Influenza in children: how to treat it correctly?

Did you know that children suffer from influenza more often than adults about 5 times? More than a third of all cases of hospitalization with ARVI falls on children under 17, which is a very high percentage. Influenza in children in 7% of cases ends in a fatal outcome. Therefore, you need to protect your children from infection with the influenza virus, and if this happens - it is properly treated.

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How is flu spread among children?

Influenza is an infectious disease that is transmitted by airborne droplets. Especially from him suffer preschoolers who go to the kindergarten. Influenza is spreading among children when the child inhales infected droplets that remain in the air when the infected person coughs or sneezes. Or, when the child is in direct contact with the secretions of the infected person. For example, I used the handkerchief of the patient.

Be careful! A person can infect others with the flu one day before the onset of symptoms and 5-7 days after having recovered. This can happen, for example, when children give each other pencils that nibble before it, or play computer games and share a console or eat together from the same dish. Contact "from hand to hand" is also important to consider.

What causes flu in children?

The flu is caused by one of three types of influenza viruses. Types A and B are responsible for annual epidemics of influenza, and influenza type C causes an easy form of the disease. Parents should know that the influenza virus is divided into different subtypes based on its chemical structure.

What are the symptoms of flu in children?

Symptoms of influenza in children are more serious than cold symptoms. Symptoms of influenza in children begin suddenly. Usually, children are made to feel worse within the first two to three days from the onset of the disease. Symptoms of influenza in children may include:

• high temperature up to 39 degrees Celsius
• chills and fever
• extreme fatigue
• headache and aches all over the body
• dry, intermittent cough
• sore throat
• Vomiting and abdominal pain

Can there be complications of influenza in children?

Some complications of influenza in children may include sinusitis, otitis media, bronchitis, or pneumonia. Talk to the pediatrician if your child's fever does not go away for more than three to four days or if your child complains of shortness of breath, earache, headache, persistent cough. Or if young children under the age of 2 become worse, they constantly cry and can not sleep. Remember that healthy children more often than older children are hospitalized with complications after the flu.

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What is the best way to treat flu symptoms in children?

To treat the symptoms of influenza, children have useful home remedies, as well as the latest medications. Keep in mind that antibiotics are ineffective against influenza. Antibiotics can be used only to treat bacterial infections. And the flu is a viral infection, so antibiotics against it will not help.

Antiviral drugs are sometimes useful for young patients if the flu symptoms started in the first two days of the disease. As a rule, they only shorten the duration of the flu from one to two days. Nevertheless, the flu vaccine against influenza number one is the vaccine against the flu.

Here are the most effective home remedies for influenza in children:

• strong, timely and sufficient sleep
• a lot of liquid (but not soda)
• use paracetamol or ibuprofen to reduce heat and pain (both drugs can be used for children.)

Do not give aspirin to children or adolescents. Aspirin may increase the risk of Reye's syndrome - a rare disease that occurs almost exclusively in children and can cause severe liver disease and brain damage.

Some children may have an increased risk of serious complications from influenza. Talk with your doctor as soon as possible if your child is under 5 years old and has a flu virus, and he has chronic illnesses such as asthma or other lung diseases, heart problems, or diabetes.

Should I send a child with flu symptoms to the hospital?

If your child has at least one of the following symptoms, he will need treatment in the hospital.

• The child has difficulty breathing, which does not improve even after nasal drops and cleaning of the nostrils.
• Skin color becomes bluish or gray
• The child becomes worse than with any of the previous cases of diseases. The child has strange reactions. For example, a child does not cry when you expect it and the child is very sluggish or can not fall asleep.
• The child does not drink enough fluids or you see signs of dehydration. Common signs of dehydration are the absence of tears, crying, a decrease in the amount of urine (dry diapers), irritability or a strong decrease in energy

What antiviral drugs are used to treat influenza in children?

If your child has a high risk of serious complications due to the flu, the doctor can prescribe him an antiviral drug.

In some cases, doctors use antiviral drugs to protect the baby from the flu. These drugs have properties to block the secretion of the virus and prevent it from spreading. For example, remantadin can fight against type A viruses of influenza. This drug can be taken to children from one year old, however, in syrup and in combination with alginate. It can have reactions in those children who suffer from acute forms of liver disease.

Another effective drug for treating children from influenza is arbidol. It has antiviral and antioxidant properties. This drug is very good for the treatment of influenza type A and B. It can be used for children no matter what virus the child has infected.

Among the new drugs that help to cure the child of the flu are new generation drugs, including zanamivir or relenc, and oseltamivir, also known as Tamiflu. They help to clear the airways of influenza viruses, and the child very quickly becomes easier. By the way, with the help of Tamiflu they are also fighting against bird flu, and this is the only drug of its kind. Studies prove that up to 40% of cases of disease go on decline in the first or second day of use.

Influenza in children is quite a serious disease, if you pay insufficient attention to its treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to help children cope with the flu with the help of both conventional methods and new drugs.

Are there ways to prevent flu in children?

The number one method to prevent the flu is to carry out an annual vaccination against the flu. Doctors recommend that all children aged 6 months and older receive flu vaccines for its prevention. Vaccination of children every year helps to protect them from the flu, reducing the mass incidence of up to 80%.

Healthy children over the age of 2 who are not ill with colds and do not suffer from asthma can get a flu vaccine in the form of a nasal spray. Children from 6 months and older can be vaccinated against influenza.

Pregnant women, on the recommendation of a doctor, should also be vaccinated to avoid the severity of the symptoms of the flu and complications after the disease.

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