Safest Way to Fight Children's Cold

It is the time of the year again when colds and coughs quickly spread around. There are so many misconceptions about common colds and the sad thing is, these erroneous beliefs are so “common”. Many are mistaken that some colds were caused by bacteria, but in fact, colds are actually caused by viruses rather than a bacteria.

For children, and adults too, in order to win the battle against cold, they must first strengthen their immune system before it strikes them. Since cold is caused by a virus, antibiotics won’t help. There was even a widrawal of the over-the-counter cold medicines for children under 2 years old.

“First and foremost, we want parents to know that no matter what, most viral infections will get better in threee to five days and go away completely within two weeks,” says Dr. Dennis Kuo, a pediatrician at John’s Hopkins Children’s Center. “The second thing they need to remember is fluids, fluids, fluids.”

Hopkins Children’s doctors offer the following advice to parents:

• Give your child plenty of fluids.
• Avoid giving straight water to children under 6 months because their kidneys are not mature enough to handle too much water.
• To help relieve congestion, use saline nasal drops up to four times a day and a cool-mist humidifier at night.
• Use baby acetaminophen to relieve high fever in infants older than 3 months.
• Use children’s ibuprofen to take down high fever in children over 6 months. Typically, a temperature over 101 is considered a high fever, but tolerance varies from child to child. Follow your gut on this one.
• Don’t over-wrap a feverish infant and don’t cover the face and head. Over-wrapping prevents proper cooling.

Call a pediatrician if:

• Your child is younger than 3 months and has a fever over 100.4 when taken rectally.
• Your child over 3 months has a fever higher than 104 when taken rectally.
• Your child hasn’t had a wet diaper in six hours, a sign of dehydration. Other signs of dehydration include dry mouth, fussiness and producing few or no tears when crying.
• Your child’s symptoms don’t improve in three to five days.
• Your child is lethargic, particularly with NO fever present.
• Your child is unusually cranky and does not calm down when picked up and held.
• Your child’s breathing is rapid or labored.
• Your child refuses to drink.

And as a suggestion for the parents, just let your kids be active! As long as they are healthy, your child’s immune system can fight the cold on its own.

sources:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/86885.php

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

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