During the peak flu season, pediatric experts give advice on how to keep an eye on your baby

The temperature fluctuates greatly in autumn and winter, and it is the peak season for influenza. How to deal with children who are sick? How to prevent children from getting sick?

On the afternoon of November 8, Dahe.com invited Professor Ren Xianqing, Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Pediatrics, Director of the Regional Pediatric Diagnosis and Treatment Center, and leader of key disciplines, to be a guest of Dahe.com to give everyone a practical health science class - "Prone to colds, frequent food accumulation, and allergies - How children can prevent diseases in autumn and winter."

The most desired goal is to reduce the number of illnesses in children

"As a doctor, my most desired goal is to reduce the number of illnesses among children. My second goal is to give children less medicine and fewer injections when they are sick," Ren Xianqing said during the lecture.

Recently, pediatric departments in major hospitals across the country have been overcrowded. Ren Xianqing said that his department has more than 3,000 outpatient visits a day at its peak, and basically one doctor sees dozens of patients in one outpatient clinic, sometimes even hundreds. "This is not the result we want," he said.

As a clinical doctor, Ren Xianqing not only pays attention to the treatment of diseases, but also focuses on the prevention of diseases, which is the concept of "preventing diseases before they occur" in traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, "disease prevention" is also the core theme of this lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Ren Xianqing first introduced the characteristics of children's physique. He said that in traditional Chinese medicine, there is a saying of "childish yin and childish yang". From the literal meaning, we can see that children, as a special group, have many body functions that are fragile, insufficient and imperfect compared to adults.

What are the specific deficiencies? He said that the main ones are "three excesses and four deficiencies", that is, yang is often in excess, yin is often insufficient; liver is often in excess, spleen is often insufficient; heart is often in excess, lungs are often insufficient, and kidneys are often weak. "Children's internal organs are delicate, especially the lungs and spleen are prone to disease." Ren Xianqing said.

"Lung deficiency means that the child's lung function is not strong enough and is prone to lung diseases." He said that colds, sore throats, coughs, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, etc. are all lung diseases. Therefore, the first disease in all pediatric clinical practice is often a lung disease. The second is spleen diseases which are closely related to the digestive function of the spleen and stomach.

At the same time, the disease spectrum of children is very different from that of adults, so care should also be taken when using medication for children.

However, children also have another side, which is their vitality. Ren Xianqing said that although children are prone to illness, they are like the morning sun and spring grass, and their vitality is the strongest. "After getting sick, their recovery speed is sometimes faster than you can imagine."

Follow the course of the disease to treat and prescribe medication

Pharyngitis, tonsillitis, rhinitis, colds, mild coughs and other upper respiratory tract infections are the most common diseases in children. Ren Xianqing introduced that the most common pathogens of upper respiratory tract infections are viruses, followed by bacteria and mycoplasma.

For children with upper respiratory tract infection, they can go to the hospital for routine blood tests and C-reactive protein tests to check the cause. The higher the blood count and the higher the C-reactive protein, the first thing to consider is bacterial infection, and anti-inflammatory treatment can be used. "If the child's blood count, white blood cell count, and C-reactive protein are not high, it means there is no bacterial infection at all, and taking antibiotics is actually useless," he said.

Ren Xianqing said that in the past, antibiotics were abused due to various triggering factors.

"Antibiotic resistance is a serious consequence." Ren Xianqing said that he removed mycoplasma from some hospitalized children and tested them for resistance, and found that more than 80% were resistant.

As parents' knowledge and attention increase, the abuse of antibiotics has decreased. But he still reminds parents that if their children are sick, they should first do a health assessment for their children. If the condition is not particularly serious, don't be too anxious. "Diseases come like a mountain falling, and go away like a thread being pulled. We must follow the course of the disease to treat and use medicines," he said.

So, how to distinguish the severity of a child's cold? Ren Xianqing said that, first of all, generally speaking, the degree of fever can be used as an indicator to judge the severity of the disease, but it is not absolute. Sometimes, a simple cold in children can be cured in a few days by drinking some hot water. During this period, the fever may reach 38℃ or 39℃. However, he reminded parents to pay attention that if the child's fever exceeds 40℃, it should be taken seriously.

Second, observe the child’s mental state.

Secondly, observe the cough. The cough of each disease has different characteristics. He said that by observing the cough, it is possible to roughly determine whether the child has pharyngitis, cold, asthma, bronchial problems, or even lobar pneumonia.

Finally, we also need to observe how long the antipyretic medicine lasts after the child's fever subsides. If a medicine can last for 6 to 8 hours, but the fever returns only 4 to 6 hours after taking it, it means that the condition is not stable. On the contrary, if the same medicine can last for 10 hours, it means that the child is getting better and the condition is under control.

"Based on these characteristics, parents can make a preliminary assessment of their child's physical condition. If you are unsure, be sure to seek out an experienced doctor to make a judgment," Ren Xianqing reminded parents and friends.

Please check this prescription for strengthening your body.

Because of the risk of cross infection, people often do not want to go to the hospital when they have a minor cold and want to deal with it themselves. Ren Xianqing introduced the method of distinguishing between wind-cold cold and wind-heat cold in the lecture.

"Sneezing and having clear nasal discharge is usually a symptom of wind-cold. If the snot is thick or yellow, then it becomes a symptom of wind-heat," he said.

Whether it is wind-cold or wind-heat, it is all related to a person's constitution. Ren Xianqing introduced that Chinese medicine has the saying of "three causes for appropriate treatment", which means that there are differences "due to the matter, the place, and the person". People's constitutions are different, and the symptoms are often different.

For children, wind-cold is less common than wind-heat. When buying medicine, you will find that almost all cold medicines are for treating wind-heat, while wind-cold medicines are rare. In this regard, he said that if you encounter a wind-cold cold, you can use two pieces of scallion, two slices of ginger, and a handful of coriander to make soup.

Traditional Chinese medicine often says "no internal injuries, no external infections". For a period of time, if you eat well and sleep well, your body will be healthy and not easy to get sick; if you eat too much, get too little sleep, and your immunity is reduced, you will be easy to get sick.

In this regard, he gave the following advice: "If you want your child to be safe, keep him three parts hungry and three parts cold." That is, eat less and wear fewer clothes.

When eating, eat until you are 70% to 80% full. So, how many clothes are considered too much and how many clothes are considered too little? Ren Xianqing said: "When covering yourself with a blanket, children wear slightly thinner clothes than adults in the same environment. When going out, children wear slightly thicker clothes than adults. Don't dress your child one layer at a time to prevent him from getting cold."

So how do you judge whether a child's clothes are appropriate? He said that if you touch a child's hands, as long as they are not cold, the clothes are not too thin. If they are too thin, their hands will be cold.

In addition, in order to improve immunity and prevent diseases, Ren Xianqing also gave prescriptions such as diet, exercise and massage.

In his opinion, the core of the diet prescription is "combining meat and vegetables". It is necessary to "have vegetables at every meal and fruits every day", and fruits cannot replace vegetables. "If you want your child to be healthy, you need to consider the issue of balanced diet from the time you add complementary foods to infants and young children," he said.

"The longer children spend outside, the less likely they are to get sick," said Ren Xianqing. The second prescription is exercise. Many people now sit in front of computers every day and never move, which can easily lead to problems. "You must give yourself some time every day to jump or hop, or just stretch and rub your neck to get your blood flowing," he said.

The third is massage prescription. Ren Xianqing said that if you have children at home, you can find some massage and spinal massage videos online to learn. In addition, he also introduced methods such as vitamin supplements and frequent sun exposure.