What is primary complex? - Page 1

hi all,

i have a 3 yr old daughter, doctor suspects that she has primary complex.

What is it actually?

what is the cause for it?

how it can be cured?

Kindly help me out in this .

 Hi Laksimi,

I did a search on google, following site sheds more light on 'Primary Complex' diagnosis, this is the first time I have heard of that term:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061004171848AA8O2ah

http://doctor.ndtv.com/faq/ndtv/fid/12419/Does_my_child_need_to_continue_her_medicines-.html

Get more tests done. Do not hesitate to ask your pediatrician as many questions you have and can. One thing I would highly recommend is DO NOT DISCOUNTINUE any prescribed anti-biotic as scientists and doctors are working so hard for cure and some of us are only taking 1/2 dose or part dosage and creating drug resistant variety of the same diseases.

I wish you good luck, stay in touch and keep us posted of your DD's health. Stay strong!

Take care,

JC

Hi,

First of all, I want to assure you that this is nothing serious - I remember that it used to be quite common some 30-40 years ago.  Both I and my brother have had it - it is absolutely manageable.   It is nothing but a form of TB  (an infection of lungs) which affects young children.  You can take care of it with good healthy diet and the medicines that doctor prescribes.   I remember that for me, the symptom was just cold and some mild fever.  And I never had any problem later.  Check with you doctor about  recommended mild physical activity to boost the immunity. 

Remember that healthy eating is important not only to take care of the ailment but also to counter the effect of taking antibiotics for a prolonged time.  You may want to check with your doctor about some vitamin supplements. 

Be assured that it is absolutely curable and to a large extent, will not interfere with your child's regular activity, if you start the treatment immediately and take care of diet also.  All the  best.

Cheers,

Sumo

Primary complex is a mild form of TB. When I was 5 years old, the doctors suspected that I was having it since my great grandma had TB. But later it turned out to be dust allergy. If I was exposed to pollen or dust, I used fall terrible sick with cold and cough and eventually run a temperature. If she is diagnosed with Primary complex, then take the medicines the doctor prescribes. Its contagious but the person can easlily recover with medicines and healthy food like eggs etc. You may also additionally want to consider if your daughter may be having dust allergy. Check out if you have parthenium weeds around your residence and hire somebody to remove them or you have been to places lately where these parthenium weeds were present and avoid those places in future. or if you have cleaned your house lately in a big way, In that case you may want to keep your dter in your parents house if they are staying in teh same place for a few days. Many places in Kanyakumari district, hill side in coimbatore, Bangalore to name a few has these weeds.  This is from my personal experience

hi all

Thanks a lot for ur valuable infos. My kid is also having same probs like u say i.e fall terrible sick with cold and cough and eventually run a temperature. Even now she is running under high temperature for past 4 days. Iam very much worried about it.

Since im allergic to dust, i feel that she is also having that problem. But in our family history no one had TB.

she is not at all having eggs in any form. can u suggest me some other best food to avoid this problem

Laksimi,

In your situation Pediatricians would you your best bet. Ask your child's doctor about anti-biotics and nutrition.

Also during any bacterial/viral infection the immediate concern is high fever, try and keep it under 100 degrees. When the fever goes up 103 + best thing to do is bathe him/her with room temperature water, including head and keep checking the temperature. I am sure I will get zillions of comments about this particular one. High fever leads to seizures <fits> and damages brain. This is my practical advice I do that all the time for my son and myself.

In your situation when fever goes down and stays at 98 - 99 get TB test done. while taking antibiotics best to take high protien and fiber diet like daal, green vegetables. Doctors these days insist on giving well rounded and fresh meal.

TB is a contagious and airborne. Some kids are more susceptible than others. Right now her immunity must be low so keep her away from crowd such that she doesn't come in contact with folks who have flu, pneumonia or any other health problems.

Take care,

JC

Laksimi,

As JC said my first concern would be to bring down the fever. 5 ml of crocin syrup thrice a day keeping a span of 6 to 8 hours inbetween doses may help to keep the fever in check- talk to your doctor. I suspect its mostly dust allergy, but talk to your doctors about testing for TB also just to be on safe side. I have been through this and I know how sick this allergy can make you though simple it may sound.  You can also check with your doctor on whether you can use asthalin inhaler or nebulizer for her during the period of illness. That will help to clear her chest temporarily. Since she has developed cough she will need antibiotics like Augumentin- Check with your doctor. 

Some preventive measures -

- multivitamin. Ask your doctor for one which will be available in your place. Vit C is very good for developing immunity like Becosules syrup. I have heard that there homeopathy and ayurvedic alternatives for developing immunity. But I have never checked out those as my late dad was an allopathic doctor who was completely skeptical about other forms of medical practice.

- Mix a pinch of Haldi in hot milk. Will help with the cough. Also keep giving her warm liquids which will soothe the throat. My mil gives my son Panakalkandu(In tamil). I dont know what its called in English. Its a form of sugar made from the fruit of palm trees. In case you get it in your place, let me know. I'll give you the procedure on how to use it. This my mil says is very helpful for preventing cough to a great extent.

- There is a syrup called dabur honitus which is purely natural, We gave our son that when he had cold and cough. It was prescribed to us by his doctor. But I dont think you can give her this as preventive measure. But it definitely helps during cough.

- Eggs mixed in milk is very good for cough and overall immunity. But you said that your daughter does not like eggs. See if you can add elachi to the egg mixture to mask the smell of eggs. Or make scrambled eggs with very little pepper and salt. Sometimes she may like that taste.

- And last but not the least avoid taking her to places which are too dusty, polluted, pollinated etc. Give her head bath only during the period the sun is shining. Make sure her hair is wiped properly and put a little powder on the scalp to absorb excess water. If possible keep her hair very short like boy cut. Avoid all foods which are cold, like ice creams, cold fruit juices. Avoid drinking

She will eventually grow out of it. I dont fall sick now like before. Sometime around 21 years I did not fall sick like before, touchwood:-). Also some places are very good for preventing cough and cold. I found Chennai very good for preventing this illness though the climate is very humid and uncomfortable

Just saw tht I had not completed one point -

And last but not the least avoid taking her to places which are too dusty, polluted, pollinated etc. Give her head bath only during the period the sun is shining. Make sure her hair is wiped properly and put a little powder on the scalp to absorb excess water. If possible keep her hair very short like boy cut. Avoid all foods which are cold, like ice creams, cold fruit juices. Avoid drinking water or liquid after coming from the hot sun. In case you take her out during afternoons or under sun, use an umbrella or make her wear cap/hat.

One more thing I forgot .. Tulsi!!!. I daily drink Tulsi water nowadays. If you get fresh tulsi leaves then that is best. Else there are organic tinned Tulsi you can find in some supermarkets. Boil the leaves and strain the water. Add this water to her food or let her drink the water. You can also add Tulsi water or 1 drop of eucalyptus to her bath water. My friend who had same problem as me is very healthy now. She says that its due to yoga and Tulsi. She said that even the smell of tulsi can heal and protect you.

Superb, thanks a lot to NJ and JC for such a valuable info. surely i will follow the natural medicines mentioned by NJ. We have a pediatrician for her . thank god temperature has reduced now. but doctor suggested to take blood test since fever was withstanding for more than  4 days. We took the blood test and the report says she has very less heamoglobin 9.6% and blood count only to 3000. doctor said it is very less and this is the cause for her getting fever very often, cold, cough etc.

he prescribed some tonics and asked to give all nutritious food.

can u pls suggest me the best food to increase the blood count or haemoglobin.

 NJ, 

I liked your suggestions but there is little problem with consuming raw eggs. Egg shells are porous and bacteria can get through even though our assumption is shells are airtight or non-porous. Hard boiled and scrambled eggs are ok as long as person has no egg allergy.  I am going to copy/paste the raw egg and salmonella poisining from the following website:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/EggPasturization.htm

http://www.scienceiq.com/Facts/SalmonellaChickenEggs.cfm

___________________________________________________________

RAW EGGS

There have been warnings against consuming raw or lightly cooked eggs on the grounds that the egg may be contaminated with Salmonella, a bacteria responsible for a type of food poisoning.

With eggs and all other raw foods from animals, there is a small possibility of Salmonella food poisoning. The risk is greater for those who are pregnant, elderly or very young and those with medical problems which have impaired their immune systems. These individuals should avoid raw and undercooked animal foods.

_____________________________________________________________

Take care,

JC

^ JC, I do agree that raw eggs should not be consumed. I mentioned the preparation in another thread , but did not mention in here, since I thought I had told the preparation in one of laksimi's earlier thread. Should have mentioned it here also, my mistake.

We pour the mixied egg into piping hot milk while continously stirring. The egg gets cooked in the process. I do agree that perhaps this does not cook 100% like for hard boiled egg. But Salmonella bacteria does not pose a problem for toddler age group. This bacteria is very harmful to the foetus in pregnant women and to some extent children of less than 6 months old(but anyway its safest to wait till child turns 1 year). toddler age develops lot of immunity to common bacteria once they start walking since they have a tendency to put everything in their mouth and they would surely have developed immunity against the common bacteria by then. I give my son this egg with milk preparation ever since he turned 1.  And every child is our community is given this mixture in the belief that its very healthy. But I did avoid eggs in all forms while I was pregnant, but I dont believe it would cause problem for children above 1 year old . Better to start with 1/2 an egg for a few days, see the childs reaction and then proceed with the full egg.

Laksimi,

Chickoo(Sappotta) contains a lot of iron. You can give her as a fruit- i.e break chickoo into 2 halves, remove the seeds and scoop little bit of the fruit with the spoon and give her or make a room temperature chickoo milkshake. I used to take dates while i was pregnant. But I do not give dates to my son yet. But since your daughter is 3 years old you can try giving her dates also. You can give her raisins- add raisins to cake you bake, she may like it. But buy the unsqueezed dates. I dont know where you are located, but I know where to find this in Pune. In case you are located in Pune, I can tell you where you can find this. Beetroot also contains iron. You can include beetroot into soup. Spinach is also good. You can make a soup out of mixied spinach. I heard from my mil that even the black jaggery is good. Dissove the jaggery in water by boiling water till jaggery gets dissolved, and strain the liquid in a fine clean cloth to remove the impurities. You can substitute this jaggery water for sugar.

Hi Laksimi,

How is your daughter now? I had experienced the same situation 2 yrs before. Life was hectic couple of yrs ago running to doctors, tests, antibiotics, etc. I had also tried all sort of home made medicines nothing seemed to work . You won't believe every 15th day my son will have a high temp of 104 with cold, cough.But now I hardly meet a doctor. Please reply about your daughters health condition now. I would tell you what I did.

bye. take care.

kav

hi kav

still my kid is not fine. 3 days back again she got fever and it was there for 2 days with temp 102 . 20 days back again she got fever and it was there for nearly a week.

she is still falling sick and blood report says she is having very less blood count of 3k only and heamoglobin is just 9.3% . Now he has prescrbed Dexorange and Complete PD tonics for one month continuosly. aprt from that im giving her dates daily, chickoo thrice in a week, greens twice in a week, sprouts twice in a week like that

eagerly waiting for some best remedy both for mainly the haemoglobin prob and also for the primary compled symptoms. pls help me out

kav, please let me also know what you did. I am giving my son AtoZ multivitamin 1 ml twice a day which is the recommended dose for his age. Looking if I can shift to a natural support.

Hi NJ and Laksimi,

My son is 5yrs now. Problems started when he was 3yrs (when he started his schooling). When ever I went to chennai and kerala I used to run to Dr's for his check ups ,took all the tests in both the places they tested negative for  primary complex. They said he had allergy and secondary type of wheezing. I thought it to be true as my elder daughter had wheezing until she was 6yrs and the family did have a history of wheezing. At that time I had experimented with all  home remidies as you are doing now. The situation started getting bad ,once he developed fever continously for 10 days. We took to pulmonolgist and he asked to repeat all the test . I got the x  ray, allergy test and blood test done all again. Here he said it is tested positive for primary complex.

It was really shocking for us. We tried to browse all the information regarding this. we could not accept this fact. As u had told earlier even in our family we don't have any history of TB and we also found that TB spreads due to unhygenic conditions. Reading all these things we kept quiet for 2 days without proceeding any treatment. I really felt ashamed and blamed myself for this. I even thought that I had not taken care of him properly. But our Dr. friend told us to proceed with the treatment. She told me not to worry about anything and it is common in small kids when their immunity is less. It can spread from anybody even from school ayahs. But for safer side in the family we all checked ,it was negative from our side. I don't know where he got it from.

It is one tablet(TB medicine i don't remember the name) which I have to give early in the morning for 6 months (without missing even a single day). I found the difference he did have cold and cough but not fever or congestions . He didn't even miss one single day of his school after we started the treatment.

What I want to tell u is please do all the tests.We will pray god that everything should be fine. Even if it is positive don't worry this medicine cures completely. 

Now I give both my kids one seacod tablet every day. This works like wonders. they had really built their immunity now. NJ i feel you can try with this.

We are veg and both my kids are fussy about food. My elder one is under weight she is only 21 kg and 8 1/2 yrs. If you all know any suggestions on increasing her weight please add on your suggestions.

Take care. Don't worry. My prayers for you all.Keep mailing. Bye

kav

hi kav,

thanks for sharing such an useful info. surely wll try to follow it.

when u started giving seacod medicine?

is ur son  been cured completely frorm PC r still ur giving him the TB medicine?

Seacod is fish oil in a capsule. Fish contains omega 3 fatty acids which are good for brain development mainly, I'm not sure about overall immunity though. Most kids have weak immunity till the age of 5.

kav, from the list of ingredients in the label of the bottle you bought do you see preservatives? Just wanted to check that it does not contain preservatives(the bottle label, will have propylene glycol or disodium EDTA or grade 2 preservatives something like that, among the other ingredients)  before I consider giving it to my kid since otherwise even the multivitamin i'm giving him presently works well.

Hi laksimi,

I started giving him seacod when he was 4 yrs. We completed the PC treatement 1 1/2 yrs back.

As NJ says kids will build their immune once they are 5 yrs. But when they have any allergy problems it will take some time to get the immunity. My daughter did have the problem of cold and cough until she was 7 yrs and now she is better. She is very poor in her intake might be that is the reason it took some time for her.

bye

kav

Hi NJ,

U r right it is good for the brain. I get the original seacod manufactured by Universal medicare which contains only codliver oil in a gelatin capsule.

kav

thanks nj and kav

where do we get this seacod manufactured by universal medicare???

can i start giving to my kid from now onwards?