Parents should be alert to the misunderstandings in treating children's "cold and cough"

Myth 1: Treat asthma like a cold

Many parents of sick children will think that their children have a cold when they see them sneezing, runny nose, coughing or wheezing, and will quickly give their children cold medicine or anti-inflammatory drugs. If the symptoms do not improve, they will take the child to the hospital for an IV drip.

Many asthma cases are not correctly diagnosed in the early stages. However, asthma is not an infectious inflammation, but an allergic inflammation. It is completely wrong to use antibiotics to treat colds and bronchitis. It is actually very simple to understand the difference between a cold and asthma.

First of all, whether the child has had coughing and wheezing for more than three consecutive times. If so, it is suspected that the child has asthma. Secondly, parents should pay attention to whether the child has an allergic constitution. If the child has an allergic constitution, for example, he has had eczema since childhood, it is also important to know whether the parents themselves have an allergic constitution, because asthma is an allergic disease. If the parents themselves have an allergic constitution, it is easy to pass this constitution on to the child, and the child will easily have an attack when encountering the triggering factors of asthma.

Myth 2: Worrying that hormones used to treat asthma may affect children’s growth and development

Nowadays, many parents are worried that the hormones used to treat asthma will affect their children's growth and development. Data show that it is rare to see children's growth and development affected by the use of asthma control drugs in clinical practice. Instead, it is recurrent asthma that seriously affects children's development. Because recurrent asthma not only affects lung function, but also reshapes the airways, which is not conducive to future treatment. The hormones used in nebulization treatment act directly on the affected area, take effect relatively quickly, and the amount used is also very limited. Not only that, the amount used is gradually reduced as the child's symptoms are alleviated, so parents don't have to worry about it affecting their children's growth and development.

Myth 3: Stop taking medication as soon as symptoms improve

When a child has asthma, parents are generally advised to follow the doctor's orders to give their children inhaled medication at home. However, some parents stop giving their children medication as soon as their child's symptoms improve slightly. Among all children whose asthma is not well controlled, the vast majority do not implement the treatment plan thoroughly enough. The most important manifestation of this is that parents cannot insist on giving their children medication in sufficient quantities. The medication should obviously be used continuously for 3 months, but parents stop taking it after only two or three weeks when they see that their child's asthma has not recurred. As a result, the child's asthma is not well controlled, and recurring attacks occur repeatedly, resulting in prolonged treatment time.

For children with asthma, if parents cooperate well, some children can stop taking medication for one and a half to two years, and the dosage during this period will be gradually reduced as the child's symptoms improve.