Experience on prevention and care of common childhood diseases

The priority of prevention of common childhood diseases is always much higher than treatment. The core of nursing care is never to "make the child get better immediately", but to help him survive the course of the disease smoothly and reduce complications. You can neither rush to the doctor for excessive medical treatment nor delay the disease. There is no absolute standard answer to raising a child. What is suitable for your child is the right one.

Last month, there was an influenza outbreak in my child's class, and 11 of the 30 children fell ill. There was a huge quarrel among the parents. Some people said that they had to go to the hospital immediately for fluid infusion otherwise they would develop pneumonia. Others said that the influenza was a viral infection and could be tolerated for a week without taking medicine. Both sides had their own reasons. In the end, one child had to endure it until his fever reached 39.8 and he was taken to the emergency room. Another child had only a mild illness, but his parents gave him four kinds of compound cold medicines, but he developed a drug-induced rash. In fact, I encounter similar arguments every day in the emergency room. Many parents are either bound by the statement "can't give medicine to their children", or they are wrapped in the anxiety of "what to do if they get burned" and use medicine indiscriminately. Instead, they forget that there is actually a lot of room for flexibility in the middle.

Take the most common fever care as an example. The older generation always said that you should cover your sweat, and the fever will go away. Now the evidence-based people on the Internet say that you should never cover your body, and you should open it to dissipate heat. I used to think that evidence-based treatment is the truth, until I saw a 3-year-old baby last winter. At the beginning of the fever, he shivered and cried. In fact, there is nothing absolutely right or wrong? The temperature regulation center of young babies is not well developed, so covering up sweat can easily cause heat stroke. However, when older children feel cold in the early stages of fever, it is better to cover them with a thin blanket and wait until the body temperature reaches the peak and start to feel hot, then appropriately reduce clothing to dissipate heat, which is more suitable for the child's feelings.

Speaking of which, I myself have fallen into the pitfalls of the same manual. When my son got rash for the first time, I had only been working for two years. I was so panicked that I took her to the hospital in the middle of the night. The senior director of our department held me down and scolded me: "You are a pediatrician yourself. Don't you know that rash in children is caused by heat?" My baby can still laugh with you when her fever reaches 39 degrees. Why are you so anxious? Just go home and give him plenty of water to keep an eye on your health. ”It was then that I realized that all care guidelines are only references, and the core indicator is always the child's mental state, not the number on the thermometer. I have seen children squatting on the ground playing with Lego when their fever reached 39.5 degrees Celsius, and I have also seen children whose fever reached 38 degrees Celsius and were unable to open their eyes, and had been combined with bacterial infections. If the temperature line is stuck, medication administration will easily delay things.

Speaking of prevention, I used to follow the "Exquisite Parenting" guide on the Internet. I mopped the floor at home with disinfectant every day, disinfected my baby's toys once a day, and didn't even let the sand downstairs be touched. As a result, when my baby was six months old, he got rotavirus for the first time when he went away for a whole week. Later, after reading the latest children's immunization guidelines, I learned that a too clean sterile environment will affect children's immune development. Now my family only requires careful hand washing before meals and after using the toilet. My son occasionally plays in the mud and touches the puppies downstairs, so he only needs to wash his hands when he goes home. In the past year, he has become less sick. Last time there was an outbreak of norovirus in the class, nothing happened to him. Of course, it does not mean that the dirtier is, the better. During epidemic seasons such as hand, foot and mouth and influenza, it is better to go less often to crowded places and get all the necessary vaccines. This is the most cost-effective way of prevention. Those who advocate "natural infection is better than vaccines" are really not advisable. I have seen too many babies with severe hand, foot and mouth, and they suffered much more than vaccinations.

Many parents also ask me if my child should take antibiotics if he has a cold. Let me put it this way, I have seen too many parents in the emergency department who feed themselves cephalosporin when they catch a cold. In fact, 90% of children's upper respiratory tract infections are caused by viruses. Antibiotics are useless at all and will destroy the intestinal flora. However, if the blood test shows that it is indeed a bacterial infection, or it has been combined with otitis media or pneumonia, then you must use it in sufficient amount and not force it. For example, last month I encountered a baby suffering from suppurative tonsillitis. The parents said that antibiotics had side effects and refused to feed him. After carrying it for three days, the baby's ears burned and his ears hurt. It was found that he had otitis media, so he had to take medicine for a longer period of time.

In fact, after so many years, my biggest feeling is that you don’t have to be too nervous about raising a baby. It’s normal for a child to catch colds and fevers five or six times a year before going to kindergarten. It’s like playing a game to upgrade your dungeon. Every time you get sick, your immune system becomes stronger. As parents, we don’t need to force ourselves to become half-doctors. As long as we can understand the condition of our children and know what situations can be observed at home and what situations must go to the hospital immediately, it is enough. After all, what we have to take care of are active and active children, not a standard template of a care guide.