The best children's cold medicine. How to help your child with colds and flu

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

With the onset of autumn, we are increasingly beginning to face such a phenomenon as a cold. It is damp outside, a piercing wind is blowing, and now the child comes home from school with a runny nose and cough. Close to temperature. Therefore, every caring parent tries to prepare children's cold medicines in advance. Let's look at how you can protect the body from seasonal ailments, as well as how to help if the disease has already begun to manifest itself.

Easier to warn

This rule is known to all. Respiratory diseases most often a person falls ill in autumn and winter. Children's cold medicines are especially popular at this time. However, in one family they are used from September to May, with a short break, and in the other they are hardly used. Because one child's legs slightly cooled down, as soon as the throat turned red and a cough began, while the other's body did not react in any way. It's all about immunity.

Strengthening immunity

If you don't want your child to get sick, get busystrengthening the body's immune system. Start the day with a workout, and then take a contrast shower. Warm - cold, but you must finish warm. The child himself, most likely, will not want to do the exercises, and even more so douse with cold water. Therefore, you will have to carry out all the activities with him.

Sport is the second component of a he althy lifestyle. Swimming, skiing or running - take your pick. Children especially love to visit the pool. They do not perceive classes with a trainer as a serious physical activity.

And the third component is proper nutrition. You will have to work hard to explain to your child that every day he needs to eat fresh vegetables and fruits, meat and fish, cereals and dairy products. Then you simply won't need children's cold medicine.

Let's help your body

If immunity fails, then it needs support. Echinacea tincture is excellent for this. Just remember that it is good for prevention, and not when the baby is already sick. In winter, make it a rule to lubricate the nasal cavity with oxolinic ointment before leaving the house. This will protect the body from unwanted infections.

With the onset of winter colds, you want to wrap your child warmly before leaving the house. Unfortunately, this not only does not save you from colds, but often accelerates their onset. If, upon returning home, you find that the T-shirt is damp, then you need to wear one less blouse next time. AndOf course, change your child immediately into dry clothes. Even a slight draft for a sweaty child can result in serious consequences.

Children's cold medicines can stay on drugstore shelves if you do the right preventative work. And the simplest procedure can be called hardening of the throat. To do this, it is enough to keep boiled water in the refrigerator. In the morning, after washing your face, drink a sip of cold water. Start with a tiny sip. Some parents offer their baby kefir and milk straight from the refrigerator. The sooner you start this practice, the greater the chance that a cold will bypass you.

Folk treatments

The best children's cold medicine is sold not in a pharmacy, but in an apiary. At the first sign of the disease, immediate action should be taken. If your child is overcooled, you should immediately give him tea with linden honey. If it is not at hand, then you can replace it with raspberry jam. These are irreplaceable antipyretics that contain vegetable salicylic acid. After that, it is important to cover yourself with a blanket and lie down for several hours.

If this measure did not help, and the throat hurts, start gargling it with a solution of s alt or soda. Ideally, an infusion of eucalyptus will help. The healing power of this plant lies in the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory action. No wonder children's cold and flu medicines very often contain extracts of this plant.

Very good performance and warming uplegs. Place the child on a chair and place the legs in a basin of hot water, stirring mustard powder in it. After a slight reddening of the skin of the legs, you need to wipe them with a soft towel. Now put on woolen socks and put the baby under the covers. Ordinary onions and garlic will also be great helpers in the fight against cold and flu symptoms. To do this, cut the onion and offer to breathe it in pairs. The second way is to lubricate the nasal passages with boiled and chilled vegetable oil infused with onions and garlic.

If the smallest one is sick

If the baby is breastfed, he is most often protected by his mother's immunity. Therefore, colds are usually not terrible for him. But if a source of infection appears nearby, then you need to be alert. A cold in a baby very often gives complications to the kidneys and heart, and can cause disorders of the nervous system. Therefore, we constantly monitor the condition and consult a doctor in time.

Almost all children's cold medicines - from 3 months, but the attending physician can choose the optimal dosage for the smallest. Most often, antiviral drugs become the choice of a specialist. Usually these are interferon inducers: Ranferon, Nazoferon, Viferon and many others. They greatly alleviate the condition of the child and reduce the course of the disease for several days. Because they are well tolerated and have few side effects, doctors often start treatment with them.

Heat temperature

ARI and SARS rarely do without this unpleasant symptom. Children's medicines forcolds and flu necessarily include antipyretics. Today, these are often combined drugs that allow you to relieve swelling and nasal congestion, weakness. They are used as suspensions or tablets. These include "Coldrex", "Teraflu", "Fervex". The latter is considered the safest, it is prescribed to children from the age of six. The drug "Coldrex" is softer, its basis is paracetamol. If the condition is not too severe, this drug can be used. Babies are prescribed drugs in the form of syrups. These are Ibufen, Nurofen and a number of analogues.

These drugs also have a disadvantage. They cannot cope with inflammation, but only temporarily eliminate pain and fever. Therefore, you can replace them with "AntiGrippin". It also eliminates unpleasant symptoms, but it does no harm.

Viruses or bacteria

Today, children's medicines for colds and fever are so widely advertised that the true culprit of these diseases is already forgotten. All colds are divided into two categories: viral and bacterial. But even here there are difficulties. Influenza is a virus, but when a child gets sick, the immune system weakens, and a secondary bacterial infection begins. Therefore, it is important to start therapy as early as possible and prevent this from happening.

Arbidol will become an effective assistant. It can be given for prevention, especially in the off-season. It will shorten the duration of the disease and reduce the likelihoodoccurrence of complications. The medicine has no side effects and helps to beat the flu. The child drinks the medicine with pleasure, which is an additional plus.

If it is established that the cause of the development of symptoms is the vital activity of bacteria, then antibiotics should be selected. There are a huge number of them today, but it is not recommended to make a choice based on the experience of friends. This is a powerful weapon, but it should only be used under medical supervision. The effectiveness of the treatment will depend on how resistant the microorganism is to the drug used.

Cough treatment

If children's flu and cold medications don't help and symptoms start to develop, a cough is likely to follow. At the very beginning, it is dry, as its cause is an inflamed throat. During this period, you need to take mucolytics. The list of children's cold medicines is endless. Most often, children are prescribed:

• "ACC".
• Ambroxol.
• Bromhexine.
• "Lazolvan".

All of these drugs thin the phlegm. The consequence of their use is that the cough becomes more moist, expectorant and successfully removes phlegm from the lungs and bronchi.

Herbal infusions

Quick-acting and inexpensive children's cold medicines are herbal infusions or preparations based on them. Today in the pharmacy they can be bought in the form of syrups,teas, as well as dry herbs that can be simply brewed. It can be chamomile or lime blossom, as well as a special breast collection.

Black radish is considered an excellent children's medicine against flu and colds. From the fruit you need to cut the middle and fill it with honey. Infuse for a day, then drink a tablespoon on an empty stomach.

Rhinitis treatment

At the first signs of nasal congestion, Sanorin, Naphthyzin are usually prescribed. However, you should not get carried away with these drugs. Usually doctors prescribe them for a course of no more than a week. Their task is to relieve swelling of the nasal mucosa and improve breathing. More gentle drugs are sprays "Otrivin" and "Aquamaris". They help to effectively clear the sinuses of mucus. These medicines make nasal breathing easier, but they are powerless in treating a cold.

In order to improve respiratory function, you can use natural children's medicines to prevent flu and colds. It could be aloe juice. It is mixed with water and instilled 3-5 drops several times a day. Carrot juice is used in a similar way.

Main drug categories

Let's now systematize the data a little. The first group are drugs for symptomatic treatment. These medications treat high fever, muscle pain, cough and nasal congestion, headache, and general fatigue. In total, this group includes three categories of medicines:

• Painkillers and antipyretics. These are usually drugsbased on paracetamol, which have a moderate analgesic effect.
• Antihistamines. They are taken to reduce swelling of the mucous membranes, relieve tearing and itching. Most often it is "Fenistil" and "Suprastin".
• Vasoconstrictor drugs to relieve nasal congestion.

All these drugs do not eliminate the cause of the disease, but successfully alleviate the painful symptoms. The course of admission is 3-5 days.

Antivirals

The second group is drugs that affect the immune system and the virus. They should only be prescribed if it is clearly established that the cause is a virus. That is, the simplest form of life that has a protein shell. Drugs are classified according to the mechanism of action:

• Neuraminidase inhibitors.
• Viral protein blockers.
• Interferon inducers.

Depending on the case and the condition of the patient, the doctor must choose the most effective children's cold medicine. Powder, suspension, syrup are the main dosage forms that are most convenient for treating babies. Most often, the choice of doctors is Anaferon, Arbidol, Grammidin, Kagocel, Remantadin, Rinza, Rinicold. This list is enough to stop the main symptoms of the disease.

Procedure of actions

First of all, parents should make sure that the child does not have a temperature. Otherwise, you should give an antipyretic and call a doctor. If foreheadcool and satisfactory condition, you need to pour mustard powder into socks and wrap the baby well with a woolen blanket. Next comes symptomatic treatment, depending on how the disease progresses in the baby.

The symptom that persists for the longest time is a runny nose. It would seem that terrible. But for a child who does not yet know how to blow his nose, this can be a very unpleasant phenomenon. Therefore, we regularly wash our nose and suck out the contents with a small pear. Sodium chloride can act as a cleaning solution. In parallel, continue to irrigate the sore throat with herbs. To do this, you can use chamomile and sage, eucalyptus. An inhaler will help cure a throat and cough. It is filled with mineral water, herbal decoctions and some medicinal solutions (on the recommendation of a doctor).

Instead of a conclusion

Every mother worries about the he alth of her child and usually has some stock of medicines at home to treat colds. The range of medicines today is very large, so the choice of a particular medicine should be left to a specialist. As long as the manifestations of a cold are not too bright, you can correct them with the help of folk remedies. If the condition worsens and the temperature rises, call a doctor. Consult with him and about analogues. Often the same active substance is sold under different names. Accordingly, the cost is also different.