15 lessons on prevention and care of common childhood diseases

The core value of these 15 lessons is to help ordinary parents without a medical background master the logic of coping with 80% of children's high-frequency discomfort. They don't have to panic and run to the emergency room all night when their children have a fever or cough, and they don't have to be misled by miscellaneous folk remedies on the Internet. This can not only make their children suffer less, but also avoid 90% of common nursing misunderstandings.

To be honest, I have been in a lot of pitfalls before. When my baby's fever reached 39 degrees for the first time when he was over 1 year old, my mother insisted on wrapping her in a thick quilt to cover her sweat and said, "Just let it go." I checked on the Internet and said that she must physically cool down and wipe her body with alcohol. The two of them argued for a long time and almost got into an argument. The head nurse of pediatrics whom I met later told me that both of these statements are correct, but they should correspond to different stages: when the body temperature rises, when the children have cold hands and feet and are shivering, they must keep themselves warm appropriately and do not blow the cold air while being naked. ； When the body temperature rises to its peak and the child's hands and feet become hot and the face becomes red and starts to sweat, it is necessary to wear less clothing and cover the body to help dissipate heat. It is absolutely forbidden to rub the body with alcohol. Children's skin is delicate and prone to alcohol poisoning. Oh yes, this is also the first thing to be explained in the first two classes: fever care + febrile seizure response. After all, this is the scene where parents are most likely to panic.

Last week, I met the mother downstairs. Her baby suddenly went into convulsions while playing in the community. She was so frightened that her hands were shaking and she wanted to put her fingers in the baby's mouth. I happened to be there to help her lay the baby on its side, unbutton the collar, and clean up the saliva from the mouth. She recovered within two minutes. Later, I went to the hospital and was diagnosed with febrile convulsions. The doctor also said that the treatment was correct. The old methods of pinching the ejaculation and stuffing things are no longer recommended. On the contrary, it is easy to cause secondary injuries. If the convulsion lasts for more than 5 minutes, just call 120. Most cases will resolve on their own within 3 minutes.

In the next few classes, we will clarify respiratory-related problems one by one. Don’t rush to give cough medicine as soon as you hear your child coughing. Here are different ways to deal with it: Western medicine guidelines clearly state that children under 6 years old are not recommended to use over-the-counter antitussives. Coughing itself is the body’s protective response to excrete secretions. Trying to stop the cough will block phlegm in the airway, which can easily aggravate inflammation. ； Traditional Chinese medicine will differentiate between coughs caused by cold and heat, and coughs caused by colds with white phlegm and runny nose. Roasted oranges and ginger and brown sugar water will relieve the cough. If those coughs have yellow phlegm, red tongue, and sore throat, steamed oranges and stewed pears will be more effective. You can choose according to your own needs. There is no need to argue about right or wrong. There is also the difference between the common cold and the flu. The common cold usually has a low fever and you are in good spirits. You just need to drink more water and rest for a week. The flu often causes a sudden high fever above 39 degrees, body aches, and a child who is too wilted to move. It is best to take oseltamivir within 48 hours, which can shorten the course of the disease. Oh, and yes, there is also the diagnosis of bronchitis and pneumonia. There is no need to panic for infusion as soon as the doctor says bronchitis. As long as the baby is in good spirits, can eat and play, oral medicine + atomization will be very effective. If there is shortness of breath, sunken chest, or purple lips, it is not too late to consider infusion.

I met a parent at the outpatient clinic before. His child had had diarrhea for two days and asked for antidiarrheal medicine as soon as he came in. He said that the diarrhea was too painful. In fact, this is also a big misunderstanding in nursing care. In the early stage of diarrhea, the body is expelling germs, but trying to stop diarrhea will keep the germs in the body, which can easily lead to more serious infections. The core of diarrhea care is always to prevent dehydration. Oral rehydration salt III is the first choice. Mix a small amount in proportion and feed it multiple times. It is more effective than any anti-diarrheal medicine. This part also includes care for constipation. Before, I fed my baby with constipation honey water several times. Later I learned that babies under 1 year old should never touch honey. There is a risk of botulism poisoning. I was really scared. Use Kaiselu to stop constipation. Adjust your diet first, eat more prunes, dragon fruit, apples with skin, and drink more water. If you really can't pass it, use it once in a while, and you won't become dependent.

Many parents are most afraid of their baby getting a rash. If a baby between 6 months and 2 years old has a high fever without warning and then develops a red rash all over his body after the fever subsides for three days, it is basically an emergency rash in young children. No medicine or antibiotics are needed. The rash will go away on its own in two or three days without leaving scars. Don’t mess with the baby. There are also herpangina and hand, foot and mouth, which occur frequently every spring and autumn. They are from the same virus family. If your child suddenly complains of a sore throat, drooling, or refuses to eat, open his mouth to see if there are any small herpes on the roof of his mouth. If he has hand, foot and mouth, he will also develop a rash on the palms and soles of his feet. Both are self-limiting diseases. As long as there are no serious signs (such as persistent high fever, low spirits, vomiting, and convulsions), home care can cure the disease within a week. Antibiotics are useless against viruses, so don’t feed them randomly.

Nowadays, more and more children have allergies. These classes will also explain allergic rhinitis and eczema thoroughly. Many parents treat their child's runny nose as a cold, and taking cold medicine for half a month is not good. In fact, if the child sneezes morning and night, rubs his nose and eyes, and has runny nose for more than a week, it is basically allergic rhinitis. Don't give cold medicine randomly, just wash the nose with physiological sea salt water to avoid allergens. The core of eczema care is moisturizing. Mild eczema can be relieved by thickly applying moisturizing cream 3-5 times a day. For severe eczema, follow the doctor's advice and use weak hormone ointments. Don't believe in any purely natural and hormone-free folk remedies. Many so-called folk remedies secretly add powerful hormones, which is not good for babies. Oh, let’s talk about the controversy about probiotics here. Current research only proves that probiotics have a clear effect on early stage viral diarrhea and antibiotic-related diarrhea. There is insufficient evidence on the effect of probiotics on eczema, constipation, and allergies. Don’t treat it as a universal health product for your children to take every day.

The last few lessons are all about skills that can be used in daily life: how to treat mosquito bites without leaving scars, how to disinfect the skin if you fall and scratch it without putting a band-aid on it, don’t raise your head when you have a nosebleed, lower your head and pinch the sides of the nose. These are things that may seem small but are easy to do wrong when you encounter them.

In fact, after sorting out the contents of these 15 lessons, you will find that there is no need to memorize any care steps. The core judgment criterion is always the child's mental state - if the child's fever reaches 39 degrees and he can jump up and grab the snacks in your hand, there is basically no need to panic, just take care of him at home.； If you don't even have a fever, but you are so tired that you can't even open your eyes, and you don't even want to touch your favorite toys, don't hesitate and go directly to the hospital. We learn these nursing knowledge not to save ourselves trouble, nor to become half-doctors, but just so that we can have peace of mind when encountering problems, and we will not mess with our children or delay the illness due to ignorance.