All children, without exception, sometimes have a stomach ache - moreover, there can be a dozen different reasons for this. How to independently, without the help of a doctor, determine: what kind of abdominal pain in a child is dangerous and requires quick “rescue” measures, and what kind of pain can be completely eliminated by self-treatment?

There are no children in the world who would never have a stomach ache. Adult children can tell in detail about where and how they hurt, younger children will show with their fingers, but babies, alas, will not be able to tell anything about their pain. Meanwhile, it is precisely on the nature of abdominal pain in children, and on the place of its localization, that not only the method of treatment depends, but even whether the baby remains at home or he needs to be urgently hospitalized ...

Abdominal pain - familiar from childhood

... And next to hippos
Grabbed their tummies:
They, the hippos,
Belly hurts...
... And Aibolit runs to the hippos,
And slaps them on the tummies
And all in order
Gives you chocolate
And puts and puts thermometers on them!...

From the point of view of pediatrics, Korney Ivanovich, of course, slightly embellished the situation - alas, it will not work to “really” cure abdominal pain in a child (even if it is a “child” of a hippopotamus) with the help of chocolate and pats. We'll have to pick up a "real" and safe medicine. But the remedy for abdominal pain can only be chosen correctly when the reason why the child has a stomach ache is clear to you. And their - reasons - as it turns out, there are not a dozen ...

For example, in newborns and infants, the most common cause of abdominal pain is, of course,. About 70% of all babies suffer from this temporary phenomenon and cry bitterly during attacks. But, fortunately, colic in newborns and infants is a temporary attack, and, as a rule, they go away on their own by the age of 4-6 months.

Why does a child have a stomach ache: the most common causes of pain

So, newborns and babies, most often cry just from a very specific and purely infantile misfortune - from colic. What about older kids? Why do these kids have stomach pains?

The older a child gets, the more potential causes there are for abdominal pain.

In older children (starting from the age when, and the child himself becomes more "mobile" and active), among the groups of causes of abdominal pain usually appear:

1. The most common and most common reason why a child has a stomach ache comes down to one word - constipation. This attack happens to children, in turn, also due to various circumstances -.
2. Gastroenteritis (that is, inflammatory diseases of the stomach and / or small intestine). The greatest pain for children is caused by intestinal infections, both viral (the most common of them -) and bacterial (for example, dysentery).
3. Nutritional features (the baby ate a poor-quality product that caused diarrhea, or provoked one of the products, or simply - the child ate a lot more than he was able to digest, etc.).
4. Poisoning by poisons and drugs (for example, most antibiotics can cause mild abdominal pain in children).
5. Diseases of a surgical "character", for example: intestinal obstruction, appendicitis, ulcers, hernia and others.

How do you know if your child's stomach pain is caused by some serious illness that requires hospitalization?

This is a fact - most often the stomachs of children hurt from colic (if they are still completely babies) and from constipation (if their age has already "passed" for 6-12 months).

A little less often - from (like rotavirus) and banal digestive disorders (ate "wrong" or ate too much of something ...). The rest of the reasons why a child has a stomachache are even less common.

However, when our baby, bent over in half, cries from pain in his stomach, we usually imagine much more serious misfortunes - maybe the child has acute appendicitis? Or was he poisoned? What if he has an ulcer, gastritis or hernia? In a word, the parental imagination paints a gloomy picture with lightning speed in the most “black colors” ...

But in reality, such dangerous and sharp pains in the abdomen, which can really indicate serious diseases that require urgent medical attention, can be identified by some special markers (signs). The most obvious and simple of them is the exact location of the pain.

In the vast majority of cases, children who say that they have a “tummy ache” point to the navel area. And this is - in a sense, a good sign! Remember: the farther from the navel area is the place that "according to" the baby hurts him - the sooner you need to call a doctor. Especially - if the child grabs his side (any) with his hands and says that it hurts a lot there. In this case, call an ambulance immediately.

However, there are other symptoms associated with abdominal pain that require urgent medical attention. So:

The child has a stomach ache: in what cases is it necessary to urgently find a doctor

1. The child has a stomach ache, but the pain is not in the navel;
2. Pain lasts more than 24 hours;
3. If abdominal pain is accompanied by one or more of the following symptoms:

• the child broke out in a cold sweat, and the skin became pale;
• the child has a sharp rise in temperature;
• blood appeared in the feces or in the vomit (moreover, any amount - even one drop is already enough to "fly" to the doctor!);
• it became painful for the baby to write (painful urination);
• the child vomits and vomits yellow, green or black;
• the baby became very lethargic, sleepy, refuses not only to eat, but also to drink.
• in boys, abdominal pain is combined with pain in the groin or testicles.

1. If the child has a stomach ache, but the pain is not constant, but episodic, and at the same time it is combined with diarrhea that has lasted more than 72 hours, or is combined with vomiting that has not gone away for more than a day.

It is very important for parents to know that if a child has vomiting, then in no case should you use antiemetic drugs on your own. None and under no circumstances!

The vast majority of cases of abdominal pain in a child that are not included in this list (that is, the pain is localized precisely in the navel and is not accompanied by the above symptoms) does not require medical intervention.

And yet - no one canceled the pain! The child really suffers from the fact that his stomach hurts. How to help him in such cases (since you have already determined that he does not need emergency medical care)?

How to save a child from stomach pain

Naturally, first of all, measures to help a child who has a stomachache will correspond to why these pains appeared. In other words, the cause always determines the cure.

1. Find out if your baby is constipated. And if there is, give a remedy for constipation based on lactulose syrup.
2. Stop feeding your baby. If the pain appeared on the background of the introduction of a new product into the complementary feeding program, immediately cancel this product.
3. Enter a drinking regimen. Ideally, drink special means for oral rehydration (sold in pharmacies), which will restore the water-salt balance in the child's body. There are none - let's clean non-carbonated water. Under no circumstances should you give: sweet soda(any lemonade and "pop"), any fruit juices and milk drinks.
4. If the cause of abdominal pain in a child is excessive gas formation, he can be given any drug based on the substance simethicone.

An extremely common way of parental help when a child has a stomachache is a heating pad. However, in some situations (for example, in any inflammatory process), a heating pad for abdominal pain can cause a sharp deterioration in the condition. Therefore, only a doctor can prescribe a heating pad on the stomach, and only after an accurate diagnosis has been made.

The child has a stomach ache and a fever: what does this mean?

If the child has a stomach ache and at the same time there is heat, this gives a great chance to suspect an intestinal infection in a child. By the way, in addition to the rise in temperature, there may be other symptoms, for example, the mass nature of the disease.

With intestinal infections, people (including children) never get sick alone - such diseases are always massive. Therefore, if you know that kindergarten or cases of some kind of intestinal infection were revealed at school, and your baby began to complain of abdominal pain and fever - there is a high probability that he also “picked up” the infection “along the chain” ...

If the baby has a stomach ache and a fever, get ready for the fact that you will most likely have to be treated for an intestinal infection, and the whole family.

Any infectious disease must be treated immediately, especially an intestinal infection. However, we have already said several hundred times - only a qualified doctor has the right to diagnose a child who is suspected of having an infection. And only he, relying on the diagnosis, is able to draw up a treatment plan as correctly as possible.

Thus, if your child complains of abdominal pain and at the same time his temperature rises sharply, immediately seek medical help.

By the way, interesting fact: most of the most dangerous diseases, in which the stomach usually hurts a lot, and which require urgent surgical intervention, are never accompanied by fever. It turns out that fever willingly "companies" infections, but almost always keeps aloof from surgical diseases.

So, to summarize: the vast majority of children experience abdominal pain from time to time. The most common cause of this is constipation or some nutritional problems. There is no need to be especially afraid of such pains - they pass (and most often they pass quickly), do not require any serious therapy, and even more than that - often do not even require a doctor's examination.

Often sick are children who have acute respiratory infections (ARI) occur 4 times a year or more.

Sometimes a child gets sick not only often, but also for a long time (more than 10-14 days, one acute respiratory disease). Long-term ill children can also be classified as frequently ill.

Outwardly, acute respiratory infections can be manifested by a runny nose, cough, redness of the throat, general weakness, and a rise in temperature. Frequently ill children may have one but long-term symptom, such as a persistent cough or cough, persistent nasal discharge, and the temperature may be normal. If the child has a fever all the time, but there are no symptoms of acute respiratory infections, this is often a sign of a chronic infection and requires a detailed medical examination.

List of reasons

If a child is sick often or for a long time, this means that his immunity is weakened. Consider the main factors leading to a weakening of the immune system.

The functions of the immune system begin to form in utero, so intrauterine infection, prematurity or morphofunctional immaturity of the baby can lead to the fact that he will subsequently become sick often.

Another important factor for the formation of immunity is mother's milk, so children who are on breastfeeding, rarely get acute respiratory infections, and vice versa, an early transition to artificial mixtures can lead to the fact that already in the first year of life the child will begin to suffer from colds.

In the first year of life or at an older age, as a result of various adverse factors, the baby may develop background conditions that weaken the immune system (intestinal dysbacteriosis, hypovitaminosis, rickets).

A pronounced weakening of the immune system often occurs after serious illnesses or surgical interventions. If a child has been ill with dysentery, salmonellosis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, his immunity is weakened. Viruses greatly weaken the functions of the immune system. After flu, measles, other viral diseases the child has an increased sensitivity to infections and may become frequently ill.

Long-term use of certain drugs weakens the immune system, including, for example, immunosuppressants, some anticancer drugs, oral steroid hormones, and most antibiotics.

In the event that the use of these drugs is necessary, it is advisable to take preventive measures to maintain the normal functioning of the immune system.

The presence of chronic diseases in a child also contributes to the weakening of protective mechanisms and can cause frequent illnesses. Such diseases can be chronic sinusitis, tonsillitis, adenoids, sluggish and atypical infections caused by pathogens such as mycoplasma, pneumocystis, chlamydia, yersinia, trichomonads. Often the cause of weakened immunity are worms and Giardia, which are quite difficult to diagnose by feces.

There are congenital immunodeficiency states, including isolated immunodeficiencies, when a child has a disorder in one part of the immune system. Children with such immunodeficiencies can often suffer from some kind of recurrent, that is, recurring, diseases. If a child constantly suffers from the same type of diseases, he should be examined for the existence of congenital immunopathology.

Finally, a proper balanced diet and regimen are of great importance for the normal functioning of the immune system. A child can often and for a long time get sick if his diet lacks vitamins or, for example, there are no animal products or the food contains a lot of carbohydrates, but few proteins and fats. If the child is rarely fresh air, leads a sedentary lifestyle, inhales tobacco smoke from smoking adults, this can lead to a weakening of his immunity.

break the circle

Frequently ill children are a social and medical problem. Such children, as a rule, have a disrupted preventive vaccination calendar, they cannot attend preschool institutions, and in school age forced to skip classes. Parents have to periodically stay at home with a sick child, and this is detrimental to their work.

In a frequently ill child, a vicious circle is formed: against the background of a weakened immune system, he falls ill with acute respiratory infections, which, in turn, further weaken the immune system. As a result of increased sensitivity of the body to various infectious agents and a decrease in protective mechanisms, there is a high probability of developing chronic, sluggish infectious and non-infectious diseases (gastritis and peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, bronchial asthma, chronic sinusitis, frontal sinusitis ...). The presence of chronic infections can lead to a delay in physical development, allergies.

Frequently ill children may develop various psychological problems and complexes. First of all, it is an inferiority complex, a feeling of self-doubt.

Action algorithm

If a child is often sick, it is necessary to start general strengthening preventive measures: vitamin therapy, balanced nutrition ... It is important to cure chronic diseases, especially the pathology of the ENT organs: chronic tonsillitis, sinusitis (sinusitis, frontal sinusitis), adenoids.

Parents of frequently ill children should consult a doctor (pediatrician, gastroenterologist, immunologist). You can first take tests that will help determine the cause of weakened immunity: feces for dysbacteriosis, blood for immune and interferon status. Depending on the clinical picture of frequently recurring acute respiratory infections, special tests can be taken: tests for the detection of pulmonary forms of chlamydia, mycoplasma and pneumocysts with persistent cough, a throat swab for chronic tonsillitis ...

For the treatment of frequently ill children, medications of non-specific effects (vitamins, adaptogens, biogenic stimulants ...) can be used, as well as therapy with specific drugs aimed at certain parts of the immune system - immunocorrection (immunoglobulins, interferons, thymus preparations).

Incredible Facts

This article has a lot useful information parents will find for themselves who believe that: a) all children get sick (metabolism, the body grows); b) medicine to help; c) the child was born so sickly and frail, etc.

Every parent should first of all know that from conception to achievement child For 12 years, his parents bear full responsibility for absolutely everything that happens to him.

And not at all because someone said so, or smart books wrote so, but due to the fact that a child under 12 years old is completely subordinate to his parents, both energetically and informationally. The mother is responsible for the energy of the baby's body, that is, for how he feels, and the father is responsible for the eventfulness, that is, for what happens to the child and how the mother feels.

That is, we can say that the fathers are responsible for the well-being of all.

Why is the child sick

1. How the mother influences the child

From the moment of conception until the age of 12, your child's body is being built. Until the moment of birth, the only source of building materials is the mother, and after birth, she remains the only source, but already transforming into a flow of energy.

Everyone understands that during pregnancy you need to carefully monitor your health. But there is one "but". There are things that parents do not think about, or consider insignificant. The formation of the baby's body has a direct connection with the mother's psyche, and no malnutrition or smoking can harm the child more than a woman with an unbalanced psyche.

All mental disorders during pregnancy, all the stresses suffered, absolutely everything is deposited in the baby, disrupting the structure of his body. During the bearing of a child, the mother must have unshakable calmness, be always positive and live in joyful expectation.

What a mother experiences, she puts into her child. This is an unconditional axiom, with which it is useless to argue. There are frequent examples when, by today's standards, women after 35 years of age, being in absolute calm during pregnancy, gave birth to healthy children to the envy of 20-year-olds who are experiencing. They just really waited for their children and knew that everything would be fine.

Until the age of 12, the baby is connected with the mother by the energy umbilical cord, and she completely controls his condition. But it often happens that even if the pregnancy was calm, after birth, the mother falls into a state of hyper-anxiety, when every pimple of her child is perceived as an occasion to call an ambulance.

Increased anxiety, in principle, is a normal state of any mother, these are instincts. But do not forget that all the worries that a mother visits, she pumps into her child. If mom can't get rid of intrusive thoughts about the child’s condition, then she will see everything clearly: the child will be constantly sick. Constantly.

The quality of the energy received by the baby from the mother depends on her condition. Doctors have a lot of anxious women at their appointments, whose children get sick all the time. In schools, children's medical cards are bursting with thickness. And the reason is the same everywhere: the condition of the mother.

Causes of a child's illness

An analogy can be drawn here with cooking. When you cook soup, do you shake the pot every minute? And suddenly you oversalted, and suddenly it doesn’t work out, and isn’t there a lot of onions, and isn’t there enough parsley, etc.? If you cook in this way, then this food will not be eaten.

Only two options are possible: either you are worried that you will spoil the food, or you undertook to cook something delicious. Everyone understands the difference in approach. In the first case, you will definitely spoil the products, and in the second, you will create a culinary masterpiece.

With a child, everything happens in an absolutely similar pattern. You either fill him with care, love, positive, trust, affection and approval, or you tremble over his every step, feeding him with anxieties, despondency, fears, doubts, fatigue. If scandals and quarrels in the family are added to everything, then the diagnosis is obvious: a mentally unbalanced mother fills the child with irritation, anger and anger, which immediately affects his organs.

Supporters of the theory of energy connection also argue that there is no such thing as "caught a cold" or "caught a virus." A child can swim in ice water in March, and not even sneeze after. But only if the mother does not begin to worry about this. Or maybe catch a cold out of nowhere.

As soon as there is an announcement in the media about the fact that seasonal flu is raging, too anxious mothers begin to worry incredibly about their child, and of course, the child, according to the laws of the genre, will definitely get sick. Only those whose mothers know for sure that their baby will not get sick do not get sick. If such a child becomes ill, then everything goes very quickly and easily for him. That's it, another pharmacy client has been lost.

The mechanism of work is clear. If the mother has mental problems, or she cares too much about the health of the child, then he will be sick for sure. Any quarrels family conflicts and stress are also the cause of the inevitable illness of the child.

Everyone should remember one simple thing, disease is not a cause, it is a symptom. Everything that happens to your child is the result of disturbances in his energy field. It remains to find out where this failure occurred, at school, while communicating with friends, or whether he received it from you.

How to save a child from diseases

The immunity of the human body is much smarter than all the parents and doctors in the world. Do not bring down the temperature, the process going on in the body at an elevated temperature works better than any antiviral agent. Feeding the baby with pills, you damage the work of all internal processes that react to the cause of the development of the disease.

Why does hardening work in your opinion? It's not just about water and its properties, because the body is a self-training system. The body adapts to very different conditions, it is inherent in it from birth, but these abilities must be activated, for which hardening is used.

In a child who grew up in greenhouse conditions, the body is pampered, and the range of its functioning is very low, therefore, going beyond the familiar environment is fraught with results that cannot be predicted. For example, a hardened person may fall under the ice and nothing will happen to him, while another may experience hypothermia, because such low temperatures are outside his comfort zone.

sick child

If you have a distrust of this theory, then just check for yourself, fixing your conditions, domestic conflicts, and noting the condition of the child and his illness. If it doesn’t match, then either the child got stress somewhere on the side, or his unhardened body got cold.

2. The influence of dad on mom and child

The father is main man which affects the health of the family. Everything is very simple: the father manages the state of the mother, and the state of each family member depends on her. If a woman is constantly on edge, nervous, then this is entirely a flaw in the father of the family. As well as the illness of the child as a result of this.

The role of the father is not to yell at the mother, but to calm her down. Make her feel good, calm, easy and joyful. You can do this in different ways. Just talk to your wife, listen to her, give her a massage, make her laugh, entertain her. After all, this is your woman who relies on you. The whole world in the face of your family relies on your father.

If the father said, then it should be so, because the man controls the events in the house, and the wife controls the state of each family member. If the husband does not take responsibility for the state of his wife, does not hurry to relieve her stress, fears, anxiety and negativity, then absolutely everyone will get sick!

Because the state of a woman is reflected in each of her shares. Moreover, a woman can begin to manage the eventfulness, spending the energy of her husband on this. That's when the full twist comes. After all, a woman who is in a state of anxiety of fear and receives control over the eventfulness in her hands is not at all able to cope with everything correctly.

The father controls the eventfulness of his child with a word. Speaking with a child on some topic, he puts an image into his words, which is deposited with a seal on the child, because it programs his actions. If dad says: "you will be able", "you will do", "you will succeed", then it will be so. If the father does not say so to the child, then he, accordingly, will not succeed.

Why is the baby sick

The mother does not understand these subtleties. Especially if her state of anxiety has approached panic, then the female imagination begins to draw such pictures behind which it is not possible to see the eventfulness of the child, and she begins to tell him: “you will fall”, “you will get sick”, “you will break”, “spoil”, etc. .d.

Is it worth adding that everything that has been said will definitely happen to the child? And my mother later proudly declares that she knew so, and does not understand that she herself was the cause of what happened. That is why the father must program the eventfulness, but for this a man must have great strength, otherwise he may lose control, and we wrote above what this leads to.

By the way, in the same way, women "order" themselves parasites and alcoholics, in which they turn into generally normal men. These women begin to take responsibility for the eventfulness, becoming the head of the family.

Therefore, children are never brought up by the mother, only by the father. All the negativity that a woman gives out immediately produces negative energy in her, because she radiates exactly what she is talking about.

If a mother accuses a child of being so-and-so, she fills her child with bad things with her own hands, and even if the child is not really such, he will become one, armless, headless, sick, etc. Many people say that words are just words. If only it were really that simple.

Psychology of a child's illness

Each of us is ready to quickly shift all our mistakes onto our neighbor, husband, wife, child, exposing ourselves as white and fluffy. We talked about your responsibility above. It is your willingness to face with dignity the consequences of what you did with the Power that was in your hands.

If you don’t know anything about this or don’t want to know, then this is only a problem for you and your loved ones. Men should be careful to be responsible for their word, to give their wife care, comfort, affection and love. If the family is in a bad state, then the man is underperforming.

Children's diseases in most cases are inevitable. However, each parent would like to reduce their number or at least prevent the development of complications. How can you help if a child gets sick? How to treat a cold or SARS?

Cold in childhood occurs very often. Usually, this term also means ordinary SARS. How do these diseases differ, and what can be done as first aid?

SARS is caused by viruses. They can be very different:

• rhinovirus;
• adenovirus;
• parvovirus;
• influenza and parainfluenza;
• respiratory syncytial virus;
• enterovirus and others.

To get sick with SARS, contact with a sick person is necessary. Usually infection occurs by airborne droplets.

A cold is always preceded by hypothermia. It can develop due to being in a draft, walking in too light clothes.

Sometimes, on the contrary, parents dress the child warmly, and he quickly sweats, after which he freezes in wet clothes. Overheating is no less dangerous than hypothermia.

The result is a decrease in the body's defenses and the activation of conditionally pathogenic microflora. Most often, a cold is an exacerbation of chronic diseases, such as pharyngitis, tonsillitis, adenoiditis, otitis, bronchitis.

But sometimes hypothermia facilitates the penetration of the virus into the body, and the usual ARVI develops. What can be done if the child starts to get sick?

First aid

Every parent wants their baby to get well as soon as possible. And often they are ready to give the child the most expensive and most effective, in their opinion, drugs. From the pediatrician, many are also waiting for appropriate appointments - medicines for each symptom.

However, polypharmacy (excessive use of drugs) is not only not useful, but most often harmful to the child's body.

When children have the first symptoms of a cold, you need to remember about simple but effective measures and start with them.

First of all, you need to take care of the following points:

• ventilation.
• Humidification of the air in the apartment.
• Proper clothing.
• Moisturizing mucous membranes.
• Plentiful drink.
• Decrease in body temperature.

Airing

From temperature environment and its humidity depends on the course of the disease and its duration. You should always be more careful with children than with adults. Too warm and dry air contributes to overheating of their body.

This is especially dangerous when the temperature rises. It is also an excellent habitat for pathogenic viruses and bacteria. It is in dry air that they can live for a long time and retain the ability to reproduce.

In central heating conditions, it is not easy to influence the ambient temperature. The only way to achieve cooling and air circulation is ventilation. It is this method that can quickly and effectively reduce the concentration of microbes in the apartment. Airing will not only facilitate the course of the disease, but also protect other family members from infection.

Many parents and especially older generation they are afraid to ventilate the room, because being in a draft is dangerous even for a healthy child. It certainly is. And therefore, when the windows open, the sick baby must be transferred to another room.

How often should you ventilate? The more often this happens, the faster the concentration of pathogenic microbes decreases, and the less likely it is that the disease will proceed with complications.

The optimal temperature in the room when a child is ill ranges from 18 to 20 ° C. And it is better to let it be 17 ° C than 22 ° C.

Moisturizing

Microbes thrive in dry air, but high humidity prevents their normal movement. In addition, humidified air is good for breathing and mucous membranes even outside of illness. It is desirable that the humidity in the child's room be at least 70%. Even figures of 75–80% are preferable to 40–50%.

How to quickly and effectively increase the humidity of the air if the baby starts to get sick? Previously, pediatricians advised hanging wet diapers or towels on batteries. However, with the advent of indoor humidity meters - hygrometers - it became clear that these measures were ineffective. Humidity, if increased, was insignificant.

The most effective were devices called "humidifiers". Today's market offers parents wide selection these devices. They come from different manufacturers and sometimes differ significantly in price. However, even the cheapest humidifier normalizes air humidity faster than wet laundry. These instruments must be used in conjunction with hygrometers.

Also, if the child suddenly fell ill with a cold, it is advisable to wash the floors more often. On the one hand, this helps to humidify the air, and on the other hand, it effectively rids the room of dust in which microbes live.

Proper clothing

Previously, there was an opinion that if a child caught a cold, he should sweat. To do this, they put on warm pajamas and woolen socks, covered him with a thick blanket and gave him tea with raspberries. And the air in the room was warmed with the help of improvised means.

However, in case of illness, these measures are dangerous, especially if the baby has a fever. Warm tight clothing prevents the body from cooling and increases the fever.

But even if a sick child does not have hyperthermia, it is not worth overheating it. The air temperature in the room should be no higher than 20 ° C, and the clothes should correspond to it. Usually this is a home suit or pajamas with long sleeves from natural fabric. At a temperature of 20 ° C, it can be thin, cotton, and at 17–18 ° C, it can be denser, for example, from a baize. It is better to dress your baby warmer at a lower temperature than to undress at 25–30 °C.

Moisturizing mucous

Often from modern doctors you can hear recommendations for moisturizing mucous membranes with a cold. The well-known pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky speaks about this especially often in his programs and books.

Why is this measure so important? In addition to general immunity, which acts throughout the body, there is also a local one. Saliva and mucous secretions contain special antibodies that prevent pathogenic bacteria and viruses from penetrating deep into the body. They are the first line of defense.

But the less fluid in the mouth and nose, the lower the effectiveness of local immunity. With dry mucous membranes, it practically does not work.

First of all, parents need to prevent the drying of these zones. The child must receive enough liquid. In addition, you should pay attention to his toothpaste. Sometimes the wrong remedy contributes to the development of dry mouth.

However, the most effective measure is to moisten the mucous membranes with saline solutions.

Saline solutions

When a child gets a cold, what is the first thing to do? You need to go to the pharmacy for saline solution. In the future, they should always be at hand.

Ready saline solutions are very convenient to use. They often come in spray form. Some - for example, Salin - are sold in vials as a solution.

The main disadvantage of such drugs is their price. Often it is quite high. However, this does not mean that during the period of illness it is necessary to abandon the moistening of the mucous membranes.

In a pharmacy, you can buy a 0.9% sodium chloride solution, which is saline, and its price is quite affordable for most people.

If there is no opportunity to buy medicines, you can prepare the solution yourself. To do this, in one liter of warm boiled water dissolve a teaspoon of ordinary table salt. Then the liquid is poured into a vial, you can use a thoroughly washed container from vasoconstrictor drops for this.

The drier the mucous membranes of the mouth and nose, the more often they need to be irrigated. It is almost impossible to overdose saline solution.

The most famous ready-made preparations for moisturizing are:

• Humer.
• Lamisol.
• Salin.
• Aquamarine.

Plentiful drink

Drinking plenty of fluids when you have a cold is an excellent detoxifier. In addition, a large amount of warm liquid softens a dry cough and makes it easier to expectorate.

• Warm sweet tea.
• Fruit drinks and compotes at room temperature.
• Table or alkaline water without gas.
• Herbal teas such as chamomile.

Drinking should be just warm, not hot, otherwise it will burn and irritate the inflamed mucous membranes.

It is very important to drink a child during an illness, even if he does not want it too much. Parents should be offered a variety of drinks to choose from. In addition, the drink should be sweetened. For this purpose, you can use sugar or honey.

In case of illness, the energy consumption in the baby's body increases significantly, and its universal source is just glucose.

In conditions of sugar deficiency, the metabolism starts in a different way, and the blood begins to accumulate ketone bodies. Then they are excreted in the urine, as a result of which it acquires the characteristic smell of acetone.

Acetonemia worsens the condition of the child and causes the following symptoms:

• nausea and vomiting;
• weakness, severe lethargy;
• lack of appetite.

Prevention and treatment of acetonemia is a plentiful sweet drink.

Temperature drop

The first symptom of an onset of the disease is often fever. Many parents are wary of hyperthermia and seek to rid the baby of fever as soon as possible. However, this is not always necessary.

An increase in temperature is referred to as a protective reaction. At the same time, interferon is actively produced in the body, which destroys viruses. As soon as hyperthermia stops, the production of this natural protector stops.

It is necessary to reduce the temperature when it worsens the child's condition. This usually happens when the thermometer reads 38.5–39 °C. Some babies do not tolerate fever even at 37.8-38.0 ° C. In this case, the fight against hyperthermia must begin earlier.

Regular airing and cooling of the air contributes to the normalization of body temperature. Warm water baths can also be used. It is important that it is not cool or cold, as this will cause vasospasm and increase hyperthermia.

Do not rub babies with alcohol or vodka - alcohol will easily penetrate the skin and begin to poison the body. Water-vinegar wipes in children are also not welcome.

However, even with a common cold, the temperature can rise very quickly. And in this case, antipyretic drugs can not be dispensed with.

Antipyretic drugs

In childhood, two main drugs are allowed to reduce temperature. These are ibuprofen (Nurofen) and paracetamol (Efferalgan).

Analgin in children is not recommended for use due to the toxic effect on the blood system. But, despite this, it continues to be used in hospitals and ambulance teams when a quick antipyretic effect is required. And yet, this medicine has no place in the home medicine cabinet.

Previously, a drug containing nimesulide was widely used in children. The children's suspension was called "Nise". Nimesulide has established itself as a highly effective antipyretic, however, kidney toxicity observed in some studies during treatment has led to a ban on this medicine in children.

The most dangerous is the previously popular Aspirin. It has been proven that the treatment of colds, SARS and influenza with this remedy for children under 12 years of age is fraught with the development of Reye's syndrome, a formidable and extremely dangerous liver damage. Currently, pediatricians do not use Aspirin at all in their practice.

There are a number of other medicines that should not be used at the onset of a cold in babies.

What other drugs are undesirable when the baby is just starting to get sick? First of all, these are antiviral agents. Currently, there are no etiotropic drugs in the world that would effectively fight SARS. Perhaps the only effective remedy is only oseltamivir (Tamiflu), but the indications for its appointment are quite narrow, and self-medication is unacceptable to them.

Antiallergic medicines for the common cold are also meaningless, although they can often be seen in the prescriptions of some pediatricians.

Often, pharmacists recommend that parents purchase immunostimulants or immunomodulators that will help the child quickly cope with the infection. However, there are currently no really effective drugs of this direction, as well as antiviral ones. Most often, they have only a psychotherapeutic and calming effect on parents.

It should also be remembered that drug intervention in the normal immunity of a child is unacceptable, and the harm from it is much more than good.

At the beginning of a cold, you do not need tablets and cough syrups. It is possible to suppress the cough reflex only with whooping cough, in all other cases it is dangerous.

If you prescribe funds to thin the sputum and its better discharge, this will most likely increase the cough.

Antibiotics

Do you need antibiotics for a cold? These drugs do not act on viruses and such treatment is meaningless. In addition, the uncontrolled prescription of antibiotics in a sick child more than once leads to the development of drug resistance of microbes and suppression of immunity.

The doctor thinks about these medicines if on the fourth day of illness the condition of a small patient only worsens. But even this is not an indication for starting antibiotic therapy. Only the data of an objective examination and laboratory tests or radiography are important.

When the baby gets sick, you can and should help him overcome the infection. However, in most cases, this does not require the appointment of medications.