Winter Season Children and Colds

Winter Season Children and Colds

The season is changing, the temperature dropping and everybody, especially children tend to catch common colds.

Is your child sneezing, coughing, and complaining about a sore throat? There's not a parent on the planet who hasn't been there. Find out how to keep those cold symptoms in check and prevent your kid from getting sick the next time.

What Is a Cold?

More than 200 different viruses can cause this infection, but the rhinovirus is the most common culprit. Antibiotics, which fight bacteria, won't treat your child's cold.

Except in newborns, colds in healthy children aren't dangerous. They usually go away in 4 to 10 days without treatment.

ParkwayHealth is a member of Parkway Pantai Group. Parkway Pantai is one of Asia’s largest integrated private healthcare groups. It operates 31 hospitals with more than 6,000 beds in Singapore, Malaysia, India, China, Brunei and United Arab Emirates.In 2005, ParkwayHealth opened its first medical center in Shanghai, bringing world-renowned quality healthcare to China. Through the acquisition of World Link Group in 2007, ParkwayHealth becomes Shanghai’s largest foreign-owned medical network.

What to Expect

When your child gets a cold, it starts when he has a general feeling of not being well, often followed by a sore throat.

At the beginning, the sore throat is due to a buildup of mucus. Later, your child may get a postnasal drip -- when the mucus runs down the back of his nose to the throat.

As your child's cold gets worse, he may wake up with symptoms like these:

?Watery mucus in the nose

?Sneezing

?Feeling of tiredness

?Fever (sometimes)

?Sore throat

?Cough

A cold virus can affect your child's sinuses, throat, bronchial tubes, and ears. He may also have diarrhea and vomiting.

At first your child may be irritable and complain of a headache and feeling stuffed up. After a while, the mucus coming out of his nose may turn darker and thicker.

How Many Colds Will My Child Get?

Kids who are preschool age have around nine colds a year, while kindergartners can have 12 a year. Adolescents and adults get about two to four a year.

Cold season runs from September until March or April, so children usually get sick most often during these months.

How Do You Treat a Cold?

?Consider using honey for coughs or sore throat for kids, but only if they are older than age 1.

?Try saline drops or spray to clear thick mucus out of your child's nose.

?Give your child plenty of liquids to increase hydration and help thin mucus.

?Use a humidifier in your child's room to add moisture to the dry air.

?If your child wheezes, call your doctor. Other treatments may be needed to help open airways.

?To ease congestion, keep the child's head elevated when resting. Are Cold Medicines Safe for Kids?

The FDA and drugmakers say you shouldn't give over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to children under 4. These include things like:

?Cough suppressants (dextromethorphan or DM)

?Cough expectorants (guaifenesin)

?Decongestants (pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine)

?Antihistamines (such as brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine maleate, diphenhydramine, and others)

These drugs are the active ingredients in many brands of kids' cold and cough medicines.

When to See the Doctor

Talk to the pediatrician or ENT doctor if your child doesn't get better

after a few days. Also call if he has a high fever, vomiting, chills and shakes, a hacking cough, or extreme fatigue. These may be signs of

something more severe, like the flu.

Also watch for signs of complications of the flu, such as pneumonia.

Symptoms include a low-grade fever, coughing up mucus, achiness, and tiredness.

Finally, it's a good idea to make an appointment to talk to your healthcare professional to get an accurate diagnosis and together develop a customized treatment plan to take care of that pain in your back.