When do we talk about “prompt medical attention”?
When a baby is sick, parents may be particularly torn about whether or not to take their baby to the hospital right away. If you go, it will affect your rest, and the hospital will be overcrowded, increasing the chance of cross-infection, and if you go to the hospital with a fever, for example, the doctor may just give you some fever-reducing medicine. However, if you don’t go, you are afraid of delaying the condition of the child, and it is true that some children are already in critical condition and lose the chance to be rescued when they visit the hospital, and parents regret it, but it is impossible to recover.
Children, especially infants and toddlers, are changing rapidly, so parents are advised not to hesitate to take their babies to the hospital when they encounter the following situations. Some of them may be small details that need to be observed by mom and dad. We hope this will help you to identify serious conditions as much as possible.
In this article, we will talk about the most common abnormalities in babies in several aspects.
I. Abnormalities in breathing
1, breathing continues to increase, significantly faster than the age of breathing frequency.
2, inspiratory difficulties, inspiratory throat sound (especially in a quiet state), inspiratory sternal fossa (when the chin corresponds to the position of the low head) appear depression, small babies may follow the breathing nodding head movement, pneumonia, laryngitis and foreign body aspiration may appear this situation.
3.Exhale stifled, exhale significantly longer, exhale phase can smell whistling, asthma or wheezing baby is prone to this condition.
4.Lips, bruising around the mouth, which is usually a sign of lack of oxygen.
5.Suddenly appear violent choking and coughing, face change or choking and coughing, especially when playing with small toys and eating, when there is a possibility of foreign body inhalation.
6.Nasal blockage seriously affects sleep and eating, especially for small infants under 1 year old and newborns without obvious relief after applying physiological seawater.
7.Nosebleed continues to be difficult to stop, especially after trauma, and some need special treatment by ENT doctors to stop the bleeding.
8.After cold, runny nose and nasal blockage for more than two weeks should be consulted by ENT department, paying attention to the presence of rhinitis; yellow runny nose with odor, accompanied by morning headache, should be consulted by the Department of Five Gases, paying attention to the presence of sinusitis.
9. Repeated fever with severe cough and frequent paroxysmal cough affecting sleep should be noted as possible lower respiratory tract infection; cough lasting more than 2 weeks, especially more than 4 weeks, coughing after exercise and coughing at night affecting sleep should be consulted in respiratory specialty; if there is rhinitis, old nasal discharge, coughing at night only should be consulted in ENT department.
10.Continued snoring, open-mouth breathing at night, or apnea, or poor mental health after waking up even if sleep time is guaranteed, which affects attention, should consult the ENT department to pay attention to the presence of adenoid hypertrophy.
11.Babies under three months old should pay attention to choking, coughing, spitting, etc., and need to consult a doctor to pay attention to the presence of pneumonia.
12, any other uncertainty, or follow the doctor’s instructions for timely follow-up.
2. Abnormalities in facial color and complexion (skin)
1. If the face is cyanotic or dull, consult a doctor immediately.
2, newborns with heavy yellow skin staining should be promptly consulted, 2 weeks after birth for full-term infants, 3-4 weeks after birth for premature infants if the skin is still obviously yellow stained. 3, small infants with persistent blossoming of the skin of the extremities, wet and cold should be immediately consulted, most of them are critical. 4, newborns with redness, swelling, odor, or purulent discharge around the umbilicus should be promptly consulted; the amount of blood oozing from the umbilicus is not easy to stop bleeding should be promptly consulted; newborns with more skin pus 5.Prominent bleeding spots and petechiae on the skin should be seen promptly, and attention should be paid to the presence of special viral infections, blood diseases and allergic purpura and other diseases for symptomatic examination and treatment.
6.High fever accompanied by rash should be promptly seen.
7.Pale mouth and lips, anemia may be present.
8.Any other uncertainty, or follow the medical advice of the attending doctor for timely follow-up.
3. About fever
1.Neonates and infants under 3-6 months of age are recommended to be seen as soon as fever appears, but excessive wrapping and high ambient temperature should be excluded.
2.Babies over 1 year old with persistent high fever, especially with a temperature of 39℃ or more, should be seen in time. If the general condition is good, oral antipyretics can be lowered to normal and there are no other abnormalities, the baby can be observed for 24 to 48 hours before going to the hospital. 3.Babies with fever should be seen again in time if they do not improve after 48 to 72 hours of treatment as prescribed by the doctor, and need to be observed for new symptoms and other tests as appropriate.
4.Fever with convulsions should be promptly seen.
5.Initial fever and thereafter fever along with rash, bleeding spots, petechiae, red eyes, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, puffy eyelids, vomiting obviously, headache, poor spirit and other symptoms should be promptly followed up.
6. Those who have fever for more than two or three days and whose cough is obviously aggravated, or those who have fever on top of a period of gradual aggravation of cough, should seek medical consultation promptly, at which time attention should be paid to the presence of lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia.
7. Any degree of fever greater than 5 to 7 days must be followed up and a detailed examination needs to be perfected.
8.Any other uncertainty, or follow the doctor’s instructions for timely follow-up.
IV. About diarrhea and vomiting
1, blood in the stool, pus and blood stool, jam-like stool, foul-smelling stool.
2.The number of loose stools is particularly high.
3.Decrease in urine output.
4.Sudden violent crying, or vomiting.
5.Frequent vomiting, or intermittent vomiting lasting for more than 6 hours, with little food intake.
6.Vomiting of bloody matter, large amount of coffee-colored matter, bile-like matter (green, yellow-green), fecal matter.
7.Continued severe abdominal pain.
8.With poor spirit and poor facial color, etc.
9.Any other uncertainty, or follow the doctor’s orders for timely follow-up.
V. Mental status and nervous system related
1. Seek medical consultation promptly for any kind of convulsions in any part of the body. Grand mal seizures are generally not easy to ignore, but some twitches only show frequent mechanical blinking, corner of the mouth twitching, nodding or rhythmic stereotypical twitching of the limbs, and some twitches even show as aphasic seizures, where the baby suddenly stops holding a toy and does not move in place, or the whole body suddenly falls to the ground in a flaccid state, and the eyes stare at the call. These convulsions are easily ignored. However, some parents are too nervous to take the chills when fever is present, the jumping of the limbs and some involuntary movements when just falling asleep as convulsions. It is recommended that when parents have doubts in this regard, they can use their cell phones to record and save the suspicious cases, so that they can directly show them to the neurologist when they visit the clinic to help determine whether they are real convulsions. It is also advisable to tell the doctor about the condition of the eyes, the reaction of the baby, the state of consciousness and the temperature before and after the convulsion.
2, sudden loss of consciousness, unexplained drowsiness, should promptly seek medical advice.
3.Baby’s fontanel is obviously elevated, and when diarrhea or vomiting, insufficient feeding and other conditions, the fontanel is obviously depressed.
4.Sudden appearance of obvious weakness or paralysis in any part.
5, 48 to 72 hours after head trauma observation, if there is vomiting, drowsiness, irritability, obvious headache, speech, vision, consciousness and limb movement disorders, etc. should be promptly consulted.
6.Severe headache, or persistent headache cannot be relieved after rest.
7.Sudden change in temperament, abnormal irritability is not easy to calm down.
8.Hand, foot and mouth disease when there is unstable holding, jumping, hand and foot shaking, etc.
9.Significantly lagging behind children of the same age in language, movement and intelligence.
10.Any other uncertainty, or follow the medical advice of the doctor who visited the hospital for timely follow-up.
If your baby has any of these conditions (including but not limited to the above), parents should take your baby to the hospital in time to avoid delaying the condition. We hope all babies grow up healthy under the careful care of moms and dads!