Experience on prevention and treatment of common childhood diseases

The core of prevention and treatment of common childhood diseases has never been to copy the "universal care list" on the Internet, but to "prevention over cure, layered response, and taking into account commonalities and individual differences" - neither can we completely follow the experience of the older generation, nor do we need to stick to the rules of evidence-based medicine without knowing how to adapt them. What parents should master most is not the skills to treat diseases, but the ability to accurately identify risks and balance different care ideas.

To be honest, in the first two years when I became a mother, I stocked up a cabinet full of medicines, including cold granules, cough syrups, probiotics, and all kinds of internet celebrity health products. Until my baby was infected with rotavirus in the first month of kindergarten, causing vomiting and diarrhea. I hurriedly gave him antidiarrheal medicine, but the diarrhea lasted for almost a week before he recovered. When I went to the hospital for a follow-up visit, the doctor said he was confused: "Rotavirus is a self-limiting disease, and the original purpose is to expel the virus. If you forcefully stop diarrhea, it will block the toxins in the body. As long as you take enough oral rehydration salt III to avoid dehydration, you don't need to take other medicine at all." ”It was then that I realized that most of the "nursing common sense" I had learned before was wrong.

Speaking of prevention, I used to be a typical "germophobic mother". I had to wipe my hands after my children touched the elevator, disinfect public toys after playing with them, and even secretly spray alcohol on the building blocks in the kindergarten. It wasn't until the childcare doctor told me that an environment that was too clean would cause my children's immune systems to not be stimulated enough, making them more susceptible to diseases such as allergic rhinitis and asthma in the future. I slowly relaxed. Now I only stick to a few bottom lines: I must wash my hands with the seven-step method before eating and after going to the toilet, after touching pets, and after playing in the sand. I don't care if I touch public toys or something like that as long as I don't put them in my mouth. Don't tell me, the number of times my baby got sick has been reduced by half in the past six months. As for whether to give my baby health supplements to "enhance immunity", I have struggled for a long time. Most doctors in the Western medicine system say that as long as they eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep, and ensure one hour of outdoor activity every day, ordinary healthy children do not need additional supplements at all. ； Some TCM pediatric health care doctors also suggest that you can give your baby some warm foods such as yams and hawthorns to regulate the spleen and stomach. When digestion is good, you will indeed get less sick. My own experience after trying it is that there is really no need to buy lactoferrin and immunoglobulin that cost hundreds of dollars. I checked a lot of literature and found no clear evidence-based evidence that it is useful for ordinary children. Instead, I occasionally cook some hawthorn apple water for my baby, which really reduces stomach upset when the appetite is good.

Don’t panic if your baby gets sick. Take the most common fever, for example. The older generation always said that you should cover your sweat and the fever will subside. I have tried this before, and the baby almost had a febrile convulsion when the fever reached 40 degrees. Later I learned that the idea of ​​evidence-based care is: if the baby’s hands and feet are hot and his face is red, he should wear less clothing and less covering to help dissipate heat. Only during the shivering period or when the hands and feet are cold can he cover himself with a thin blanket to keep warm. Now my antipyretic medicines are clearly divided: acetaminophen is used if the patient is over 3 months old, and ibuprofen is only used if the patient is 6 months old or older. The dosage is strictly calculated based on body weight. I never dare to give it based on age. After all, I have seen news about liver damage caused by overfeeding before, so we really can’t be careless about this. There are also many parents who are afraid that their children will develop pneumonia and feed cough syrup whenever they cough. This is also very controversial. Evidence-based medicine clearly states that children under 6 years old are not recommended to use over-the-counter cough suppressants. Coughing itself is the body’s protective mechanism, helping to expel phlegm. Forcibly stopping a cough can easily block phlegm in the respiratory tract and aggravate infection. ； But the older generation always think that not taking medicine will lead to serious illness. I usually make a compromise: first count the baby's respiratory rate. If the baby is in good spirits, can run and jump, and breathes smoothly, feed some warm honey water to moisten the throat and pat the back frequently to help expel phlegm. If the baby has shortness of breath, listlessness, or a high fever that persists for more than 3 days, then rush to the hospital. Both sides can make sense.

Last month, my baby contracted herpetic angina and her fever reached 39.8 degrees. The old man was so anxious that she had to go to the emergency room overnight for infusion. I looked at the herpes in her throat. When the fever subsided, she could still jump to watch cartoons and drink cold milk. So she didn’t go to the hospital. She took antipyretics and gave her some cold porridge and cold yogurt to reduce the pain in her throat. After three days, the fever subsided and the rash broke out. After five days, she went to school happily. She didn’t take any other medicine, which also avoided cross-infection in the emergency room. As for the various traditional Chinese medicine patches and antipyretic patches that are popular on the Internet, I have also tried them. When the baby has slight abdominal distension, wearing the Ding Guier navel patch does have some relief, but the antipyretic patch can only cool the forehead and make it more comfortable, but cannot achieve the cooling effect at all, so there is no need to stock up on urgent needs.

In fact, in the past few years of raising a baby, my biggest feeling is that I don’t have to force myself to be half a pediatrician, and I don’t have to worry and blame myself whenever my baby gets sick. Most common childhood diseases are self-limiting diseases caused by viral infections. There is no "specific medicine" at all. As long as parents can accurately identify the signs of critical illness - such as high fever that lasts for more than 3 days, poor energy to the point of not waking up, breathing much faster than usual, convulsions, frequent vomiting, rash and high fever that does not go away, the rest is patient care. There is no need to pursue the perfect result of "immediately reducing fever and immediately stopping cough". After all, a baby's immune system slowly develops its fighting power through repeated battles with viruses.