Respiratory infections and breathing difficulties are a leading reason for A&E attendance in babies and young children, with respiratory illnesses peaking in the winter months. Health visitors can play an important role in prevention and supporting parents to manage minor illnesses in the community through their work to improve parental health literacy and confidence in ‘when to worry and where to seek help’. To learn more about this, please read our “Understanding the rise in 0-4-year-old Emergency Department (ED) attendances and changing health visiting practice” Report.
To raise awareness of specific respiratory health issues that arise during the winter illness surge, and with funding from the NHSE Wellbeing Fund, the iHV has developed a range of resources to support health visitors to raise parental awareness of respiratory illness in children and babies under three-years-old.
Resources were developed for families, please click here to access those resources.
iHV Resources
🎙️ Podcasts
Listen to engaging conversations and insights from specialists and practitioners across the health visiting landscape.
14 April 2023 - Dr Sanjay Patel on recognition of illness in babies and young children with black or brown skin with a focus on Strep A and Scarlet Fever
📖 iHV LEARN Programmes (free to access for iHV members):
This Toolkit has been designed by leading experts to equip health visiting practitioners in their work with families on respiratory health - covering chronic respiratory disease in children under five years, specifically asthma, cystic fibrosis and preterm chronic lung disease - and exploring the important topic of air pollution, its effect on health and ways to reduce its harms.
