कौमारभृत्य- Ayurvedic Pediatrics (Covers Part-A Of Latest CCIM Syllabus Of Kaumarbhritya for BAMS)

This book has been written primarily to cover the 'Part A' of Kaumarbhritya subject of the latest BAMS syllabus stipulated by CCIM. However, the format of this book is so designed that it largely covers the entire spectrum of Kaumarbhritya syllabus at different levels of Ayurvedic education, i.e. UG (BAMS), PG [MD (Ay), DCH (Ay), PGDNC (Ay)] and even PhD levels, besides being useful for the practitioners of Ayurvedic Pediatrics too. In this book, the Ayurvedic subject matter is in Hindi and Sanskrit whereas the modern subject matter is in English, both woven together in such a manner that effective connectivity is established between the Ayurvedic topics and their modern counterparts.

Dr. Mayank Srivastava is a well known name amongst the Ayurvedic pediatricians. He graduated from S.K.D. Govt. Ay. College, Mzn. (U.P.) and thereafter completed his post graduation in Kaumarbhritya (Ayurvedic Pediatrics) from the prestigious institute, "Institute of Medical Sciences", BHU, Varanasi (U.P.) in 2007. Since then, for almost last ten years, he has been actively teaching and practicing Ayurvedic Pediatrics. Presently he is working as Professor and HOD in the Dept. of Kaumarbhritya in Himalayee Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital, Dehradun (U.K.). He is also a renowned Pediatrician and Neonatalogist in the holy city of Rishikesh. He has presented a number of papers, participated and chaired scientific sessions in national and international seminars; is member of editorial boards of various journals and has many publications to his credit as well. In nutshell, he is an outstanding writer, a proficient teacher and a skilled practitioner of Ayurvedic Pediatrics.

Childhood is the period of prime growth & development, on the success of which his transformation into a healthiest possible state of productive adulthood is largely dependent. So ever since the Vedic period, child care has been given the highest priority.

It can be well appreciated that health of a child can never be ensured by considering mother and child as a separate unit, hence Ayurvedic Acharyas quite reasonably included mother and child care, both, in Kaumarbhritya (Ha. S. Pr. 2/17).

The information regarding the specialized knowledge of Kaumarbhritya is available since Vaidika kala (Rigveda 5/78/7-9; Atharvaveda 1/11/5; Atharvaveda 8/6/13; Bodhayana Grihyasutra; Paraskara Grihyasutra). But despite being an undisputed forerunner of modern system of medicine, Ayurveda has not grown since last few centuries, which has in fact greatly retarded its acceptance in modern system of healthcare. Of all steps needed for mainstreaming the Ayurveda, revision of syllabus as per today's requirement was an important one, as it ensures proper conditioning of the students right from the formative stage of their career. As such, CCIM has come up with a new grossly revised syllabus. Like other subjects, Kaumarbhritya is also facing pressing need of books on revised syllabus. Today, although good books are available in accordance with new syllabus of Kaumarbhritya in English, but books in Hindi language are still lacking. The author has made good effort to fill this lacuna. In fact, the most obvious approach seen in this book is to cover the Ayurvedic part of syllabus in Hindi and Sanskrit, and the modern part in English, making it the core strength of this book. For a reasonably good understanding of a topic, 'some more' explanation apart from the syllabus is often needed. The author has precisely addressed this need in a segregated manner, in the form of text boxes and notes at relevant places. This has further augmented the usefulness of this book for the students.

Although the prime intention of this book is to comprehensively cover the Part-A' of latest syllabus of Kaumarbhritya prescribed for BAMS by CCIM, the author has also tried to cover the important parts of PG syllabus of Kaumarbhritya. The author's presentation of topics is clear and lucid to make the subject easy to retain.

Writing a textbook is not easy and needs good knowledge, thoughtfulness, hard work, sacrifices and strong commitment. I congratulate the author Dr. Mayank Srivastava for his colossal efforts in bringing forth a well-oriented textbook of Kaumarbhritya. I am quite confident that this reader-friendly book will definitely help a lot in teaching, training and day to day practice of Kaumarbhritya in present scenario.

Child is the father of man and future of a nation, and hence this phase of life needs most diligent care. In Ayurvedic system of medicine, the branch dedicated to healthcare of this crucial phase of human life (and even the prenatal phase) is Kaumarbhritya. The generic equivalent of Kaumarbhritya in modern system of medicine is 'Pediatrics' and hence it can be considered as "Ayurvedic Pediatrics".

Childhood happens to be the most sensitive phase of life (Kumara) and hence needs errorless care, a fact well recognised and emphasized since ancient times:

Such level of accuracy cannot be ensured without in depth knowledge of the subject. In fact, in today's era of strong scientific advancements and legal implications, prowess and rationality in practice of Kaumarbhritya has become even more important. For this, re-orientation of students of Kaumarbhritya (and in fact whole of Ayurveda) in tune with today's healthcare sector, has become the urgent need of hour. Also, since the last two decades governments seem to be more determined in mainstreaming AYUSH in present day healthcare system. Hence since last few years, the governing bodies related to Ayurvedic system of medicine have been arduously working to conform to the aforesaid expectations. The elementary requirement to materialize these demands was proper grooming up of the students of Ayurveda, for which re-organization, modernization and gross revision of the syllabus was always on the cards. Therefore, gross changes have been made in syllabus of all the subjects of Ayurvedic curriculum, taking it closer to becoming 'the syllabus of modern day Ayurveda'. But because such gross changes in syllabus have been made in a relatively short period of time, not many books have still surfaced up to cover this new syllabus. This issue is even more with books in Hindi than English. Hence this book was decided to be written in Hindi; however, the modern subject matter has been retained in English, so as to keep the students of Ayurveda on their toes when coming to comprehension and interaction with modern system of healthcare.

The most recognizable change in new CCIM syllabus is a liberal infusion of modern topics throughout the syllabus, and Kaumarbhritya is not an exception to it. Although reading the modern part of syllabus from modern textbooks of pediatrics is always advisable, but for students of Ayurveda, it needs to be dealt in a slightly different manner. Firstly, keeping in mind the time constraints of students in view of dual load of studying Ayurvedic and respective modern correlates, corresponding modern subject matter needs to be incorporated in a quanta just enough to generate a good wholesome understanding of the topic, in the light of which one can further contrive newer judicious ways to practice Ayurvedic pediatrics effectively in today's scientific era. Secondly, some basic issues need to be answered which are usually not clarified in the modern textbooks, because teaching and training pattern of MBBS is so designed that such matters often get clarified by themselves.

Addressal to the above two issues is the core thought in writing of this book. To look after the first issue, conscious efforts have been made to coherently weave the Ayurvedic and modern subject matter in such a way that effective connectivity is established between the Ayurvedic topics and their modern counterparts, so as to ease off various dilemmas arising in the minds of students, curious researchers and practitioners of Ayurvedic pediatrics (and even modern pediatrics too) of the present era. Whereas the second issue of grey areas (of not only modern but also Ayurvedic topics), has been addressed to by incorporation of a large number of topics and discussions in boxes and in smaller than regular font sizes, at relevant places in this book. Also, just at the end of many debatable and perplexing topics, author has tried to provide some clarity by providing his opinion in the form of "Notes". Besides these, the subject matter not included in syllabus, but necessary for a complete understanding of the topic has also been included in either of the aforesaid ways. Such an organization of this book facilitates a broader and in depth analytical understanding of the subject, in the light of which the research and rationalized practice of Ayurvedic pediatrics can be done more effectively in the conditions of present era. All this makes this book useful not only for students and academicians, but also for the practitioners.

The arrangement of subject matter and chapters in this book is mainly as per the 'Part A' of Kaumarbhritya subject of the latest BAMS syllabus stipulated by CCIM. But the format of this book is so designed that apart from primarily and comprehensively covering the BAMS syllabus, it largely covers the entire spectrum of Kaumarbhritya syllabus at different levels of Ayurvedic education, i.e. UG (BAMS), PG [MD (Ay), DCH (Ay), PGDNC (Ay)] and even PhD.

As a matter of fact, the idea of writing a book in such a format germinated in my mind mainly as a result of the hardships faced by me during teaching Kaumarbhritya as per the latest CCIM syllabus. As the subject matter of new. CCIM syllabus was widely scattered in various Ayurvedic and non-Ayurvedic literatures, exhaustive study of the topics from a wide variety of sources is needed to come up with lectures condensed enough to ensure completion of such a voluminous syllabus in the relatively short stipulated time frame, without compromising the understandability of the students. The clinical experience gained meanwhile, helped a lot in shaping this book. Also, the advantage of free availability of numerous germane pictures on `google' has been utilized in reducing the pictures in this book to bare minimum, thus preventing a superfluous increase in the volume and price of the book. The modernised presentation of this book will further help in milking the best for all it's worth. Hence, I am quite hopeful that this book will help the students make best use of their precious time.

I pay my sincere gratitude to the Almighty God, without whose divine will and interventions this work would have never been possible. I am greatly indebted to my honourable teachers, Prof. Madam P.V.Tiwari, Prof. B.M.Singh sir and Prof. Sangeeta Gehlot madam for their incessant inspiration, guidance and affection which went long in completion of this work. The academic help offered by Dr. Meenu Khare, Dr. Rajni Bala, Dr. Shambhu Kumar, Dr. Sumit Nathani, Dr. Nitin Pandey, Dr. Sarvesh Agrawal and Dr. Neeraj Srivastava deserve a special mention here. I express my heartfelt gratitude towards my family who have been readily sacrificing 'their' precious part of my time, in order to make me complete this and the forthcoming endeavours. The publisher, Mr. Atul Kumar also deserves special thanks for accepting my ideas and publishing this book in a format conventionally different from the routinely published Ayurvedic books. My sincere thanks to one and all behind this book.

I feel greatly satisfied to put forward this book and hope that it will definitely serve its purpose. Further suggestions and comments from readers are earnestly welcomed for improving the future editions.

**Contents and Sample Pages**