretcher, in an elevator.
10. Upon reaching the surgical floor, the patient will again greet the anesthesiologist. Together, they will go into the operating room, and the child will move off the stretcher to the operating table.
11. The patient lies back on the operating table and, looking up, can see a huge light. This operating light is very special because it throws a very strong beam without any shadows. This permits the surgeon and aides to see perfectly what they are doing. Many children like to ask to see the light turned on before they go to sleep.
12. The surgeon who is going to do the operation comes in and greets the patient.
13. The patient will notice that there are quite a few people who were not around before, hustling and bustling about the operating room. These are:
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a.) The instrument nurse who is handling a bunch of surgical instruments. She will assist at the operation.
b.) The circulating nurse. She’s the one who comes in and out of the operating room to bring the instrument nurse various things she needs.
c.) An orderly. He is a man who helps to keep the operating room neat and clean in between operations. He may be the same man who brought the patient from his room to the operating room, and he may be the one who lifts the patient onto the operating table before the operation and lifts him off after the operation.
d.) There may be one or two doctors other than the patient’s surgeon in the operating room. They are there to assist the surgeon perform the operation.
14. Everyone in the operating room wears a cap, a face mask covering the nose and mouth, and a special gown that is put on backwards. The cap, mask, and gown are worn in order to keep everything as free as possible from germs. Of course, everybody knows that things should be germ-free (sterile) in an operating room. This will keep germs away from the surgical wound so that it will heal quickly, without infection.
15. The surgeon and surgical assistants, at about this time, leave the operating room and go to scrub sinks. These are specially designed sinks where the surgeons scrub their hands and arms with special brushes or sponges. They scrub and scrub for about ten minutes without stopping. This gets the germs off their hands and arms so they can’t get into the surgical incision.
16. While the surgeons are scrubbing, and before they have put on their operating gowns and rubber gloves, the anesthesiologist starts putting the patient to sleep. First, he or she gives an injection into the hand or arm and attaches the needle to a plastic bag containing fluid. This fluid has sugar in it so the patient will receive nourishment even while the operation is going on.. Then the anesthesiologist takes the anesthesia mask and gently places it over the patient’s nose and mouth. The patient takes a few deep breaths and—almost quick as a wink—falls asleep. And, of course, the patient stays asleep until the operation is finished.
17. A patient waking up from an operation may feel some pain in the wound area, but is still so groggy from the anesthesia that the pain won’t be remembered. Most patients doze off and on for an hour or two after the operation has been completed. This is O.K. Everybody will let them sleep. A patient may also feel thirsty, but it is usually a good idea not to drink anything for an hour or two after surgery. Drinking might make the patient sick to the stomach.
18. From the operating room, patients are brought to the recovery room, which is near the operating room. There are special recovery-room nurses who know all the ways to make someone who has just undergone surgery feel comfortable. If pain is severe, they will give medicines to relieve it. If the patient is sweaty, the nurses will sponge him or her off. Finally, when the patient has fully awakened, another ride on a stretcher brings a return to his or her own hospital room. A child, of course, will be greeted there by one or both parents.
There may be a few uncomfortable hours even after a child is back in the hospital room after an operation. But most children sleep a lot and don’t complain too much. Do you know why? Well, it’s because they are so happy the operation is over. Most patients get out of bed the morning after an operation.
Some can go home the day following surgery; others must wait longer, until the wound has healed. When the wound has healed, maybe six or seven days later, the surgeon will remove the stitches. However, in certain types of cases it is possible to put in stitches that absorb by themselves and don’t have to be removed. But if these kinds have not been used, a patient should know that there isn’t much pain to removing stitches. There might be a slight pinching feeling as the stitches are removed, but certainly, no more pain than a little mosquito bite.
When children come home after an operation, they begin to realize what a wonderful experience they have had. Just think of it, having your tonsils or appendix removed, and all you remember is going to the operating room on a stretcher and seeing the big light overhead on the operating table! We’ll bet you don’t even remember the anesthesiologist putting the mask on your face, do you? That’s pretty trrific, isn’t it? No wonder so many youngsters just can’t wait to tell their friends about their operation!
After it’s all over, children enjoy showing off their surgical scars. They get attention and have an opportunity to display their bravery to others.
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Going to the Hospital
Hospitals are fine places, because that’s where sick people go to get better. Without them, it would be much more difficult for doctors to cure their patients. And there is another reason why hospitals are great. Do you know what that is? Well, it’s where your mom went to have you!
Sooner or later, almost everybody goes to a hospital for some reason or other. Maybe it’s to have tonsils removed, or to have an appendix out, or to have tests done for a sickness that isn’t getting well quickly enough at home, or to have a broken arm or leg fixed. The fact is that hospitals have the equipment and the instruments and the machines and the medicines and the special doctors to cure most diseases. A doctor’s office can’t have all that equipment or medicines or different kinds of specialists. And certainly, your home doesn’t have an X-ray machine and a laboratory to do blood tests, or an operating room, does it?
The main trouble with hospitals is that many of them won’t let your mom or dad stay overnight with you when you are there. Some might allow this, but many hospitals don’t. And, of course, no youngster likes the idea of being separated from his parents. But it can’t be helped sometimes, and most children realize that they are only going to be in the hospital a short time, so it won’t make too much difference.
Although a child is likely to be at least a little homesick and anxious for a day or two after entering the hospital, he will soon meet other children and enjoy the recreational and entertainment programs that many hospitals provide.
To make up for your parents not being with you, many hospitals have specially developed programs to entertain children. In some hospitals, it’s pretty much like being in a play group in school. There are special sections of the hospital set aside for children so that they will have plenty of friends to play with. And hospitals have books for the children to read and games and toys to play with. Some hospitals even have shows and movies for the children. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Would you like to know what happens to children when they go to the hospital? Here goes:
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1. A child takes a pair or two of pajamas or nightgowns, and a bathrobe and slippers to the hospital as well as a comb and brush, and toothbrush and toothpaste. It isn’t necessary to take a radio or television as they have them available in the hospital. It is also unnecessary to take toys or games or blankets or pillows. They have those in the hospital, too. A favorite book or two can be brought along, if one wants to.
2. When he gets to the hospital, the child and his or her parents will go to the Admitting Office. There, the mother or father tells the people the child’s name, age, and address. They then put this information on a bracelet which is slipped on to the child’s wrist. Doing this allows all the nurses and doctors to know exactly who the child is. All they have to do is read the information on the bracelet.
3. From the Admitting Office, the child goes to his room. It may have only one bed, or there may be two, three, four or more beds in the room. It is frequently more fun to be in a room with other youngsters with whom a child can talk and play.
4. After getting to the hospital room, a child undresses and gets into bed. A whole bunch of tests are carried out on almost all patients, no matter what is wrong with them. Here are some of the things that most children experience.
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a.) An examination is done by a doctor. Often, the doctor is an intern or resident, and wears a white uniform. It may be a man or a woman doctor.
b.) The nurse takes the child’s pulse and temperature.
c.) A laboratory technician takes some blood from the child’s finger or arm to send to the laboratory. (This hurts just about as much as a mosquito bite.)
d.) The nurse asks the child to urinate in a bottle so that the urine can be sent t&the laboratory for examination.
e.) An X ray of the chest is taken. (This doesn’t hurt at all.)
f.) Special tests are done, according to the child’s illness.
g.) If the child is going to have an operation performed, the skin is shaved in the area that is to be operated upon.
h.) A child who is going to be operated on the next morning may be given an enema the night before. Also, one who is to be operated on the next morning should not eat or drink anything after going to sleep at night.
5. Parents are always allowed to visit their children every day, even if they aren’t permitted to stay overnight. They will come each day and will stay during the visiting hours. Children must understand that it is sometimes not possible for the parents to stay all day long. If they did, the doctors and nurses might not be able to give all the treatments that the sick children require.
6. As soon as a doctor can tell when a child is well enough to go home, the child will be told. It is perfectly all right for a child t ask the doctor when that time will come, but a child must understand that the doctor cannot always tell for sure. Some illnesses clear up in a few days; some take much longer. And, of course, a doctor is not going to send a child home until he is completely recovered.
7. The best way to go home quickly is for children to cooperate fully with their doctors and nurses. If they take their medicines and treatments without raising a fuss, they will get well much more quickly.
A parent can help prepare a young child for a visit to the hospital by reading the child picture books about hospitals and talking about them in a general way.
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Birthmarks, Moles, and Warts
Many infants are born with some kind of birthmark or mole somewhere on their bodies. They may appear as a light pinkish spot on the face, neck, or torso, or they may be a coffee-colored mark. Occasionally, a child is born with a deeper red wine-stain birthmark. Unfortunately, many of these wine-stain marks are found on the face or head where sometimes they don’t look very nice.
Some birthmarks are pretty difficult to get rid of, but actually, most of them don’t need to be gotten rid of because they aren’t disfiguring. Birthmarks don’t cause any pain and the ones on covered parts of the body can’t even be seen unless one is undressed.
Many light-colored pink birthmarks II fade out and disappear by themselves before the child is a few months old. Ugly-looking, darker-colored birthmarks on the face can often be removed by a surgeon when the child has grow’ up a bit and is better able to undergo an operation.
A great many boys and girls will develop a mole or two by the time they reach five or six years of age. Moles are round in shape and are raised slightly from the surface of the skin. Some are light tan while others are. a deeper- brown or even a bluish-black color. Moles can be as small as a pinhead or may be extremely large, occasionally reaching the size of a lemon or orange. Children with many moles usually have a mother or father, or both, who also have a lot of moles on their bodies.
Moles that aren’t ugly or disfiguring can be left alone unless they begin to grow rapidly or change from a lighter to a darker color, or bleed because they are rubbed against by clothing. It is also a good idea to remove moles that are on the toes or feet or fingers or hands, because they often get irritated. To have a mole removed, a child usually goes to the hospital for a day. Most moles can be removed very easily, either with a little injection to relieve the pain or by getting an anesthetic so as to go to sleep during the operation. Operations to remove moles are not painful and children don’t mind the experience very much at all. If a mole happens to be especially ugly, the scar following its removal will look much better than the mole looked before it was removed.
Warts are caused by a virus infection and can appear anywhere on the body. Even though warts are caused by a virus they are not contagious.
Almost every child sooner or later will have a wart. Warts are caused by a virus infection. There used to be a story that warts came from playing with frogs or toads, but we now know that this just isn’t true. Warts are round and hard and raised above the surface of the skin. The top of a wart feels rough and horny.
Warts can appear anywhere on the body, but favorite places are on the hands and feet. It is not known why some youngsters have lots of warts and others have practically none. Doctors think that certain children just naturally seem better able than others to protect themselves against the viruses that cause warts.
Often, warts will last for a few weeks or months, and then, with nothing done about them, they disappear. Other times, warts do not go away, or they may grow larger and the child may develop more of them in the same or a different part of the body. And, sometimes, a doctor will remove just one wart, and all the rest of them will disappear all by themselves.
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Parasites
A parasite is a plant or animal that lives on the outside or inside of another plant or animal. It gets its nourishment from the animal or plant on which, or in which, it lives. Some parasites are so small that they can only be seen under a microscope. For example, the parasite that lives in human blood and causes malaria is so tiny it can only be seen under a microscope. However, some parasites, like the tapeworm which attaches itself to the inside of an animal’s or human’s stomach, may grow to b several feet long.
The world is full of all kinds of parasites. An orchid plant that attaches itself to the bark of a tree is a parasite; many vines are parasites; a tick that attaches itself to a dog’s skin and sucks its blood for nourishment is a parasite; and many kinds of worms that get inside an animal’s or human’s body and gain their nourishment from the animal or human are parasites.
Diseases caused by parasites are fairly common in children who play in dirt where worms and other parasites live. The parasites often go from the ground into a child’s body when the child puts his dirty hands into his mouth. Parasites also get into children’s bodies when they kiss or hug or play with pets who have infected worms or ticks on their bodies. And finally, parasites may enter the body when an infected insect, like a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite, bites someone’s skin.
There are a great number of different diseases and conditions caused by parasites. Here are just a few of them, and how they affect children:
Malaria
This is an infection caused by one of four kinds of malarial parasite. It comes about when a person is bitten by a mosquito that is infected with the. parasite.
During the first week of malaria, the patient will have attacks of fever, headaches, and chilly sensations. Then, during the weeks afterward, he may feel fine one day, and the next day he may have a high fever and severe chills lasting for a few hours. Then, he will break out in a great sweat. This situation continues with one day high fever and chills, the next day no fever or chills.
The mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasites breed primarily in the humid, hot climate of the tropics and subtropics. They are seldom found in temperate regions.
An ameba is a single-celled animal organism that may cause diseases in children. The most common of such diseases is dysentery caused by Endamoeba histolytica.
The diagnosis of malaria is made by taking a little sample of the patient’s blood and examining it under a microscope. On examination, the malaria parasite will be found.
Malaria attacks may go on for many weeks or months if treatment isn’t given. Fortunately, there are several excellent medications to control malana, but they must be given over a long period of time in order to cure the condition.
To prevent this disease, someone who is in an area where malaria exists should take antimalarial pills every day. Also, he should protect himself against being bitten by mosquitoes.
Amebic dysentery
This is a form of diarrhea caused by a tiny one-celled animal parasite called the ameba. A child with amebic dysentery will have crampy pains in his abdomen, many watery, loose bowel movements, loss of appetite, loss of weight, and anemia.
The diagnosis of this condition is made by examining the stool in a laboratory and seeing the ameba parasite under a microscope. Luckily, there are excellent medicines to kill the parasite and cure the child.
To prevent amebic dysentery, a child must be very clean about his body and his eating habits. Also, if he isn’t careful, he may spread the infection to other members of his family.
Worms
Tapeworm sometimes grow to be many feet long. Medicines may cause the worm to be passed out of the intestines. Unless the head of the worm comes out with the segments, the worm will continue to grow.
Various worms can easily get into a child’s body if he runs barefoot outdoors, if he has the habit of putting 1 dirty fingers into his mouth, or if he plays with animals who have worms.
There are dozens of different kinds of worms, including the hookworm, the whipworm, the pinworm, and the tapeworm. Each one can get into the body, and each one can cause a different disease.
Some of the worms that get into the stomach and intestines finally come out in the stool. When they appear in the stool, doctors can examine them and will therefore be able to tell the exact kind of worm that is causing trouble. Occasionally, a worm will get into the blood, or will reach the muscles or other organs of the body. These worms may be harder to find, but there are ways of discovering and getting rid of them.
People are fortunate that doctors have discovered medicines to kill practically every type of worm that can get into the body.
Precautions
Here are some good rules to follow if we want to avoid conditions caused by parasites:
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1. Don’t drink any water in the country or in a foreign land unless you are positive it is pure. Don’t eat the skins of raw fruits and raw vegetables when you are visiting in the country. Fresh fruit should be peeled, and raw vegetables should be cooked.
2. Children should protect themselves against mosquitoes, and against lice and other insects that might carry parasites. Mosquito sprays should be used. Long slacks or jeans, long-sleeved blouses or shirts, should be worn in areas where there are mosquitoes.
3. Vaccinations should be given against diseases carried by insects and viruses. For example, before traveling to some foreign countries, it is a good idea to be vaccinated against typhus fever, yellow fever, the plague, and other contagious diseases. When going to an area where there is malaria, a child should take antimalarial pills every day. And when camping out in woods where there might be ticks, it might be wise to be vaccinated against Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
4. Children should not kiss and hug dogs or cats or other pets that run wild in the fields. Such animals may carry insects that can transmit parasites.
5. Children should wash thoroughly when they come indoors and, of course, they should never put dirty fingers in their mouths!
Among the parasites found in children are: whipworm, hookworm, trichinosis larva in muscle, adult trichinosis worm, and liver fluke.
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Kidney and Bladder Infections
The kidneys filter out waste materials and poisons from the blood and get rid of them in the urine. However, sometimes the blood that reaches the kidneys is so full of toxins (poisons manufactured by germs) from a severe inflammation elsewhere in the body that the kidneys themselves become inflamed.
For instance, it is possible that a very bad infection of the tonsils may allow a great deal of poisonous toxin to get into the blood and eventually reach the kidneys. And these toxins can be so strong that they cause an inflammation of the kidneys. Also, every once in a while, germs will travel through the blood to the kidneys, where they will cause an infection.! And, sometimes, an infection of th bladder may travel up the ureters (the tubes connecting the kidneys and the bladder) and cause a kidney infection.
The kidneys and bladder are parts of the body’s waste-disposal system, and so when we have a kidney infection, we often have an infected bladder, too. The way to get over a kidney infection is to stay in bed, drink plenty of water and other liquids, and take the antibiotic or other medicines the doctor prescribes.
An inflammation or infection of the kidneys can usually be diagnosed because the child has a high fever, a pain in his back under his ribs where t. kidneys are located, and he is tender when the doctor touches the kidneys during his examination. Also, when the doctor examines the urine, he finds pus or other cells which show that the kidneys are inflamed. In order to get over a kidney inflammation or infection, a child must do following:
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1. Stay in bed.
2. Drink the proper amounts of fluids that the doctor tells him to drink.
3. Take antibiotic medicines or other medicines that the doctor prescribes.
In most cases, a kidney infection will get well without too much trouble, but some of the inflammations caused by toxins may take a long time to get over. Often, when the kidneys are infected, the bladder also becomes infected. That is quite natural as the urine, containing germs, travels from the kidneys down to the bladder. It is easy to know when children have bladder infections. Here’s what happens in most cases:
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1. There is a desire to urinate much more often than usual. Sometimes, a child wants to go every hour, or even more often than that.
2. The urine may burn as it passes out of the body.
3. Even though the child has finished urinating, he or she still feels like doing more.
4. There may be a fever, and the child may perspire a great deal.
5. The urine, instead of being clear, looks cloudy. That’s because it contains germs and pus cells.
Luckily, almost all bladder infections can be cleared up quickly if the child stays in bed, drinks large amounts of liquids, and takes the antibiotic medication that the doctor tells him to take. But even after the bladder is all better, it is important to drink lots of water for several weeks afterward. That will prevent the infection from coming back.
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Hernia
A hernia, or as some people call it, a rupture, is a weakness in the wall of the abdomen. It allows intestines or other tissues from inside the abdomen to bulge through the weakened area. The two most frequent places for hernia in children are the bellybutton and the groin. Hernias may also occur at other places, including the diaphragm which separates the chest from the abdomen.
Some children are born with hernias due to a weakness located at the bellybutton, or in the groin where the thigh joins the abdomen. These hernias are thought to be caused by incomplete development of the child in his mother’s uterus. In other words, the child was born before he was completely finished.
A hernia in the bellybutton is called an umbilical hernia. It is recognized by the way the bellybutton bulges out, especially when an infant cries or strains. Beneath this bulge, one can sometimes feel a little opening in the muscle of the abdominal wall. Many umbilical hernias get smaller as the child grows during the first year of life, but other umbilical hernias stay the same size or grow larger. If an umbilical hernia is larger than a dime or nickel, and remains that way even after the child has passed his first birthday, it will probably not go away of its own accord.
Inguinal hernias, or hernias in the groin, can be very serious if a loop of intestine is caught in the hernial sac. Such hernias should always be repaired surgically. Hernias occur most frequently in the groin, because at this site there are gaps in the abdominal wall for blood vessels and the genital cord.
Doctors used to place a penny or dime in the opening of a hernia of the bellybutton, would strap it there with adhesive tape, and would leave it in place for several weeks at a time. They thought that this might make the hernia heal by itself. We now know that this doesn’t do much good. If an umbilical hernia is going to heal, it will heal even if we leave it alone.
An umbilical hernia can easily be cured by having a surgeon fix it. This is a simple operation, carried out in a hospital. It is not a painful operation because the child goes to sleep before it is performed. Afterward, there might be slight pain for a day or two, but it is not enough to keep the child in bed. Youngsters get out of bed the day after this type of surgery and they go home from the hospital a day or two later.
A hernia in the groin is called an inguinal hernia. Inguinal hernias are just as common as hernias of the bellybutton. When a hernia appears in one groin in a child under one or two years of age, there is a good chance he w develop a hernia in the other groin, too. Every once in a while an inguinal hernia will clear up by itself by the time a baby reaches the age of a year or a year and a half. However, most of them II do not clear up and have to be operate upon.
It is a good idea to operate on inguinal hernias, because there is a tendency for intestines to stick through the bulge of the hernia. When this hap-I pens, a child may get sick to his stomach and have pain in his abdomen. And, once in a while, a piece of intestine gets caught in the bulge of the hernia and doesn’t go back into the abdomen where it belongs. When this happens a child gets truly sick and must go to the hospital at once.
Most doctors recommend that inguinal hernias be repaired soon after they appear. If they appear at birth, they can be repaired when the child is a few weeks old. If they appear for the first time when a boy or girl is five or six years of age, they are repaired then.
The operation to cure an inguinal hernia is just as simple as the one to fix a hernia of the bellybutton. The child feels no pain during the surgery, as he goes to sleep beforehand. There is some discomfort in the groin for a day or two after the operation, but it doesn’t prevent the child from getting out of bed and walking around his hospital room. About two or three days after repairing an inguinal hernia, the child can go home.
After any operation for hernia, a child must take it easy for a few weeks so that the tissues heal solidly. This means that he may not be able to run and play, to roughhouse or to ride his bicycle for a few weeks. However, he can go back to school just two or three weeks after surgery. When the wound of the operation has healed solidly, he can do everything that he did before he was operated on. The bellybutton and the groin, after a hernia operation, are just as strong as they would have been if no hernia had existed.
Sometimes, in some hospitals, a mother may stay overnight with the child who goes in for a hernia operation. This depends upon the rules of the particular hospital to which the child goes.
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