Pediatric pneumonia is a more serious respiratory disease that starts rapidly, is serious and progresses rapidly, directly threatening the health and even the life of the baby. According to statistics, the annual mortality rate of pneumonia in children under 5 years of age in China accounts for nearly 10% of the mortality rate of pneumonia in children worldwide.
In fact, most children with pneumonia have several days of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms (i.e., colds) before the onset of the disease, and the upper respiratory tract infection is not controlled before the downstream infection ensues, leading to tracheobronchitis, pneumonia and other lower respiratory tract infections. To prevent pneumonia, it is crucial to intervene at the beginning of the baby’s illness. If parents think that their baby is just having a common cold every time and are careless and do not pay sufficient attention to it, they will eventually miss the disease and increase the chance of pneumonia.
Step 1: See a doctor promptly even if you have a cold
Pneumonia is very similar to the symptoms of a cold at the beginning of its onset, and although there is a close relationship between the two and a big difference in severity, parents often think that a cold doesn’t need to go to the hospital at all, which is a very important reason why a cold develops into pneumonia.
When a baby has a cold and goes to the pediatrician, the first thing the doctor does is to auscultate the child. Auscultation is very meaningful, if there are fixed medium and small blister sounds in the lungs of the child on auscultation, it means that he/she has bronchopneumonia. Another very important thing to do when you go to the hospital is to have a routine blood test. Blood tests are an important indicator to help the doctor determine whether the child has a viral or bacterial infection, and can sometimes even reflect the severity of the infection (in bacterial infections, elevated white blood cells and C-reactive protein are directly proportional to the severity of the infection).
After a series of tests, the doctor will make a basic diagnosis of the baby’s condition (whether there are signs of pneumonia or a common cold) and will instruct the parents to follow up if there is any change in the child’s condition (cough that does not improve or shortness of breath).
This will help parents to understand how their baby’s illness is different from previous illnesses, to pay attention to their baby’s behavior during the illness with the doctor’s prompting, and to take the right approach to treat the illness and prevent pneumonia from occurring. Even if the baby develops pneumonia, it can be detected and intervened in the first place, which can effectively shorten the course of the illness and heal faster.
It is important to remind parents that some atypical manifestations of pneumonia may be similar to the common cold, such as low fever and cough, and may be mistaken for a cold and given at home on their own instead of going to the hospital, leading to delays and aggravation of the condition. So if your child still has persistent low-grade fever and cough aggravated even with shortness of breath and shortness of breath one or two days after taking cold medicine, you must take your child to the hospital as soon as possible to avoid delaying and aggravating the condition.
Step 2: Find the cause of the disease
Each time a baby gets sick, the cause is different. A more comprehensive approach to discovering and stating the possible causes of the baby’s illness can help the doctor determine the condition at the time of the visit, and the doctor may also suggest the possibility of the baby developing pneumonia based on the baby’s symptoms.
When looking for the cause, it is a good idea to look at the following areas.
(1) whether the baby’s routine has changed in the last few days, or whether the baby has slept too late;
(2) whether the baby has been to a crowded place in the last few days, or whether the baby has been in contact with “suspicious patients”;
③What is the weather in recent days, whether there are sudden cold and hot, haze and sudden cooling situation;
④How is the baby’s mental state and bowel movement in recent days, whether he/she is lazy and anorexic or overeating, constipation and diarrhea, etc.?
⑤ Whether the family has been ill in recent times, and whether effective measures have been taken to protect against infection during the illness.
Often, illness is the result of a combination of two factors: the external environment and the body itself. A cause-of-illness search can help parents get a rough idea of the cause and severity of their child’s illness and raise awareness of pneumonia prevention. For example, if a child is too excited to play, is physically tired, and is not well rested, his or her immune system will definitely be affected, and if he or she happens to come into contact with a bacterial or viral source of infection, he or she will easily become ill, even more seriously. If the baby only has mild sneezing and runny nose symptoms due to cold, it is likely to be a common cold.
It is worth noting that children with the following underlying diseases should pay special attention because these diseases are all high-risk factors for pneumonia in children, such as rickets, malnutrition, nutritional anemia, congenital heart disease, etc. Home care for these children must pay special attention, first of all, to maintain adequate sleep, ensure adequate nutritional intake, add and remove clothing in a timely manner to prevent children from Once the child has symptoms of respiratory infection, it is best to go to the hospital and use medication under the guidance of a physician.
Step 3: Take a closer look at the condition
Every baby is a different individual, and for a particular baby, he may be different every time he gets sick, but some patterns can be found. Careful parents must pay attention to find out what the basic behavior of the child is each time he or she is sick, what are the patterns, and how this illness is different from previous illnesses. This will help parents to make some rough judgments about their baby’s condition (for example, he rarely coughs when he has a cold before, but this time he coughs continuously), which are important for the prevention of pneumonia, even though they are rough judgments.
Some differences in symptoms between colds and pneumonia.
1. Look at the severity of the fever. When a child has a cold, especially a wind-cold cold, there is a mild degree of fever, mostly below 38 ℃, after the use of drugs, the effect of reducing fever is obvious, the fever lasts a short time; pediatric pneumonia fever degree is more serious, mostly above 38 ℃, after the use of drugs, the effect of reducing fever is not obvious, the fever lasts a long time.
2, look at the breathing condition. When a child has a cold, the baby breathes smoothly and steadily, without coughing or just a milder cough; when a child has pneumonia, most have a heavy cough, or with shortness of breath, shortness of breath, breath-holding, etc. Parents can listen carefully while the baby is quiet or asleep on both sides of the chest wall of the baby’s spine. Children with pneumonia will hear a “gurgling” or “gurgling” sound at the end of inspiration, called a tiny blistering sound, which is an important sign of inflammation in the lungs. This is an important sign of inflammation of the lungs. Children with colds generally do not have such sounds.
3, look at the mental state. When a child has a cold, the mental state is good, the diet is still normal or a small amount of reduction, can play and play, sleep is normal or slightly increased; when a child has pneumonia, the mental state is poor, irritable or lethargic, the amount of diet is significantly reduced, no spirit to play, more sleep and easy to wake up, breathing difficulties at night performance.
Step 4: Special group, special protection
Some babies have mild symptoms after the cold and recover more easily, basically not affecting normal life. Some babies with colds tend to be prolonged and have heavy symptoms, and are also prone to bronchitis, pneumonia and other diseases. This has to do with the different body types of babies, such as susceptible babies, premature babies or babies with allergies, which are prone to more serious health conditions when they encounter external infections, and parents should especially strengthen protection for these children.
Susceptible babies
The diagnostic criteria are: less than 2 years old, 7 or more upper respiratory infections/year, 3 or more lower respiratory infections/year; 3-5 years old, 6 or more upper respiratory infections/year, 2 or more lower respiratory infections/year; 6-14 years old, 5 or more upper respiratory infections/year, 2 or more lower respiratory infections/year.
The incidence of recurrent respiratory infections is mainly highest in infants and children under 3 years of age, and the number of respiratory infections decreases after 3 years of age as the child’s immune system gradually matures. The reason why susceptible children are prone to recurrent respiratory infections is directly related to the low function of their own immune system, and there are many causes of low immunity in children, genetics is also a relatively important factor, but the vast majority of causes other than genetics we can avoid and correct.
Clinically, we can find that in addition to recurrent respiratory infections, most susceptible children have poor mental health, loss of appetite, spontaneous sweating and night sweats, weight loss, and yellowish complexion, etc. Therefore, we can improve the child’s resistance.
Therefore, to prevent pneumonia in susceptible children, parents should also start with the details of life, correct bad habits, and enhance the child’s physical fitness through effective means.
Premature babies
Premature babies usually face problems such as immature organ development, poor function, limited digestion and absorption, insufficient nutritional reserves, and weaker life skills. Premature infants are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases than normal-born infants. Premature infants have special nutritional needs and generally require special care, and parents should be more attentive and considerate than they are with normal infants.
Particular attention should be paid to: preterm babies should not be in contact with people suffering from colds, bronchitis, diarrhea and other diseases; personal items for preterm babies, including clothes, diapers, bottles should be regularly boiled and disinfected, and the clothes of caregivers should also be regularly disinfected; at the same time, the living room should be regularly opened and ventilated to ensure fresh air.
TIPS: For the above two types of babies, in the fall and winter pneumonia season, you can consider injecting your baby with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, 80% protection coverage, is currently a more effective measure to prevent pneumonia.
Babies with frequent infusions
Some parents, who are nervous about seeing their babies get sick, are strongly urged by parents to give fluids when doctors recommend taking only medication. They think that a baby’s fever is a sign of seriousness, and that the fever going down is a sign that the disease is getting better. Therefore, it is very wrong to give fluids to babies when they have a fever.
Fever is only a symptom, and a certain degree of fever is a response of the body to resist infection. Therefore, if it is decided that your baby has only a common cold and there are no obvious abnormalities in the blood count, do not give fluids when you see a fever. Otherwise, it will lead to the baby’s immune dysfunction, gastrointestinal flora imbalance, more likely to suffer from respiratory and digestive system diseases, and even cause serious infections.
Step 5: Life conditioning, prevention before illness
1.Establish good habits of work and rest, eat and sleep on time, regular habits of life can improve the baby’s body’s ability to defend against disease.
2, pediatric meals should be well-matched, pay attention to supplemental protein, eat more vegetables, fruits and other vitamin-rich foods. Do not just let your baby eat more, or pay attention only to the intake of meat food.
3, timely treatment of diseases that can induce respiratory infections, such as malnutrition, anemia, vitamin a deficiency, rickets, etc.
4.Take your baby to play outdoors more often and get more sunlight to improve its ability to adapt to changes in indoor and outdoor temperatures. Insist on washing the baby’s face with cold water in winter, which can improve the tolerance of the baby’s respiratory mucosa and increase the ability to resist disease.
5, according to the temperature changes in a timely manner to increase and reduce clothing, do not wear too much, children sweating in time to change the sweaty clothes, so as not to be cold induced colds.
6, no matter how the weather changes, it is best to put a sweat towel on the child’s back every day, because children are active by nature, sweating is inevitable, so once the child sweats, just change the sweat towel on the line, so as to avoid to the greatest extent possible because of diligent change of clothes caused by the child cold and flu.
7, indoor keep fresh air, often ventilation.
8, Chinese medicine “three volt paste”, “three nine paste” for the prevention and treatment of such as children’s spring cold, asthma, cough, bronchitis, pneumonia and other winter and spring respiratory diseases, can achieve a very good “winter disease summer treatment The effect of “winter disease and summer treatment”, “spring disease and summer treatment”, “prevention before illness”.