Antiretroviral Therapy or ART can keep your child healthy, helping them to lead a fulfilling and normal life with the disease. A healthcare provider can give you proper guidance on how to match the right type of therapy in accordance with your child’s age, weight and current health condition. There may be certain circumstances that compel your child to stay away from a certain medicine. There’s no need to worry as you can always change or modify ART. If you’re living with HIV and have delivered a child recently, you need to continue taking HIV medications while breastfeeding. It will protect your newborn baby.
The First Questions
So, if your child has HIV, what treatment can you provide him/her? Do remember that HIV treatment is not a cure, but it can sure keep the virus under control, preventing your child from falling ill due to HIV. Without proper treatment, HIV will damage your kid’s immune system, which exposes the child to the serious malaise. For young kids and babies, untreated HIV is extremely serious.
Starting the treatment
After your child starts HIV treatment, it’s crucial for them to take it every single day. For young children and babies, some HIV drugs come in the form of syrups and liquids. However, you will not find all HIV drugs for babies in this form. In many cases, some may not be available in the place where you live. How much you give your kid or the drug dose rests with your healthcare provider. The doses can change as your kid gets heavier and bigger. National guidelines for selecting the appropriate drugs for your child may vary. The decision may also change, depending on the individual situation of your child and the local availability of medicines and drugs.
If your child doesn’t like taking the drugs
You may worry about your child not willing to take HIV treatment, especially if they find the tabs or pills difficult to swallow. Quite often, they hate the taste of syrup or liquid drug. Perceiving the Antiretroviral Therapy medications as a normal and integral part of your kid’s daily routine can help both of you. It’s just like getting ready for bed or brushing teeth. If you are taking medication as well, then taking it at the same time as your child will help them to accept it. You do have some parents who find it very helpful to praise or reward their child when they willingly take their medicines, especially when they are younger.
If the treatment stops functioning
Your child’s healthcare expert will monitor the viral load and CD4 count in the child. The doctor also monitors the general development and health of the child, ensuring that the treatment clicks. If they find that the treatment is, for some reason, not working, they will investigate the matter. If it’s working, they can change the course.
If you have HIV and just had a baby, will your baby need treatment? The answer is yes. Your baby also needs to take an HIV medicine for a few weeks to prevent the infection.
