When your children are young, you sometimes feel like you need to make a weekly appointment with your family doctor. Certainly, it is time-consuming to keep track of childhood growth and development, vaccinations, childhood illness, allergies and other medical records.

Now, you can easily maintain a mobile family medical record using one of the iPad/iPhone apps available. This type  of app is essential for emergencies or when there’s been an accident and medical information is needed on the spot. But you’ll find just as much use for this type of app in recording the progress of your children’s development, illness history, vaccinations records and allergies.

Two apps of this type stand out- My Kid’s Health and My Medical for iPad. Both of these apps sync with your iPad calendar for ease of use when making doctor’s appointments and receiving reminders. Medical contact information is automatically included from your contacts.

My Kid’s Health includes personal vaccination schedules for your child from the World Health Organisation and national health organisations. It has an easy interface and attractive graphics. Growth records- weight, height, head circumference etc can be easily viewed in table or graph format. It is the more expensive of the two but requires no upgrades.

My Medical includes common medical test templates to track results- height, weight, blood pressure, CAT scan and more. Files can be attached and a report can be generated from the medical records and printed or emailed as required. My Medical can be used for the whole family.

Someone has mentioned that a Notes area would be useful to record any questions to ask the doctor or to list any instructions given verbally, but I’m sure additional features will be added later.

Check out both these useful apps and find that your medical record keeping becomes a breeze.

So... your grandmother really did know best. How often did she say that a teaspoon of honey before going to bed would ease a child's cough and help them sleep soundly. Research now shows that children aged between 1 and 5 suffering a throat infection coughed less and slept better after taking 10gm honey before bed.

The thinking is that sweet substances of any kind help soothe the back of the throat and break up mucus in the airways. Honey is also known to have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties making it a better alternative to cough syrups. (Pediatrics Journal)

Take note: Honey should not be given to children under 12 months because in rare cases it can cause infantile botulism.