If the child starts to get sick. Fighting the first signs of a cold in a child
From the moment when a child appeared in the house, silence and calmness is a sign of trouble!
When the child stopped frolicking, running, jumping and squealing, and moved on to crying and complaining of feeling unwell, it is obvious that illness had entered the house.
Where to start if the child is sick
When the first symptoms are detected, it is necessary to call a doctor at home, or, at a later time, with acute symptoms, an ambulance. Free medicine, of course, is not very friendly, but they know their business. And, even despite the fact that by their arrival the child suddenly came to life, the doctors will find the reasons quickly enough, and even criticize the actions of young parents.
But it is better to hear moralizing and criticism than to regret later on the lost time in the illness of a child!
Body temperature is the primary indicator of a child's health. In a healthy child with increased activity, the body temperature can reach up to about 37 degrees, so at a temperature of 36.6-37 degrees you should not be very worried. But, and relax, too, is not worth it!
Keep your child under observation so as not to miss the moment when the temperature can go from simple overexcitation or fatigue to illness. Therefore, with the advent of a child in your apartment in without fail There should also be a thermometer! The classic mercury one is a must, and, just in case, you should also have a remote-action children's electronic thermometer in reserve, in case it is difficult to keep the child in place.
Stay alert and watch for other symptoms.
The temperature rose - the child fell ill. Let's move on to action!
If the child’s body temperature still rises above normal, this is a sign of the body’s struggle with the disease.
According to doctors, if the body temperature does not reach 38 degrees, it is not necessary to bring it down. But, as with any rule, there are exceptions.
In what cases should antipyretics be used at a temperature of less than 38 degrees?
- if the child is not yet 2 months old;
- if the child suffers from congenital diseases of the nervous or cardiovascular system;
- when seizures occur.
If the child freezes, stretches into a string and rolls his eyes, do not panic and do not try to get him out of this state. Lay the child on his side so that he does not suffocate, and immediately call an ambulance!
What to do if the child has a high temperature
A high temperature is usually accompanied by increased sweating, in which the body quickly loses fluid. Therefore, it is necessary to give the child more often non-carbonated water, slightly sweet tea, compote or fruit drink.
When a child's temperature rises, many young mothers reflexively try to wrap him up as warmly as possible. This is one of the most common mistakes in the fight against a respiratory infection. Warm clothes and blankets negatively affect thermoregulation and provoke overheating of the body. It will be better if you just put cotton pajamas or any other homemade clothes made from natural materials on your child.
No need to clog the windows or heat the heaters red hot. The air in the children's room should be fresh and humid.
No need to close the windows and turn on the heaters at full power. The air in the room of a sick child should always be fresh and moist. Keep track of the temperature and humidity in the room. Beware of drafts and too dry air in the nursery - this can complicate the course of the disease.
A runny nose and cough are treated much easier and faster if a humidifier works in the children's room.
During an illness, any person loses his appetite. So don't force feed your baby. But in order for the body to have the strength to fight the disease, it needs to eat enough calories. Therefore, it is recommended to feed a sick child with light but nutritious broths. They are very well absorbed, which is very important during the period of illness.
How to treat a child?
In no case do not abuse drugs, even if they are available without a prescription. Most fast-acting drugs only temporarily relieve symptoms, but do not help fight the virus and will not be able to protect the child from complications.
Plus, the use of any medication reduces the child's body's ability to independently fight the virus, develop immunity.
Remember that most medicines intended for the treatment of colds cannot be used for a long time, as there is a risk of causing a complication.
In the case of the flu or a cold, it is best to start taking an antiviral drug in the first two days of the disease.
Antiviral agents serve as an assistant to the body in the fight against the virus, facilitate the course of the disease, reduce its duration, and, most importantly, reduce the risk of developing other complications against the background of a viral disease.
Infectious diseases in children
If general malaise, weakness, runny nose and cough are accompanied by diarrhea, rash or vomiting, then the diagnosis may be an infectious disease - rubella, chickenpox, measles or scarlet fever.
In this case, your first step is to call a doctor or an ambulance at home. And before the arrival of the doctor, with vomiting and diarrhea, the child must be soldered with a liquid, preferably ordinary boiled water. In the process of diarrhea and vomiting, the body is very dehydrated and, if you do not drink liquid, you can provoke serious complications. Give your child at least a teaspoon of water every 10-15 minutes, depending on the age of the child.
With these symptoms, you can not give a laxative, do an enema and apply heating pads or compresses to the stomach.
But more importantly, if you are not sure about any of the treatments, do not experiment on a child, even if your friends or relatives have done so.
Colds often occur not only against the background of hypothermia, but also under the influence of various viruses on the body. Therefore, the likelihood of a child becoming ill increases when he is in the same room as a carrier of the infection, and if one sick child appears in the class, all his classmates are in the zone of the so-called increased risk of getting colds. Viruses are easily spread by airborne droplets, and therefore diseases of children of kindergarten or school age are a phenomenon that all parents face sooner or later.
What to do if the child has a cold?
When a child gets sick, it is very important to understand that today there are no antiviral drugs that effectively treat colds. What remains is to relieve symptoms if necessary, and it is also possible to use various interferons, which are prescribed exclusively according to the indications of doctors in extremely serious situations.
Among the ways to alleviate the condition of the child, it is worth highlighting:
A sufficiently large amount of warm drink, eliminating the loss of water during sweating, fever or sputum;
drugs to lower the temperature, which must be used when raising the body temperature above 38.5;
vasoconstrictor drops from the common cold, which allows you to clear the child's airways for normal breathing;
a number of antiseptics and antibiotics that help restore mucous membranes in the body and fight various infections;
inhalation through a nebulizer or steam classic for exposure to the respiratory tract with hot steam containing medicines.
It is very important to call a pediatrician at home or visit a polyclinic in time for a specialist to examine the child, make a diagnosis and recommend appropriate treatment, choosing the right drugs for each individual situation.
IMPORTANT! By calling a doctor at home, you can save the child from unnecessary walks and physical activity, as well as from unnecessary and undesirable contacts for a person with weakened immunity during illness with other sick children in the queue at the hospital.
It is the pediatrician who will tell you how to treat the child at home, or advise you to put the sick patient in the hospital, if necessary.
Preventive measures
Among the measures to prevent children's colds can be noted:
Ventilation of premises;
careful personal hygiene, special attention is paid to washing hands;
do not drastically change the climate and environment without the need;
avoid overheating and hypothermia;
hardening, healthy sleep and swimming in open water to improve immunity.
Some parents give children different types of interferons for prevention when the cold season sets in, but this is a completely wrong technique. Such drugs should be taken only on the advice of a doctor, and self-treatment or taking medications leads to a deterioration in a person's condition.
After treatment
You should not immediately go for a walk, if only a little it was possible to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. Of course, fresh air is extremely important for a child, but if it is cold and wet outside, then there is a high risk of aggravating the degree of the disease, and then antibiotics or interferons cannot be dispensed with.
Tempering as a preventive measure is not only possible, but necessary. However, again, it should be remembered that a sufficiently long time must pass after the last illness of the patient so that his body adapts, recovers and does not react negatively to the procedures!
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The kid goes to kindergarten for a week, and then sits at home for a month with snot, cough, fever, rash. This picture is not fictional, but the most real for many Russian families. A child who is often sick today does not surprise anyone. Rather, a child who does not get sick at all or does it extremely rarely causes genuine interest. What to do if frequent illnesses do not allow the baby to attend kindergarten normally, educators call the child "non-sadik", and parents are constantly forced to take sick leave in order to diligently treat another illness of their son or daughter, says a well-known pediatrician and author of books on children's health Yevgeny Komarovsky.
About the problem
If a child is often sick in kindergarten, modern medicine says that his immunity is reduced. Some parents are sure that you need to wait a bit, and the problem will be solved by itself, the baby will “outgrow” the disease. Others buy pills (immunostimulants) and do their best to raise and maintain immunity. Yevgeny Komarovsky believes that both are far from the truth.
If a child is sick 8, 10 or even 15 times a year, this, according to the doctor, does not mean that he has an immunodeficiency state.
True congenital immunodeficiency is an extremely rare and extremely dangerous condition. With it, the child will get sick not only with SARS, but with SARS with a severe course and very strong bacterial complications that are life-threatening and difficult to treat.
Komarovsky emphasizes that genuine immunodeficiency is a rare phenomenon, and it is not necessary to attribute such a severe diagnosis to a generally healthy child, who is simply more likely than others to get the flu or SARS.
Frequent diseases are a secondary immunodeficiency. This means that the baby was born completely normal, but under the influence of some circumstances and factors, his immune defense does not develop fast enough (or something depresses it).
There are two ways to help in this situation: try to support the immune system with medications, or create conditions under which the immune system itself will begin to grow stronger and work more efficiently.
According to Komarovsky, it is very difficult for parents to even admit the idea that it is not the child (and not the features of his body) who are to blame for everything, but they themselves, mom and dad.
If the baby is wrapped up from birth, they don’t allow the baby to stomp around the apartment barefoot, they always try to close the windows and feed more satisfyingly, then there is nothing surprising and unusual in the fact that he gets sick every 2 weeks.
What medicines can strengthen the immune system?
Medications will not achieve the goal, says Yevgeny Komarovsky. There is no such medicine that would treat "bad" immunity. As for antiviral drugs (immunomodulators, immunostimulants), their action has not been clinically proven, and therefore they help only their own manufacturers, who earn trillions of net profits from the sale of such drugs every cold season.
They are most often simply harmless, but also completely useless "dummy". If there is an effect, it will only be a placebo effect. The names of such drugs are well known to everyone - Anaferon, Oscillococcinum, Immunokind, and so on.
Komarovsky is rather skeptical about strengthening immunity with folk remedies. If this drug does not cause harm to the child, take it for health. This can be attributed to juices, tea with lemon, onions and garlic, cranberries. However, it is not necessary to talk about the therapeutic effect. All these folk remedies are natural immunomodulators, their benefits are based on the beneficial effects of the vitamins they contain. To cure the flu or rotavirus infection, which is already developing, onions and garlic cannot. There will be no preventive protection against them.
It is strongly not recommended to practice folk methods that can harm. If you are advised to drip iodine into milk and give this to your child to drink, if they recommend rubbing it with badger fat, kerosene or vodka at a temperature, say a resolute parental “no”. Doubtful and very expensive means of crushed horns of a Tibetan goat - "no". Common sense is above all else.
There are no drugs to strengthen the immune system as such. However, this does not mean that parents cannot influence the natural defense system of their child in any way. They can be helped by a logical and simple algorithm of actions that are designed to change the lifestyle and environmental conditions of the child.
Why does the baby get sick?
90% of childhood illnesses are the result of exposure to viruses, says Komarovsky. Viruses spread by airborne droplets, less often by household.
In children, immunity is still immature, he just has to get acquainted with many pathogens, develop specific antibodies to them.
If one child came to the kindergarten with signs of infection (runny nose, cough, soreness), then in a closed team the exchange of viruses will be as effective as possible. However, not everyone gets infected and gets sick. One will go to bed the very next day, and the other will not care at all. The case, according to Yevgeny Komarovsky, is in a state of immunity. A baby who is already healed by his parents is more likely to get sick, and the danger will pass by the one who is not given a bunch of pills for preventive purposes, and the one who grows in the right conditions.
Needless to say, simple rules of hygiene are completely violated in kindergartens, there are no humidifiers, hygrometers, and educators do not even think about opening a window and ventilating (especially in winter). In a stuffy group with dry air, viruses circulate much more actively.
How to examine the state of immunity?
Some parents believe that if their baby gets sick more than 8 times a year, then he certainly has poor immunity. Morbidity rates, according to Komarovsky, do not exist. Therefore, an examination for immunodeficiency requires more parents to calm down, realizing that they are “doing their best” than the child himself.
If you really want to pay for it and learn a lot of new medical terms, then welcome to any paid or free clinic. There, you will be prescribed a blood test for antibodies, a scraping will be taken from the child for the eggs of worms, tests for Giardia, they will do a general blood and urine test, and they will also offer a special research method - an immunogram. Then the doctor will try to summarize the data obtained and assess the state of the immune system.
How to increase immunity?
Only by eliminating the child's conflict with the environment, one can hope that his immunity will begin to work more actively, as a result of which the number of diseases will significantly decrease. Komarovsky recommends parents to start by creating the right microclimate.
What to breathe?
The air must not be dry. If the child breathes dry air, the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, which viruses attack in the first place, will not be able to give a worthy “response” to disease-causing agents, and the respiratory disease that has already begun will result in complications. It is optimal if both at home and in the garden there is clean, cool and humid air.
The best humidity values are 50-70%. Buy a special device - a humidifier. As a last resort, get an aquarium with fish, hang up (especially in winter) wet towels and make sure that they do not dry out.
Put a special valve valve on the radiator.
The child should not breathe air in which there are undesirable aromas for him - tobacco smoke, fumes of varnishes, paints, chlorine-based detergents.
Where to live?
If the child began to get sick often, this is not a reason to curse the kindergarten, but it's time to check whether you yourself have equipped the children's room correctly. In the room where the child lives, there should be no dust accumulators - large soft toys, carpets with a long pile. Wet cleaning in the room should be carried out with plain water, without adding any detergents. It is advisable to buy a vacuum cleaner with a water filter. The room needs to be ventilated more often - especially in the morning, after night. The air temperature should not exceed 18-20 degrees. The child's toys should be stored in a special box, and books - on a shelf behind glass.
How to sleep?
The child should sleep in a room where it is necessarily cool. If it’s scary to immediately lower the temperature in the room to 18 degrees, then it’s better to put warmer pajamas on the child, but still find the strength in yourself to bring the temperature back to normal.
Bed linen should not be bright, containing textile dyes. They can be additional allergens. Linen is better to buy from natural fabrics of classic white color. Wash both pajamas and bed linen of a frequently ill offspring with baby powder. It is also worth exposing things to an additional rinse.
What to eat and drink?
You need to feed the child only when he himself begins to beg for food, and not when mom and dad decided that it would be time to eat already. In no case should you force-feed a child: an overfed child does not have healthy immunity. But drinking should be plentiful. This does not apply to carbonated sweet lemonades. The child needs to be given more water, non-carbonated mineral water, tea, fruit drinks, compotes. To find out the child's fluid needs, multiply the child's weight by 30. The resulting number will be the desired one.
It is important to remember that the drink should be at room temperature - so the liquid will be absorbed faster in the intestines. If earlier the child tried to drink warm, then the temperature should be gradually lowered.
How to dress?
The child must be properly dressed - do not wrap up and do not overcool. Komarovsky says that sweating causes disease more often than hypothermia. Therefore, it is important to find the "golden mean" - the necessary minimum of clothing. It is quite simple to determine it - a child should not have more things than an adult. If earlier the “grandmother’s” dressing system was practiced in the family (two socks in June and three in October), then the number of clothes should be reduced gradually so that the transition to normal life does not become a shock for the child.
How to play?
Toys for a preschooler are an important part of development. Parents should remember that babies take them in their mouths, gnaw, lick them. Therefore, the choice of toys must be approached responsibly. Toys should be practical, washable. They should be washed as often as possible, but with plain water, without chemicals. If the toy smells bad or pungent, you should not buy it, it may be toxic.
How to walk?
A child should walk every day - and not once. Dr. Komarovsky considers evening walks before bed very useful. You can walk in any weather, dressed adequately. Even if the child is sick, this is not a reason to refuse walks. The only limitation is the high temperature.
hardening
Komarovsky advises hardening a child with weak immunity. If you approach this in a balanced way and make hardening a habitual daily norm of life, then you can quickly forget about the frequent illnesses brought from the kindergarten.
It is best, says the doctor, to start practicing tempering procedures from birth. These are walks, and cool baths, and dousing, and massage. If the question that it is necessary to improve immunity has arisen only now and immediately to its full height, then radical actions are not necessary. Activities should be introduced sequentially and gradually.
First, enroll your child in the sports section. Wrestling and boxing for a frequently ill child will not work, because in these cases the child will be in a room where, besides him, many children breathe and sweat.
It is better if the son or daughter goes in for active outdoor sports - athletics, skiing, cycling, figure skating.
Swimming, of course, is very useful, but for a child who gets sick very often, visiting a public pool is not the best solution, says Evgeny Olegovich.
Additional education(music schools, fine arts studios, foreign language study circles when classes are held in enclosed spaces) it is better to postpone when the number of diseases of the child will decrease at least 2 times.
How to rest?
The widespread opinion that sea air has a very beneficial effect on a child who is often sick is far from reality, says Komarovsky. It is better to send the child to the village in the summer to visit relatives, where he can breathe plenty of clean air, drink well water and swim in it if he fills an inflatable pool with it.
Village relatives should be forbidden to feed their children “for slaughter” with sour cream and pancakes. Food should be given only when he asks for it. Such vacations lasting 3-4 weeks are usually quite enough for the immune system, which has been badly undermined by city life, to be completely restored.
How to protect yourself from diseases?
The best prevention, according to Komarovsky, is not mountains of pills and synthetic vitamin complexes. First of all, contacts should be limited during seasonal epidemics of viral infections. You should not use public transport, visit large shopping centers, circuses and cinemas.
All family members of a frequently ill child should be vaccinated against influenza, and everyone (including the child) should wash their hands more often, especially after returning from the street. For walks, you should choose not playgrounds in the yard where there are many children, but less crowded parks, squares, alleys.
How to treat?
A viral disease does not need special treatment. If a child brought another runny nose with a cough from the kindergarten, it is safe to say that he has a viral infection. Treatment should be in compliance with the above rules - plenty of warm drink, clean and humid air, walks, moderate nutrition, moisturizing the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx by instillation of saline solutions. It is better to pause for 7-10 days after recovery, let the immune defenses get stronger - and only then resume visiting a preschool, school, section.
"Nesadikovskih" children do not exist. There are parents who do not understand how to resist the disease and maintain immunity.
The child will become completely “Sadikovskiy” if, during the next 3-4 episodes of ARVI, the parents do not give him pharmaceutical medicines, drag him to the doctors, do inhalations and soar his legs in a basin of hot water.
If he independently (on compotes and fruit drinks) copes with diseases, his immunity will learn to resist threats from outside, and the likelihood that the next time he gets sick, catching the virus in kindergarten, will be minimal.
If the parents are going to make a gift to the kindergarten for the next important holiday, then try to convince other parents who plan to financially participate in it to buy a humidifier for the group with the funds raised. From such an acquisition, it will become better and easier for all children - both often ill and strong. This includes prevention, treatment, and simply the creation of normal conditions in a preschool institution.
Dr. Komarovsky will tell you more in the video below.
Caring for a sick child means properly maintaining the room, bed, linen and clothes, observing the rules of personal hygiene, daily routine, nutrition, wakefulness with the child himself.
First of all, the baby needs fresh air. Well ventilate the room where the child is. In winter, open the window more often, at this time covering the baby warmer or taking him to another room. And in the summer it is better to keep the windows open. Clean with a wet method. Nothing should hang on the crib, free it from foreign objects. Move chairs and armchairs away from her.
Parents often make mistakes. It seems to them that if they keep the child in a hot room, he will recover sooner. On the contrary, it only worsens the condition of the baby. The temperature in the room where the patient lies should not exceed 20 °C. And only for newborns and infants a higher temperature is allowed - 22 ° C.
If the baby does not feel well and lies all the time, be sure to put an oilcloth under the sheet so that the mattress does not get wet while washing or laying the vessel. Both bedding and underwear are changed as they get dirty. But if the baby sweats a lot, it is necessary to change his clothes and change his sheets 2-3 times or more a day. In no case should you leave a child in wet or damp linen - this can complicate the course of the disease. If linen is contaminated with vomit, urine or feces, it must be immediately changed and soaked, and if necessary, then held in a disinfectant solution (3% carbolic acid solution or 0.25% chloramine solution; these agents are prescribed by a doctor) . The clothes of a sick child should be moderately warm and light.
If the baby has a low or normal temperature, but he sits and plays in the crib, put on a blouse on him, and cover his legs with a light blanket. Many children, and especially boys, cannot be kept in bed once the acute period of illness has passed. So that the baby does not catch a cold, jumping half-dressed in bed, dress him warmly and let him play where he likes.
In modern city apartments, and especially in frosty winters, due to the operation of heating devices, the air is excessively dry. If a child has an inflamed nasopharynx, in such an atmosphere its mucous membrane dries up, the baby swallows with difficulty, which is sometimes accompanied by pain. Because of this, the child cannot fall asleep, gets angry, cries. Or wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Moist air softens the inflamed nasopharynx, it is also useful for coughing. An electric humidifier can be used to humidify the air in the room. Well moistens the air and a wet terry sheet or a large towel hung on a heating radiator. It needs to be moistened periodically.
A sick baby, unless he feels very bad, is washed and washed daily. He also takes hygienic baths, and once every 5 days he is washed. Some babies, more often infants, react painfully to any touch at a high temperature. Such children are carefully washed with a cotton swab dipped in warm boiled water, they wipe their neck, behind their ears, and wash their hands. Clean the nose and ears with a twisted cotton tourniquet. They wash the baby, depending on his well-being, either as usual, or, if he is unable to get up, right in the crib. To do this, a large diaper, folded several times, is placed under the child, and washed with a cotton swab dipped in warm water. Then the skin is dried with blotting movements.
You spend a hygienic bath the way you are used to doing it. But if the doctor does not recommend taking it in the usual way, then the procedure can be modified. The baby is undressed and covered with a blanket, and then they do the same as with a general wet rubdown, after which the child is dressed. The procedure is best done before bedtime.
The daily regimen, if the child feels well, differs from the regimen of a healthy baby only in the absence of walks. But if the disease is severe, more significant deviations from the usual regimen occur. The child may sleep for a long time or be in a semi-drowsy state. You shouldn't wake him up. His appetite may worsen, which is often found even with a mild cold. It is impossible to force a baby to eat, it can only cause vomiting. Let him drink as much as he asks, but no more than that. It can be water, juices, fruit drinks.
If the child has a high temperature of 39-40 ° C, then he usually completely refuses food. And in this case, insisting that he eat is also not necessary. Offer him juice, but not every child will drink juice. Many babies prefer ordinary water at high temperatures. The baby may ask for milk. Give it to him, but first remove a layer of cream from him - fats are poorly absorbed at high temperatures.
So it may take several days, when the child finally gets hungry. Prepare for him what he asks. It’s good if it is some kind of light food like cottage cheese, biscuits or an apple. But it can also happen that, as soon as the temperature subsides, the child will demand meat and will eat it greedily, asking to be cooked again and again. Don't refuse your baby. Even a child who is completely exhausted during an illness, if his "quirks" are carried out, begins to recover before our eyes.
However, some children, even after the temperature has returned to normal, refuse to eat. Do not worry. This will continue for another day or two. Nature knows what the baby needs, and he is guided by her "orders". The child's digestive organs are not yet ready to receive food. However, if even a week after the temperature has dropped, the child does not have an appetite, consult a doctor.
On the first day of illness with a high temperature, the child may vomit when the stomach does not hold anything, not even water. In this case, for two hours after vomiting, do not give him anything, and also water. If after this time the child asks for a drink, give him a spoonful of water. If it does not vomit, after 15-20 minutes you can try again and continue like this. If you managed to hold out for several hours without vomiting, you can give the baby a spoonful of applesauce or a biscuit for a test. With these precautions, vomiting usually does not recur.
During illness, the child needs to measure the temperature and record the readings of the thermometer, since the temperature dynamics allows the doctor to judge the course of the disease. The temperature is measured in the morning immediately after the child wakes up (at 6-8 o'clock) and in the evening (at 17-18 o'clock). The thermometer is held under the arm or in the groin for 10 minutes. In newborns and infants, the temperature is measured in the rectum, for which the tip of the thermometer is smeared with petroleum jelly, carefully inserted into the anus and held for 5 minutes. The temperature in the anus is usually 0.5 ° C higher than in the groin or under the arm.
If the child's temperature is very high (40 ° C), try to alleviate his condition with the help of rubdowns before the doctor arrives. To do this, it is best to use not water, but vodka or an aqueous solution of alcohol (in a ratio of 1: 1). A cotton swab is moistened and wiped over the child's body. At the same time, the vessels of the skin expand and give off more heat, and the liquid, evaporating from the surface of the skin, cools it. This measure is obligatory at high temperature, as in young children, if it is not reduced, convulsions may occur. After wiping, cover the baby with a sheet. You can close it warmer only with chills.
For a sick child, the doctor prescribes medicines and various medical procedures that are carried out at home.
Medicines children drink usually without pleasure. But here, too, there is a difference in their character. One kid can be persuaded to drink even a bitter pill. With another, you can only act by deceit - crushing the medicine and mixing it with jam or honey so that he does not see it.
What medical procedures most often have to be performed at home?
In case of eye disease, the doctor often prescribes drops. They are injected from the outer edge of the eye, putting the child on its side - on the left, if the right eye is instilled, and vice versa. To do this, use an eye dropper, which is pre-sterilized by boiling. Eyes after instillation are wiped with a cotton swab. Store the pipette in a sterile form and a closed jar.
With respiratory diseases, children almost always have a runny nose. For its treatment, the doctor usually prescribes drops. Before instillation, the nose is cleared. If the baby has not yet learned to blow his nose, his nostrils are cleaned with cotton flagella. Then the child is placed on his back, his head is turned slightly up and to the right, if the medicine is injected into the right nostril, with the left hand, placing it on the baby’s forehead, hold his head and with the thumb of the same hand slightly raise the tip of the nose. The medicine is injected with the right hand, trying not to touch the skin with a pipette, so that it flows into the nose along the mucous membrane of the outer part of the nostril. Do the same with the other half of the nose.
Runny nose in young children is often complicated by inflammation of the middle ear. In this case, the doctor prescribes the introduction of drops into the ear and a warm compress. Before instillation, the external passage of the ear is cleaned with a cotton flagellum. Drops are heated to body temperature. The child is laid on the left side if the medicine is going to be instilled into the right ear. The auricle is slightly pulled back and up in order to straighten the external auditory canal. Then a few drops of the drug are injected. The child should maintain the adopted position for at least 10-15 minutes. If the doctor has prescribed drops in both ears, the medicine should be instilled into the other ear some time later.
A warm compress on the ear is placed as follows. A piece of gauze is folded four times, an incision is made for the ear, moistened with water at room temperature and placed behind the auricle. Compression paper, cut in the same way, is applied to the gauze, then cotton wool, covering the ear and gauze with paper with it, and then bandaged, not particularly tight. Instead of water, as prescribed by a doctor, you can use diluted alcohol, vegetable oil. The compress is kept for 3-4 hours, after which the moistened gauze and compress paper are removed, cotton wool is again applied to the ear and bandaged to the head for warmth. It is not recommended to put a compress at night.
With stomatitis or thrush, the child needs to treat the mucous membrane of the mouth. To do this, a cotton swab is wound on a stick, moistened: for stomatitis - with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or a 2% solution of hydrogen peroxide, for thrush - with a 2% solution of baking soda (2 teaspoons per glass of water), or 20% - a solution of borax in glycerin, or a 1% solution of methylene blue, or 100% sugar syrup (honey), and then gently wipe the mucous membrane of the mouth. With stomatitis after the procedure, you can additionally lubricate the mucous membrane with a 1% solution of methylene blue.
With allergic dermatosis, the doctor often prescribes lotions, which are applied to the affected areas of the skin every 15-20 minutes until inflammation decreases. Then an ointment is applied to the affected area. On the face with large lesions, a mask is applied with cut out holes for the eyes, nose or mouth, which is also moistened with one of the medicines. With skin itching, soothing and analgesic drugs are applied to the affected areas with a cotton swab. Medicinal baths with bran, starch, infusion of herbs (string, chamomile) are also used. Baths are done every day or every other day. The temperature of the solution is 36-37 ° C, the duration of the procedure is 5-7 minutes. After the bath, the child is rinsed with water, the temperature of which is 2 ° C lower than the temperature of the solution in the bath.
Children of any age can do a mustard wrap. To do this, 2 tablespoons of dry mustard are diluted in one glass of warm (but not hot) water, covered with a lid, wrapped in a dry towel and left for 20 minutes. After the appearance of a strong smell of mustard, pour about a liter of hot water, diluted mustard into a bowl, stir the mixture well and dip a diaper into it. Then it is squeezed out, checked if it is hot, and wrapped around the back and breast of the child. On top of the wet child, they are wrapped in a dry diaper and covered with a flannelette blanket. After 10-15 minutes, the baby may become worried due to a slight burning sensation. If he is calm and the skin does not turn red, the procedure can be continued for 20-30 minutes. After that, the child is wiped dry, put on flannelette pajamas and covered warmly.
If the child did not have a chair for 2-3 days, he is given a cleansing enema. For young children, it is performed using a rubber balloon with a soft tip. Boil the rubber balloon first. With a cleansing enema, a reflex occurs, which spreads from the lower to the overlying sections of the intestine. This requires a certain volume of water, the temperature of which is much lower than body temperature (not higher than 25-28 ° C). If the water is warm, it will be absorbed in the intestines and defecation will not occur. The amount of water depends on the age of the child: at 1-3 months they take 60 ml, from 3 months to a year - 90-150 ml, at 1-2 years - 200 ml, at 2-3 years - 300 ml. Having drawn water into the balloon, its tip is lubricated with petroleum jelly or soap, lifted with the tip up and gently squeezed until air escapes and water appears. Without opening the balloon, the tip is carefully inserted into the anus of the child lying on his right side. His legs should be pulled up to his stomach. A baby under the age of one year is given an enema in the supine position with legs pulled up to the stomach. The balloon is slowly squeezed and liquid is injected into the child's rectum. Then, without opening the balloon, the tip is removed from the anus. To keep the liquid in the intestines for 3-5 minutes, the child's buttocks are lightly squeezed with the thumb and forefinger, after which the tip is washed and boiled.
In addition to cleansing, therapeutic enemas are also used, which are prescribed by a doctor. The drug solution is administered after a cleansing enema and emptying the rectum. In order for the medicinal substance to be better absorbed in the intestines, the solution is heated to body temperature.
Now let's talk about you and your relationship with the baby during his illness. When a child is sick, you give him a lot of attention and care, not only following medical requirements, but also because you feel sorry for him. You prepare a variety of drinks for him, willingly buy new toys to amuse the baby, often touch his forehead with an anxious expression, ask how he feels, and some mothers (during illness) simply do not let their son or daughter out of their hands.
Of course, if the child is sick, he needs to pay increased attention. But one should not go to extremes. The care of adults, their interest is needed by the baby to no lesser extent even when he is healthy. And some parents begin to take a serious interest in their child only when he is ill. A different mother usually leaves him to himself, and during his illness does not leave him, talks affectionately with him, occupies him with toys, tells fairy tales. By the end of the 1st year, the baby begins to understand that the position of the patient gives him great advantages. Perhaps in the future he will learn in his own way to benefit from the disease. The child may become overly demanding, capricious, touchy and excitable. Such states may even give him pleasure.
One doctor found that many mothers of children suffering from some form of allergic dermatosis are very similar to each other. Greatly troubled by the child's illness, they can neither think nor speak of anything else. And this, again, is not the best way for kids.
An effective means of treating such forms of the disease was the correction of relationships in the family. The doctor taught mothers not to give up, to communicate more meaningfully with their children. The life of kids in the family became more diverse, more interesting, richer with new impressions, ceased to be colored by the disease and subordinated to it. And mothers felt calmer and more confident. Painful manifestations began to recede and in many cases disappeared altogether.
Young, inexperienced mothers (especially if this is their first child) experience great stress due to the illness of the baby. You can often hear how a young mother whose child is ill says that she feels completely overwhelmed. This state of the mother will inevitably affect the child. If you are drooping and discouraged, this will not help the recovery of the baby.
Fortunately, most children recover within a few days. You must console yourself with the fact that one way or another all children get sick from time to time and it is entirely within your power to speed up the recovery of the baby.
If your child is sick, try to return to a normal lifestyle as soon as possible. The same goes for your relationship with your child. Make sure that your expression is calm, friendly, and the tone of your voice is major, as if asking a child about his well-being, you expect to hear good news. Do not talk to the baby in a timid, uncertain voice, do not look at him with frightened eyes. So you can instill fear in him.
If you are buying toys for your baby, choose ones that he can play with you and on his own. It can be cubes, matryoshka nesting dolls, a designer. After working with the baby, showing how to act with toys, and if the child is older, then collecting one or two with him, give him the opportunity to work out on his own. If you do not step back to him, constantly entertaining him, you risk tiring the child. And besides, over time, he can become overly demanding, capricious, will not give you a moment's rest and will behave like a little tyrant.
In no case should you scare a child with an illness. If your baby is already recovering and he wants to move, try to keep him calm play, but do not threaten him that the disease may return and the condition will worsen.
If the child has a high temperature, it is best to leave him alone, without entertaining him with games or conversations.
Another point worth specifically dwelling on is the psychological factor in colds. Many pediatricians are convinced that children, and even adults, are much more susceptible to colds if they are distressed or experiencing a state of nervous tension. In pediatric practice, there are often children who feel great on Saturday and Sunday, being at home, and on Monday, when they need to go to the nursery, they begin to cough and “thump” all week until Saturday. Such children feel miserable in the manger, and their constant nervous tension is expressed in the painful symptoms of a cold. Therefore, a good prevention of colds is a joyful, cheerful mood of the baby, your kind, emotionally rich relationship with him, your attention and goodwill towards his personal manifestations and initiative.
The health of children is of utmost importance to all parents. Of course, each of us understands that there is no child who would never get sick. But at the same time, all parents try to reduce the number of childhood diseases to a minimum and prevent their development. Pharmaceutical preparations (multivitamin preparations and various dietary supplements) and home remedies (hardening, exercise, herbs, etc.) also benefit. But sometimes all measures are not enough, and the baby still catches a cold. Let's clarify what to do if the child gets sick, and what to do if he gets sick?
The child gets sick, what to do?
In the early stages of the development of the disease, there is a chance to notice it in time and take measures to treat it. Timely reaction of parents will help prevent the occurrence of especially unpleasant symptoms and complications. To prevent the further development of the disease, you can use both pharmacy products and home remedies. But it is advisable to use them all only after consultation with a qualified pediatrician.
So, if you are sure that you have encountered a viral disease, discuss with your doctor the advisability of using antiviral drugs. Popular children's medicines of this type are represented by Oscillococcinum, Anaferon for children, Viferon, Kagocel, etc.
So, Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic preparation, it is available in the form of granules. The contents of one tube of the drug should be placed under the tongue and kept until completely dissolved. If the disease has just begun to develop, you need to take the medicine as soon as possible, after which you can take two or three more doses with an interval of six hours.
If the child starts to get sick and sniffles, you can use Aqua-Maris - this is sea water for irrigation and washing. Vibrocil droplets, asterisk ointment (carefully - very allergenic) and Nozzle patch will help prevent the further development of the disease, the latter contains essential oils for inhalation, it is glued to the child's clothes.
Of the pharmaceutical drugs, you can also use ordinary Ascorbic acid, but only in moderate dosage.
At the initial stage of the development of the disease, in order to prevent its further progression, it is extremely important to give the child plenty of fluids. An excellent effect is given by various plant-based teas, for example, with linden, chamomile, mint, thyme or raspberry jam. As a drink, you can use compotes with berries and fruits, weak tea with lemon, cranberry juice, warm milk or ordinary warm water.
Also, parents should ventilate the baby’s room more often (the ideal temperature is 20-22C) and maintain sufficient air humidity in it (at least 40-50%). During the heating season, you can use an ordinary spray bottle with water, in addition, wet towels should be thrown over the batteries. If you have a humidifier, you can add an essential oil to it, such as fir, eucalyptus, lavender, or cedar.
No need to force-feed the child, during any illness, the appetite naturally decreases.
What to do if the child is sick?
If the baby is still sick, continue to take all the above measures: drink plenty of water, moist air, airing. With an increase in temperature indicators, do not bring them down if they do not exceed 38.5 ° C or if there are no direct medical indicators for this (a history of febrile convulsions, etc.).
If the temperature rises, call the doctor at home and consult with him. To reduce the temperature in children, Nurofen or paracetamol products, such as Panadol, etc., are usually used.
If a cold has led to a severe runny nose, systematically instill and rinse the child's nose with saline solutions. If you find nasal congestion, use vasoconstrictor drops as recommended by your doctor.
When a cough appears, most often only a significant amount of warm drink, moist and fresh air in the room is enough. But in some cases, you can not do without drugs, represented by drugs that can thin the sputum and promote its evacuation. Children are most often prescribed drugs with ambroxol and herbal preparations (with licorice root, ivy, etc.).
If the child does not have a temperature, you can carry out warming procedures - put compresses on the chest, warm up the nose or carry out inhalations. So, you can boil potatoes in their jackets until fully cooked, drain a little water and mash them into a puree. Let the baby breathe over the rising steam for ten minutes, then put the mashed potatoes in a bag and form a compress on the baby's chest. Fix it well and send the baby to bed to warm up well. After an hour, the compress can be removed, but it is best for the child to stay warm under the covers.
In order to increase the immunity of the baby and contribute to the treatment of a runny nose and cough, you can prepare the following home remedy. Wash a medium lemon, make a few punctures in the peel and boil it for five minutes on a minimum fire. Cool the lemon, squeeze the juice out of it and combine it with a couple of tablespoons of glycerin. Pour the mixture into a glass and add honey to it to the top of the glass. Mix well and leave for two to four hours. Then give your child a teaspoon three to seven times a day.