Well Baby/Child Clinic

On this past Monday we did a well baby/child clinic. We went to two different villages and saw almost 100 children in the course of only a few hours. We took height and weight measurements of every child and then plotted them on a graph was exactly like the one in the picture.

This was a learning experience for us all. You would think getting to piece of information on a sheet of paper would be pretty simple. BUT... when you add a language barrier, fussy children, impatient parents and 90+ degree weather, everything seems more challenging! 

Even with the environment working against us we all got into a groove... After seeing almost 50 children we were finished and were able to eat our lunch packed by the hotel's owner's wife, Marta. (by the way... ALL the food we had was delicious. Everything was SO fresh and flavorful it was hard to stop eating at meals) We also were able to see the stoves that Rivers of the World provide for families. They are ventilated and much more efficient which improves the families health (because they aren't constantly breathing smoke) and environmentally friendly (because each family goes from burning 28 trees a year to 8!). Also instead of the stove heating the entire house the heat is contained much better to the area of the stove. 

At our second village for well baby/child we set up and got moving quickly. As a result we were done much quicker as well. With a grow chart doctor's and primary care providers are looking to see a trend over time. If a child is the the 5% percentile but continues to stay within that range for 5 years there is nothing to worry about they are just smaller and lighter than most, but developing WNL (nursing term: within normal limits). So it was difficult to provide parents with an accurate assessment of their children's development because we were only measuring a single point in time. 

The other thing we saw at our second village was a teenage boy that had been kicked by a horse a few days prior to our clinic. He had about a two inch laceration above his right eye. Elaine, the ASN coordinator saw him but because it had been two days since the incident we could not suture the wound; it would have to heal on it's own. The wound itself was inflamed and he had a black eye. When we returned on Friday (four days later) with anti-biotics and dressing supplies the improvement was remarkable! The swelling and inflammation at almost disappeared and his black was gone. Take a look!