What should I do if my child has a cold?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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What should I do if my child has a cold? This question is asked by many parents even at the first symptoms of the disease. After all, you always want the child not to get sick, or if it hurts, then he quickly recovered. There are a lot of alternative and medicinal products aimed not only at treating colds, but also for prevention.
The treatment protocol
Speaking of the word cold, it means that this is any disease of the viral etiology that occurs after hypothermia and with the inevitable contact with the virus. A cold is not a sensation of cold, after which symptoms appear. Subcooling the body is only an excuse for the child's defenses to decrease and he becomes more vulnerable to the action of pathogenic viruses and bacteria. The cold itself can be accompanied by a viral infection of any kind - adenovirus infection, respiratory syncytial, rhinovirus. Therefore, the manifestations of cold can be in the form of a simple cold or cough, sore throat, pharyngitis and other symptoms.
Always parents want the child to be less sick, and at the first symptoms or after cooling it is necessary to take preventive measures. Such preventive measures can be specific and nonspecific. Specific prevention of colds is carried out before the expected epidemic of a particular virus. For example, at the end of September, specific prevention of influenza can be carried out by vaccinating a child. This is a completely safe method and very effective, especially for children who often get sick. But if there is an episode of contact with a sick viral infection or after cooling the body there is a high risk of the disease, then it is necessary to resort to non-specific methods.
What to do at the first sign of a cold in a child? First of all, it is necessary to provide comfortable conditions for the child and "less" comfortable for the virus. The first symptoms of a cold can be quite nonspecific symptoms - headache, fatigue, drowsiness. There may be a rise in body temperature, usually up to a low-grade figure. This is the period when the virus only begins to multiply actively in the child's body. And to reduce the amount of the virus in the air you need to ventilate the room, to provide access to the sun. The child should drink a lot of liquid in the form of warm tea with lemon - this increases sweating and then toxins and particles of the virus come out. You can not force a child to eat, as the extra burden on the stomach only worsens the condition. The diet should be with the inclusion of vegetables and vitamins and with a minimum amount of fat. All these measures are very important in the first manifestations of the common cold, as they reduce the amount of the virus in the body and activate their own defenses.
It is very important to start treatment when the first symptoms appear, since antiviral drugs are effective at the initial stages of the disease. Among the medicines that are recommended for the first symptoms of a viral infection, there is a very large number of drugs. Use complex homeopathic preparations - Anaferon, Arbidol, Otsilokoktsinum, Ergoferon, Influcidum, Proteflazid, and also analogues of own interferon - Laferobion, Nasoferon, Tsikloferon, Viferon.
Among antiviral drugs, a special place is occupied by drugs with direct antiviral activity - Groprinosin, Novirin, Normomed. What kind of drug to choose when the first symptoms of a cold is decided by the doctor himself, along with his mother. When choosing a drug, the previous experience of treating a virus infection in a particular child is important, since the sensitivity to different drugs in different children is different.
Alternative therapies also play an important role in the treatment of acute viral infections in children. Especially with frequent colds in a child, the use of alternatives periodically or during the infection season very effectively prevents the development of infection. To this end, it is very useful to use teas from herbs or remedies with immunomodulatory effect. With the first symptoms of a cold, you can offer the child tea from lime and raspberry crust with honey and lemon. It is not only useful tea, but also delicious. Also, the root of ginger has a high antiviral activity and immunomodulating properties. Therefore, a child can add a little bit of such a root to the tea and with a lemon this has an excellent taste. You can drink this tea all the time, all autumn and winter. Therefore, when answering the question what to do with frequent colds to a child, the answer is clearly in the preventive measures. There are also medications that have an immunomodulatory effect and are prescribed according to the scheme - their administration reduces the frequency of episodes of the disease and their duration.
Medicamentous interventions for colds in children
Often parents are interested in whether it is possible to carry out certain studies when the child is sick. Often, it is about vaccinations or tests that the child should do regularly. Any infection, even a cold, is an additional burden on the immunity of the child. This means that any reaction to external interference will not go the way it does in a healthy body. Any vaccine has the main goal - to strengthen the immune response of the body to a specific virus or bacterium, by introducing a similar particle in the form of a vaccine. If the child is sick, then any vaccine is perceived by the body as a very strong antigen and the disease itself can develop. Therefore, any vaccinations for a child's cold can not be done.
Is it possible to do Mantou for a cold to a child? Mantoux is a test, the essence of which is also the introduction of a small amount of bacterial antigen, and therefore the effect of this test will be false positive. Therefore Mantou also does not put a child with a cold.
Is it possible to do an electrocardiogram for a child's cold? Strangely enough, this is a frequent question of parents. This intervention is non-invasive, so the cold itself is not affected by the cardiography or the result. Therefore, if this is a routine examination, then such methods can be carried out to the child. But you need to consider that if it is a strong flu, then the condition of the child can be difficult and you should not insist on any examinations.
As for other interventions, the issue here is more complicated. Is it possible to have surgery for a child's cold? Often happens, that there is any planned operation, for example, in occasion of an umbilical hernia, and the day before the child was ill. Of course, the doctor himself assesses the condition and solves this issue, but often the anesthesiologist does not decide on the operation, because it is more difficult to carry out anesthesia when the child is sick. And as for the postoperative period, when the baby is healthy, everything goes better. Therefore, the operation of a child with a cold is not recommended.
Is it possible to massage with a child's cold? If a cold is accompanied by a wet cough or a bad sputum, massage is a great way to help in treatment. Drainage massage helps to sputum and its better expectoration. Therefore, mothers are shown basic techniques, so that it repeats them to simplify the course of the disease. But if there is no cough, and the child simply has fever and a cold, then the massage here does not help, but on the contrary "pushes" the infection further. Therefore, massage for cold can be used, but only under certain conditions.
Complications
Often a cold gives complications, and the younger the child, the more often it happens. The most frequent complications occur when untimely treatment of the common cold. Then the infectious process descends on the bronchi and lungs, the bacterial flora joins and bronchitis or pneumonia develops. Frequent complication of colds of small children is otitis. This is due to the fact that at a young age a wide and short auditory tube that connects the ear and nasopharynx. Therefore, even a simple rhinitis can give complications and the inflammatory process quickly changes to the ear. What should I do if a child becomes unwell after a cold? It is most likely an otitis, therefore it is necessary urgently to address to LORu. At home, the mother can check if the child has a problem with the eye. You just need to click on the ear, if something is wrong, then the child will react, and then you definitely need to contact the doctor.
[Preventive measures
Prevention of colds plays an important role, since often this is an obstacle to visiting a kindergarten child or school. What can I do to not infect a child with a cold? In the first place, you should avoid contact already with sick children, if this is certainly possible. You can prophylactically give medications or alternatives in the season of the disease. It is necessary to heal the child and increase his immunity in the summer, when there is a lot of sun and vitamins. It is believed that a trip to the sea is not only a pleasant walk for the child, but sea water is very useful for health. It is necessary to do morning exercises, which affects the immune status of the child, too. Active life, swimming, sports - all this stimulates the nervous and immune system of the child.
What should I do if my child has a cold? It is very important to begin treatment already when the first symptoms appear, but what methods to choose is decided by the mother. But do not think that a child should not be sick at all: three times a year is the normal frequency of episodes of a child's illness, because this is how his immunity is formed. But if there are often ill children in the family, then specific and non-specific prevention measures come to the fore.