Rhinitis in the baby
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
To cure a runny nose in a child, you need to correctly choose the drug, given the age and health of the child. Depending on how severe the disease that caused a runny nose in a child, his treatment can take from a week to 10 days. What are the features of treating a cold in a child?
[Causes of a child's cold
They can be viral and bacterial infections. For example, flu or cold. Rhinitis can also be caused by tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, and is treated with the underlying disease in hospitals or specialized centers.
It is very important to take into account the age-specific features of the treatment of the common cold in children. Coryza of newborns, children of younger and older school age are treated differently. Therefore, parents should be aware of the peculiarities of each age period.
First aid for colds
Always, when a child starts a runny nose, you need to use other methods more natural before consuming chemicals.
To the child was more comfortable to sleep, you need to raise the head of his sofa or bed. Therefore, the pillow should be higher, so that the head rises to a height of 45 degrees. The only condition: the child should be comfortable lying. Then phlegm from the nose will be much easier to leave and the child will not suffer from difficulties with breathing.
If a runny nose appears in the newborn and the nose is clogged with phlegm, it can be removed with a pear or an ordinary syringe (of course, without a needle). This is done especially if the child can not get rid of the mucus in the nose itself. In the tip of the baby enter the edge of the syringe or the tip of the pear, but very carefully, so as not to injure the nasal mucosa. Mucus should be sucked off gradually - first from one nostril, then from the other. Nasal discharge from sputum should be done as often as necessary.
How not to injure the nasal mucosa?
To the mucous membrane of the nose with the mucus does not dry out, you need to moisten it with mucus. To do this, wash the child's nose with saline solution. If you do not take care of the child's spout, the mucus may dry out and nasal passages may be injured. In addition to saline solution, you can apply saline, which is instilled in turn into each nostril. At this time, the child should lie with his head thrown back.
At the first penetration of saline or saline solution into the child's nose, he may have a cough, urge to vomit or sneeze. But, if you do the instillation procedure several times, the sensitivity of the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx will decrease significantly, and there will be no unpleasant sensations. Flushing of the nasal passages of the child can be repeated every half hour-hour - as far as the nasal congestion. The main thing is not to allow the phlegm in the nose to dry up. Burying your nose, you will thereby contribute to liquefying the mucus and releasing it from the nasal passages.
What can I use to treat the common cold instead of saline or saline solution?
These can be oily liquids. For example, vitamin A in solution or vitamin E - they are sold in any pharmacy. Or an oil-based drop. These fluids do not allow the phlegm to dry out in the nose, and also moisturize the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx, they make it possible to remove irritation, regenerate tissues.
How to relieve the nasal breathing of a child?
The medicines that are called decongestants help the child breathe. When they are buried inside, they allow the child to breathe normally and are well treated with rhinitis (acute cold). These drugs are used for children of different ages - newborns, infants or children of senior school age.
These drugs do not always help, and sometimes cause unwanted reactions in children. This occurs in cases when the medicine is not used for its intended purpose, too often or in large doses than it is necessary.
However, if the child is not treated with these drugs, he can have sinusitis - stuffy nose with pus accumulation, as well as severe headaches and fever. Therefore, it is necessary not only to treat a child's cold, but also to remove tumors of the nasal mucosa, and also to remove harmful microbes from there with the help of bactericidal agents.
What are the medicines for treating a cold in children?
It can be local or topical and systemic drugs from the group of decongestants. They are used mainly to reduce the swelling of the nasal mucosa and narrow the vessels. Because of this, breathing through the nose becomes more free, the child is easier to fight other cold symptoms, such as cough and high fever.
Thanks to these two groups of drugs, the risk of sinusitis is reduced, since the maxillary sinuses of the nose are released.
Specificity of drugs for the common cold in children
Parents need to learn that the same medicine can be produced under different names, if the producers are different firms. But on the instructions to the medicine from the cold, you can see the substance that is part of your particular medicine. On it and need to pay attention during the purchase. And if you do not understand these subtleties. Then you need to ask the attending physician what alternative names for the drops prescribed by him can be on the label.
One of the most reliable means of a runny nose in children is Derinat. It is characterized as a remedy with excellent tolerability and good effect of reducing cold symptoms.
This drug activates the immunity of the child and allows him to quickly cope with colds and their manifestations.
What threatens the child with improper intake of drugs for a cold?
In the event that parents used drugs for the child arbitrarily, without the appointment of a doctor, they exceeded the dose, given the drug too often, the child may have complications. Among the side effects, or complications from taking medications from the common cold, may be: anxiety, increased nervous excitability, allergic rhinitis, atrophy of the nasal mucosa, inhibition of the brain, even confluence in a coma.
If the child has a runny nose, despite all the measures taken by the treatment, does not pass, and will only get worse, it is necessary to turn to the pediatrician. He will tell you. Whether there are complications of cold or other disease in the child. It can be sinusitis, otitis, pharyngitis, which must be treated with antibiotics. These antibiotics should be prescribed again by a doctor, and not bought by the child arbitrarily
Rhinitis in a child can pass quickly and easily, and can drag on and not pass. All this depends on how timely you have turned to the doctor and how correctly they observed the course of treatment that was assigned to them.