Walking into a pharmacy can be quite overwhelming when it comes to trying to choose the right product to ease your child’s cough. The first thing to know is that the science behind cough medicines is not conclusive, but anecdotally people find them effective in helping to reduce their severity. The second is that your child’s cough is most likely caused by a virus – occasionally a bacteria – and the cough medicines are designed to ease symptoms but they can’t cure it or make it go any quicker. The third thing to bear in mind is that coughs are worse at night – gravity when lying flat causes the secretions from their nose, throat and chest to pool and irritate. Just when you want them to get a good night’s sleep. So cough medicines may be a good idea at night and to have by the bedside in case they wake with a coughing fit. Your child’s age is a good place to start when choosing a cough medicine. Many cough medicines are not suitable for children under the age of 6. For kids younger than 6 months, Calpol infant suspension and Nurofen infant suspension can be used to provide some relief, if your child has a persistent cough causing discomfort associated with a temperature. Different types of ingredients found within cough syrups have different properties to soothe irritation, hopefully aiding comfort and soothing them to sleep.

A stomach bug causes vomiting and diarrhoea. It's medically known as gastroenteritis, and referred to as food poisoning, if there is a particular meal in the frame. The diarrhoea mostly resolves within 5 to 7 days and the vomiting in 2 to 3 days. Symptoms associated with a stomach bug include diarrhoea, stomach pain and cramps, nausea, vomiting, and they may have a mild fever or a headache. Generally children and babies feel fairly well with a stomach bug - they will still want to play and be their usual self, and they may keep their appetite, so trust your instincts if they appear unwell.

Lyme disease is a condition caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi , which is spread by an insect called a tick. (It is called Lyme disease after the American town where it was first described). The ticks bite an infected animal and then bite us. An infected tick often leaves a classic mark of Lyme disease: a distinctive circular rash, described as a bullseye on a dartboard. This rash may take up to a month to develop, and some don't get it at all. Anyone affected might feel unwell with a fever, muscle aches, headaches and lethargy. If left untreated, Lyme disease can progress to cause multiple symptoms in many different parts of the body that last weeks or months after the initial infection. There are three stages of Lyme disease: Early local skin reaction – this happens 3 to 36 days after being bitten by an infected tick and causes the classical bullseye rash and – in about 1 in 3 cases – a flu-like illness for a few days. Early disseminated disease, which can happen weeks or months afterwards. This includes joint problems such as pain and swelling (often in the knee), nerve inflammation, palpitations, dizziness and breathlessness. Late disease. This can happen years later with many possible symptoms, including persisting joint problems, confusion, mood changes and memory problems, weakness and tiredness.

Monkeypox – sometimes known as mpox - is a relatively rare disease that entered common public knowledge in 2022, as an outbreak spread within Europe including the UK. Cases are normally restricted to western and central Africa, usually causing only a mild illness. Monkeypox is a virus from the same virus family as smallpox, a devastating condition that has been defeated worldwide but it is very different from the COVID-19 or chickenpox viruses. It is called monkeypox because it was first discovered in monkeys in 1958. It then took 10 years for the first cases to be recorded in humans, and the most likely transmission is still from animals to humans, rather than human-to-human. There are two strains, one from western Africa and one from central Africa. The cases in Europe are the western African strain, which causes a milder illness. It's important to emphasise that only a small number of cases have reached Europe, and people are not severely unwell, but scientists are investigating why it seems to be spreading more quickly from human to human than previously. One working theory is that now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, people are travelling more, but have lost some natural immunity to fight viruses during the prolonged period of lockdowns and mask-wearing.

A sore throat is a pain, scratchiness or irritation of the throat that often worsens when your child swallows. It may come out of the blue if they’re fighting a viral or bacterial infection, and they may also experience cold symptoms like a runny or blocked nose, sneezing, a fever, coughing, headache, and they may complain of pain on swallowing. You might be able to feel the glands in their neck are enlarged and these can feel quite tender to touch. If you look in the back of their throat, you might see one or both tonsils are large and red, causing the gap between them to reduce, and you may notice some white spots on the tonsils.