Prevention and management of common childhood diseases

The core of the prevention and management of common childhood diseases has never been the pursuit of "zero disease", but the reduction of the risk of severe illness and complications through scientific daily care, the use of graded response plans after the onset of disease to avoid excessive medical treatment, and ultimately helping children gradually establish a complete autoimmune barrier. This is the most practical conclusion I have come to after 8 years of experience in pediatric clinical practice and seeing tens of thousands of young patients.

Last week, I met a grandma who brought her 3-year-old Maodou to the doctor. She said that the baby had caught colds eight times in the past six months. She was given cephalosporin and antiviral oral liquid every time he had a runny nose. Even if other children in the community coughed, she would rush to take the baby home and stay indoors. As a result, the baby was more likely to get sick than his peers. You see, this is a typical pitfall of "over-protection and over-medication". Many parents always think that it is best for their children to completely isolate their children from germs and suppress them as soon as they appear. Instead, they forget that immunity is developed through repeated encounters with germs.

When it comes to this, some people are definitely going to argue. Didn't the older generation always say, "You should dress your baby warmly so that it doesn't freeze, and if you get sick, take medicine to suppress it quickly so that it doesn't get serious." In fact, this is not entirely wrong, nor is it entirely right. Take the need to cover a fever as an example. The traditional parenting concept of "covering sweat to reduce fever" is applicable when the baby has just started to have a fever, has cold hands and feet, and is shivering. At this time, the baby's body temperature is still rising. Covering a thin blanket and wearing a thin coat can reduce the discomfort, but when the baby's fever reaches its peak and the hands and feet become numb, When your face is hot or red, it is dangerous if you continue to cover it - the temperature regulation center of children under 6 years old is not fully developed. Excessive covering of heat can lead to dehydration at worst, or heat-covering syndrome. This is also a point repeatedly emphasized by evidence-based medicine. Both statements have applicable scenarios, and there is no need to argue who is right and who is wrong.

In fact, for most common children's diseases, such as colds, autumn diarrhea, hand, foot and mouth, etc., the core of prevention is really not to disinfect every day and not let children go out to play. "Aseptic parenting" was quite popular in the past two years. There was a parent who used disinfectant wipes to wipe the slide in the community three times even if his child touched it. He mopped the floor twice a day with 84. As a result, the child got hives when he was 2 years old and could not get better. After checking the allergens, he found out that he was allergic to disinfectants. Moreover, because he was exposed to too few environmental microorganisms, his immunity was weaker than that of children of the same age. The current clinical consensus is that being a little dirty is good for your baby. As long as you wash your baby with running water and soap for 20 seconds before eating, using the toilet, and after touching public toys, vaccinate on time with Class I and II vaccines, eat a balanced diet, and ensure 1-2 hours of outdoor activities every day, you can avoid more than 80% of the risks of common diseases.

Don’t panic if you are infected. Many parents run to the hospital as soon as they see their child has a fever. In fact, you can make a preliminary judgment first. My own child got the flu last winter and had a fever of 39.2°C. My parents were so anxious that they had to send him to the hospital overnight. I saw that he was in good spirits and could eat and drink and play with building blocks, so I fed him acetaminophen and rehydrated him, and he recovered in three days. Of course, we don’t have to force everyone to carry it. If your baby is listless, short of breath, continues to vomit, has a high fever that doesn’t go down for more than 24 hours, or even has febrile convulsions, don’t hesitate to go to the hospital immediately. Here I would also like to talk about the controversial issue of "whether to give antibiotics to babies". Many people think that antibiotics are a scourge when they are mentioned, and some people think that antibiotics will get better quickly. In fact, as long as you follow the doctor's instructions and use them according to the course of treatment, antibiotics will not cause any irreversible harm to the baby. On the contrary, if you don't use them when they should be used, or if you reduce the dosage and stop taking them on your own, it will easily lead to drug resistance. Don't go to extremes on this point.

To be honest, there is no need to pursue perfection in raising children. I have seen too many parents blame themselves because their children occasionally catch a cold. It is completely unnecessary. You don’t need to follow a certain parenting theory. When others say, “No medicine at all,” you just stick to it. When others say, “Take medicine as soon as you have symptoms,” you just feed it blindly. Observing your baby’s condition is better than anything else—after all, every time you get a minor illness, your baby’s immune system is fighting and upgrading.