What are the good tips for preventing pneumonia? Several tips for effectively preventing pneumonia in children

Pneumonia is a common and stubborn disease in children. It is not only difficult to cure completely, but also affects the growth and development of babies. Therefore, it is very important to prevent pneumonia. Do you know any good tips for preventing pneumonia? Let's learn from the editor below.

4 tips to effectively prevent pneumonia in children

Tip 1: Breastfeeding can prevent pneumonia in children

Breastfeeding can effectively prevent pneumonia in children. Breast milk, especially colostrum, contains a large amount of secretory immunoglobulin A, which can protect the respiratory mucosa from invasion by pathogens and achieve the purpose of disease prevention. In addition, intrauterine infection should be prevented. If the mother is infected and the baby born during a difficult labor is likely to suffer from pneumonia, antibiotics can be considered for prevention.

In addition, the bedroom should be ventilated frequently, and visits from relatives and friends should be minimized. People with infectious diseases such as colds should not come into contact with the baby. Family members who come into contact with the baby should wash their hands carefully to prevent the transmission of pathogens to the baby and cause illness. At the same time, it is best to bathe the baby every day to avoid damage to the skin and mucous membranes, keep the umbilical cord clean and dry, and avoid contamination, so as to prevent pneumonia in children.

Tip 2: Getting a pneumonia vaccine is a good way to prevent it

Pneumococcal pneumonia accounts for 50% of all severe pneumonia, and is characterized by high morbidity, high disability rate and high mortality rate. For pneumococcal diseases, prevention is better than cure. "For babies with relatively healthy bodies, the vaccine does not need to be administered, but for babies with weaker resistance, vaccination can be considered." Experts said that the seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is suitable for children under 2 years old, all of which are imported from abroad, and there is no domestic vaccine to replace it. Vaccination with this vaccine can effectively prevent pediatric pneumonia, meningitis, otitis media, etc. However, vaccination with this vaccine does not mean that you will not get pneumonia "100%". At present, this vaccine can only prevent pneumonia caused by pneumococcus, and has no effect on viral pneumonia and pneumonia caused by mycoplasma and chlamydia.

The pediatric pneumonia vaccine is effective only after 4 injections. The pediatric pneumonia vaccine is suitable for infants aged 3 months to 2 years and children aged 2 to 5 years who have not received this vaccine. The recommended routine immunization schedule is: basic immunization at 3, 4, and 5 months of age, and booster immunization at 12 to 15 months of age.

Tip 3: Know the symptoms of pneumonia to better prevent it

As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy means you will win every battle, which is also true for diseases. To better prevent pneumonia, you must first understand the symptoms of pneumonia and kill it at the source. Since pneumonia lacks typical symptoms, parents should pay attention to the following symptoms in their babies and send them to the hospital for treatment in time.

1. Fever

Children suffering from pneumonia usually have fever symptoms, with body temperature above 38°C, which lasts for two or three days. The effect of antipyretics is not obvious. Antipyretics can only temporarily lower the body temperature for a while, but it will rise again soon.

But we should also be wary of pneumonia in children without fever. Babies with pneumonia may not have a fever, or even have a lower temperature than normal. The duration of the fever cannot be used as a basis for judging pneumonia. Some babies develop pneumonia after only two days of fever, while some babies have a fever for a week and it is not caused by pneumonia. Therefore, fever alone cannot determine whether a child has pneumonia. It needs to be judged in combination with other aspects.

2. Coughing and breathing

To determine whether a child has pneumonia, you also need to see if the child has cough, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Coughs and wheezing caused by colds and bronchitis are mostly paroxysmal, and generally do not cause difficulty breathing. If the cough and wheezing are severe, the respiratory rate increases when at rest (i.e., infants under 2 months old have a respiratory rate of ≥60 times/minute; infants 2-12 months old have a respiratory rate of ≥50 times/minute; children 1-5 years old have a respiratory rate of ≥40 times/minute), the nostrils on both sides open one after another, and the lips turn blue or purple. Once the above symptoms appear, it indicates that the condition is serious and should not be delayed.

More than 50% of the pathogens of viral pneumonia are respiratory syncytial virus, which accounts for one-third of the total number of hospitalizations for pneumonia in children. It is more common in winter and spring. The most typical age of onset is 6 months to 3 years old. These children often have an acute onset, first with "cold" symptoms, which last for about 3 days, with a low fever (measured body temperature around 38°C), clear nasal discharge, and cough. About 60% of children may not have a fever. After 2-3 days, the cough worsens, and the breathing is fast and shallow, reaching 60-100 times per minute. The most prominent symptoms are wheezing, holding back, and prolonged exhalation. Sometimes the sound of wheezing does not require a stethoscope, as long as you get close to the child, you can hear it, and the child is very painful.

3. Mental state

In order to detect pneumonia in children in time, careful mothers should also pay attention to the mental state of their children. If the child is in good spirits, can play, and loves to laugh while having a fever, coughing, and wheezing, it indicates that the child is unlikely to have pneumonia. On the contrary, if the child is in a poor mental state, has blue lips and lips, is irritable, cries, or is drowsy, has convulsions, and a few children may have delirium, it means that the child is more seriously ill and is more likely to have pneumonia. In the early stages of pneumonia, the child may not have obvious changes in spirit, or may be in a poor mental state.

4. Appetite

Pneumonia can significantly reduce appetite. Children with pneumonia will not eat or will cry and be restless when feeding. If the child is diagnosed with pneumonia, breastfeeding and feeding should continue, and the child should drink more soup. If the child has a decreased appetite, small meals should be taken frequently. Breastfeeding infants should increase the number of feedings per day to enhance nutrition and physical strength.

5. Chest

Because children's chest walls are thin, sometimes bubbling sounds can be heard without a stethoscope, so careful parents can listen to their children's chests when they are quiet or asleep. When listening to children's chests, the room temperature must be above 18°C, take off the child's shirt, gently put your ears against the chest wall on both sides of the child's spine, and listen carefully. Children with pneumonia will hear "gurgling" and "gurgling" sounds when they inhale, which doctors call fine bubbling sounds, which are important signs of lung inflammation.