The kid coughs. Parents see bronchitis in the child, the signs of which they already recognize, since the baby is not ill for the first time. Do you need to see a doctor or you can fight the disease yourself with the help of medical and folk remedies?
Cough in a child
If the child has a cough, parents should not show any initiative. The doctor must confirm that it is bronchitis in a child whose signs and symptoms are sometimes ambiguous. Even if the parents are 100% sure of the disease that they have already encountered, it is not worth neglecting the opinion of a specialist. The pediatrician listens to the baby’s chest with a stethoscope and draws conclusions based on the examination. Let the relatives know how the disease proceeds, but without knowledge of the nature of bronchitis, adequate treatment cannot be prescribed. It may be necessary to additionally take the child an X-ray to make sure that it is not pneumonia.
What is bronchitis?
Bronchitis is any damage to the bronchi, regardless of why it occurred. A cough may appear after a bacterial or viral infection, due to an allergy, when exposed to certain toxic substances.
Sometimes bronchitis occurs as the underlying disease. In some cases, coughing is a side symptom of some childhood infections, such as whooping cough.
The disease can be classified as follows:
- acute bronchitis;
- obstructive;
- acute bronchiolitis - inflammation of the small bronchi.
How can bronchitis be distinguished from other diseases ? Symptoms in children Komarovsky, a famous Ukrainian pediatrician, described as follows:
- bronchitis begins with a dry cough and exhausts the patient at night;
- cough changes shape and gradually becomes wet;
- fever and headache are characteristic for the onset of the disease;
- the cough lasts several weeks, or even more than a month.
Bronchitis treatment
The main thing a doctor should understand when diagnosing bronchitis in a child whose signs are clearly manifested is the cause of the disease. Each form of bronchitis is treated purely individually.
Antibiotics and antibacterial agents, medications to lower the temperature may be needed. Young children can be given syrup syrup or rectal suppositories.
Then, antitussive drugs are required, which at the initial stage should combat dry cough, and then help in diluting sputum and with its discharge.
As a remedy for dry cough, syrups "Sinecode", "Herbion", "Stoptusin" are used. To facilitate expectoration take drugs "Mukaltin", "Ambrobene" and others. The choice of any drug is determined by the condition and age of the child.
If bronchitis is allergic, antihistamines are used and they try to calculate and remove the allergen. To do this, they analyze what has appeared at home in the last 2 months? They bought a toy of incomprehensible origin, new bedding, put a T-shirt with a bright smelling pattern on the baby, purchased an unfamiliar washing powder?
Disease prevention
Evgeny Olegovich Komarovsky believes that the prevention of bronchitis in children is a very important side in recovery.
- The air in the room should never be dry, for this you should buy a humidifier or put a basin with water under the battery.
- The room is regularly ventilated.
- You need to walk with a healthy child in the fresh air and not along the gassed streets, but in the nearest park or square.
- Make sure that the baby’s nose is not blocked, clean it of mucus.
- Vegetables and fruits are required in the baby’s nutrition.
And most importantly: when a child has bronchitis, there are signs of the disease on his face, it is necessary to treat the disease, even if it occurs without temperature. Running bronchitis can go into obstructive, and then cause bronchial asthma. Getting rid of this serious illness is not so simple.