What Is The Danger Of A Cold In A Child

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

What is the danger of a cold in a child

A prolonged runny nose can be a sign of sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinuses in the nose. The share of this disease accounts for 30% in the general structure of pathologies of the upper respiratory tract in children and 10% in adults. The peak incidence occurs in the autumn-winter months, when acute sinusitis develops for the first time or chronic sinusitis worsens. Why is this happening and how to protect yourself?

Sinusitis causes

It turns out that in children, sinus inflammation develops 3 times more often than in adults. Why is this happening? In childhood, the nasal passages are quite narrow, and this leads to the fact that the paranasal sinuses are poorly cleaned, because air enters them with difficulty. The situation is aggravated by inflammation of the nasal mucosa - due to edema, the lumen of the nasal passages narrows even more, a secret stagnates in the sinuses, which is an ideal breeding ground for microorganisms. Under such conditions, conditionally pathogenic bacterial flora is activated, which constantly lives in the respiratory tract. And the bacterial one also joins the viral infection that caused the runny nose.

How to understand that a banal runny nose was complicated by the development of sinusitis? You should be on your guard if nasal congestion and pathological discharge do not go away within 10-14 days. At the same time, pains appear in the projection of the inflamed sinus, the sense of smell worsens - the child ceases to distinguish smells, headaches appear, especially when the head is tilted forward and downward.

In childhood, symptoms of the pharynx may also appear. The body tries to localize the inflammatory process, so the pharyngeal tonsils are involved in the work, and behind them other organs of the lymphatic system react to inflammation: the cervical lymph nodes increase and become painful.

Sinusitis is, unfortunately, not only about feeling unwell. Sluggish infection, characteristic of sinusitis, leads to impaired immunity, increased fatigue, and even reduced academic performance in schoolchildren. Chronic infection in the sinuses is a danger to the entire child's body.

How to prevent sinusitis?

There is another danger in the late treatment of sinusitis, in the form of the potential likelihood of surgical intervention - a puncture of the inflamed sinus (in medical language - trepanopuncture). Even for adults, this is an unpleasant procedure, to say nothing of children. For them, this is a serious psychological trauma. Therefore, it is worth making every effort to protect your child from such an unpleasant manipulation.

Rule # 1. Rinse your nose in the morning and evening with a saline solution (saline, seawater)

The contained salt prevents stagnation of pathological secretions in the nasal passages and sinuses, because facilitates its removal and improves drainage. The use of vasoconstrictor drops is not a panacea. Although they reduce swelling, they lead to addiction, so a runny nose may worsen, especially with prolonged use (5-7 days or more).

Rule # 2. Ventilate the area every day, regardless of the season

In this simple way, you moisturize, cleanse and cool the air, improving the microclimate for the nasal mucosa.

Rule # 3. If an illness occurs, in consultation with your pediatrician, use the natural sinusitis medicine - Sinupret®

The active substances of the preparation are 5 well-known medicinal plants: gentian roots, sorrel and verbena herb, elder and primrose flowers. Sinupret ^® has a complex effect: it stops the inflammatory reaction, relieves swelling, restores the patency of the nasal passages, stimulates the self-cleaning of the sinuses, and also makes the mucus less viscous, facilitating its release.

Sinupret ^{® is} available as oral drops for children from 2 years of age and in the form of pills for children from 6 years of age. Sinupret ^® can also be taken as a prophylaxis for sinusitis at the first symptoms of a cold.

Sinupret ^® is not only a treatment, but also a prevention of sinusitis. If you want to reduce the risk of cold complications this winter, you can start taking the drug well in advance, about 2 weeks before the start of the cold season.

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