Children cough, not only parents and children cannot sleep well, if the child coughs badly, parents will also worry if they are infectedpneumonia. What exactly is pneumonia? How do I know if my child’s cough is caused by pneumonia?
The child has itpneumonia? Three-symptom judgment
Pneumonia is inflammation of the lung tissue. Pneumonia can be caused by a viral infection, a bacterial infection, or, less commonly, a fungal infection, and most childhood pneumonia is caused by a viral infection.
How is bacterial pneumonia different from viral pneumonia?Bacteria-infected pneumonia is usually limited to local areas, such as the lower left lung, while virus-infected pneumonia spreads mainly to both lungs, such as pneumonia caused by the influenza virus or the new coronavirus. Of course, there are exceptions, such as pneumonia caused by atypical bacterial infections.
How does pneumonia spread? Like the common cold, germs are generally spread through the saliva that people cough. In rich and developed countries, children are far less likely to contract pneumonia than in developing countries, because widespread vaccination against pneumonia has greatly reduced pneumonia cases, hospitalizations and deaths in children under the age of five. years.
In addition to bacterial infection, another cause of pneumonia in young children is aspiration pneumonia. It refers to the patient choking and inhaling the acidic substances in the stomach into the lungs, causing the bacteria in the stomach to infect the lungs. Aspiration pneumonia is common in children with frequent acid reflux, cranial nerves, or chewing problems.
Is pneumonia seasonal? Like all coughs, pneumonia is more common in the cold winter months. There can be many reasons for this, such as the flu virus is more active in winter, the virus spreads faster in low humidity conditions, and in dry winter, the chance of people gathering indoors in cold weather is greater. and so on.
How to tell if a child’s cough is pneumonia?It has three major symptoms: fever, cough, and shortness of breath.Newborns may have no obvious symptoms, such as reduced milk supply, uncomfortable crying, and some even have a fever and no other symptoms. Older children such as those over the age of 10 can experience chest pains.
Is pneumonia a dangerous lung disease?
Because many viruses or bacteria can cause pneumonia, treating a child’s pneumonia must first determine whether it is a bacterial or viral infection. Generally, during the doctor’s clinical auscultation exam, you can hear if there is a murmur in the baby’s lungs, so you know if it is local or non-local pneumonia.
The bacteria that infect infants, children between the ages of 1 and 5, and children over the age of 5 are different, and doctors can prescribe antibiotics for different ages. But antibiotics or anti-inflammatory drugs only work against bacterial pneumonia, not viral infections. This is why virus-infected pneumonia can generally only be recovered by immunity.
How do I know if my child’s pneumonia is severe enough to require hospitalization?
• Observe the baby’s breathing rate, which is most accurate when the baby calms down or falls asleep. For example, babies should breathe less than 60 times per minute within 2 months, 50 times between 2 months and 1 year, and 40 times less between 1 and 5 years.
• In addition to the respiratory rate, observe the rise and fall of the child’s chest as they breathe and if the breastbone (between the ribs) drops as they breathe.
• Babies wheezing when they breathe and sometimes rocking their heads back and forth are all signs of breathing difficulties.
• If the baby’s lips turn purple and lack oxygen.
If the above is not easy for parents to judge, see if the child has an appetite for eating and drinking without fever,Check your baby for chapped lips, how often he urinates, etc. If the face is pale, the spirit is not good and the child is not as active and active as usual, it may be that the child is hypoxic and dehydrated.If it is a serious condition, you need to see a doctor or go to the hospital immediately .
If the doctor has prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs, pneumonia caused by a general bacterial infection, if the anti-inflammatory drugs are effective, the symptoms will be relieved within 2 to 3 days, that is, the fever will subside and shortness of breath will also recover. The cough will take longer to recover.
In developed countries, in fact, very few children are seriously ill with pneumonia and need to be hospitalized. Of course, if the child has lung diseases, such as asthma, cerebral palsy, and babies with feeding tubes, special care should be taken. The most effective way to prevent this is to vaccinate the baby in time.
About the author:Huang Yanyaodoctor
Huang Yanyao(Grace Yen Hoong Ooi, MD), MD, Pediatrics, Clinical Professor and Physician of Pediatrics at Lower Cornell Hospital and NYU Lutheran Hospital, New YorkHappiness PediatricsDirector of the clinic. Graduated from Harvard Medical School and McGill University in Canada.Happy pediatric clinic website
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Editor in charge: Li Jia ◇
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