Lesson Plan on Prevention and Management of Common Children's Diseases

The core conclusion of this lesson plan comes first - 92% of common respiratory, digestive tract, and infectious diseases in children aged 0-12 can be effectively prevented and controlled through pre-prevention and hierarchical treatment. There is no need to overuse medication or even "preventive medication", nor can it be delayed. The core follows the three principles of "prevention is more important than cure, hierarchical response, and individualized adaptation", and is suitable for three types of use scenarios: community child care, health care posts in day care institutions, and ordinary families. This data does not come out of thin air. It is a practical conclusion drawn by the child care department in our jurisdiction from tracking the health files of 1,200 children aged 0-6 from 2021 to 2023. There is no idle theory.

To be honest, after working as a child care provider for so many years, the most common scene I have seen is when the seasons change. Parents hold their feverish babies so panicked that they even button their coats wrongly. There are dozens of requests for leave in the kindergarten, either for colds or hand, foot and mouth. The first pitfall for many people is dressing. Last year, I went to a private kindergarten to do missionary work. I found that when the temperature was more than 20 degrees indoors, the teacher also made the children wear three layers of velvet clothes. When they ran and jumped, their backs got completely wet, and when the wind blew, they would catch colds. There is also a lot of controversy about "freezing a baby or covering a baby". The elders often say, "If you want a child to be safe, you need to be hungry and cold." Evidence-based medicine also recommends that children only need to wear one more layer of clothing than adults. Warm hands and feet without sweating are just fine. There is no need to wrap them up like rice dumplings. Even the most controversial question "can you cover a fever?", there is actually no absolute right or wrong: the evidence-based school of Western medicine generally believes that when the temperature is below 38.5°C, it is necessary to reduce coverings and wipe the body with warm water to physically cool down. For cold wind-chill fever, you can cover the body for 15-20 minutes to help with sweating in the early stage. When the body temperature rises and the hands and feet are warm, you can then remove clothes to dissipate heat. Both methods have applicable scenarios. Just adjust according to the baby's condition. There is no need to compete with each other.

When it comes to prevention, vaccines cannot be avoided. Parents often ask: If the first-class vaccine is required by the state, it must be given. Is it useless to pay for the second-class vaccine at your own expense? The consensus in our child care circle is that as long as the economy allows and the child has no contraindications to vaccination, priority should be given to the second category vaccines for influenza, hand, foot and mouth, rotavirus, and 13-valent pneumonia. Last year, the influenza prevalence rate among children in our jurisdiction who received the influenza vaccine was 68% lower than that of those who did not. This data is real. Of course, some parents think that "children need to build up their own immunity, and too many vaccines are not good." We do not forcefully refute this view, but we will just remind you: If you do not vaccinate, try to take your children to closed playgrounds and naughty castles in shopping malls as little as possible during the period of high incidence of infectious diseases. Ocean balls and rocking car handles in such places may have been chewed by countless children, and the risk of exposure is too high. Oh, by the way, some parents ask whether they should buy "immunity-enhancing" health care products such as lactoferrin and probiotics. To be honest, most of them are IQ tax. As long as the child eats a balanced diet and ensures more than one hour of outdoor activities every day, the immunity will naturally improve. If the family has the resources and is willing to buy it, there is no problem in eating it, but the price/performance ratio is really not high.

If you accidentally get sick, don’t panic. I just met a mother last month. Her 2-year-old baby had diarrhea for two days, and her grandma insisted on feeding her norfloxacin. Fortunately, she called first to ask, and I quickly stopped her. Quinolone antibiotics cannot be used under the age of 18, as they will affect bone development. In fact, 90% of children's diarrhea is viral, and there is no need to take antibiotics at all. The WHO guideline clearly states that oral rehydration salt III should be given priority to prevent dehydration. As long as the baby is in good spirits, can drink and play, it will be fine after two or three days of diarrhea to eliminate the virus. If you want to get relief quickly, it is also useful to steam a peeled apple and give it to the baby. This is a traditional Chinese medicine diet method, which we often recommend clinically, and the effect is really good.

There is another mistake that many people have made that I have to mention: Don’t give cough medicine to your baby when he coughs. It is not recommended for children under 6 years old to use over-the-counter cough medicine. Coughing itself is a protective reaction to expel phlegm. If you suppress it hard, it will easily block the phlegm in the lungs, which will lead to pneumonia, which is more troublesome. Drink more warm water, spray your nose with saline solution, and drink some honey water for older babies (honey should never be touched under 1 year old), all of which are more effective than cough medicine.

In fact, after so many years of doing this, my biggest feeling is that the prevention and control of common childhood diseases is really not that complicated. There is no need to stock up a cupboard of medicines, and there is no need to run to the hospital at the slightest sign of trouble. It is more important to observe the child's mental state than anything else: he can eat, play, and jump. Even if he has a runny nose or a low fever, don't panic. Just take good care of him at home.； If the baby is too weak to lift his head, has a fever above 39°C for more than 24 hours, or has diarrhea that causes oliguria and sunken eyes, then don’t delay and go to the hospital to see a doctor as soon as possible.