Medicine has a great many words that mean very little to anyone outside it. This is a plain-English list of the terms you are most likely to meet on this site and in the clinic.
Where one of these words appears inside an article, you can hover over it and the meaning appears without you losing your place. If you have heard a word from us that is not here, tell us and we will add it.
AAP
American Academy of Pediatrics
abusive head trauma
Brain injury caused by shaking or striking a baby's head. Even a few seconds of shaking can cause it.
antihistaminics
Medications to dry up secretions
antitussives
Medications to suppress a cough
bile
A green liquid secretion from the liver that helps digest food.
colic
Long bouts of crying in a healthy baby under five months that start and stop for no clear reason and cannot be settled.
contagious
A disease transmissible from one person to another by contact
CPR
Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation or Reviving the stalled heart & lungs
decibels
The unit used to measure how loud a sound is; normal conversation is about 60, a DJ speaker at a procession can pass 110, and every extra 10 roughly doubles how loud it feels.
decongestants
Medications to decrease secretions, a runny nose, and sneezing
dehydration
When the body has lost more water than it has taken in; in a child the early signs are a dry mouth, fewer wet nappies or less urine, and unusual sleepiness, and thirst arrives only after it has begun.
endemic
Prevalent in or limited to a particular locality or people
expectorants
Medications to help bring out phlegm
gripe water
A traditional mixture sold for wind. It is not a regulated medicine and its ingredients vary from brand to brand.
hair tourniquet
A hair or thread wound tightly around a finger, toe or the penis, cutting off the blood supply and causing severe pain.
heavy metals
Metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium that are poisonous even in small amounts and build up in the body; in children they are most often swallowed from paint, dust or contaminated water.
HEPA
High Efficency Particulate Air (filter)
hernia
A bulge where part of the insides pushes through a weak spot in the muscle wall, most often in the groin in babies.
idiopathic
Where the cause is unknown
lactose
Sugar found in milk
leptospirosis
An infection caught from water or mud contaminated by rat urine, common in Mumbai after the monsoon; it causes fever, severe muscle pain and red eyes one to four weeks after wading.
milk protein allergy
A reaction to the protein in cow's milk, usually with rashes, vomiting, or blood in the stool alongside the crying.
oral rehydration solution
A measured mix of salts and sugar dissolved in clean water, sold as ORS sachets, that replaces what a child loses in loose motions or vomiting far better than plain water or an energy drink.
OTC
Over The Counter
placebo
A dummy treatment with no active medicine in it, used in trials to see whether a real medicine does anything more.
probiotic
Live bacteria given as a supplement, meant to shift the mix of bacteria living in the gut.
rooting reflex
A newborn's automatic turn of the head towards anything that strokes her cheek, looking for the breast.
Satiety
A feeling of fullness after eating food
SIDS
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
simethicone
The gas drops sold for colic. They break up gas bubbles in the gut, and trials show they work no better than plain drops.
spacer
A plastic tube that fits onto an asthma inhaler so the child breathes the medicine in over several normal breaths instead of having to time one deep breath with the puff.
swaddling
Wrapping a young baby snugly in a cloth, arms in and hips free, so that she feels held and settles.
USFDA
United States Food and Drug Administration
vector
A carrier