Is winter a high-incidence period for childhood pneumonia? Four symptoms of childhood pneumonia

Winter is the peak season for pneumonia. The incidence and mortality of pneumonia in children in my country are higher than those in developed countries. According to statistics, 60%-80% of pediatric outpatient respiratory tract infections in my country, 25%-50% of urban children's hospitalizations due to bronchial pneumonia, and about 300,000 infants die from pneumonia each year. Experts said that viral infections, bacterial infections and mycoplasma infections can all cause pneumonia. Most children may be infected with pneumococci through social interactions. In addition, many develop pneumonia due to early influenza or common colds due to untimely treatment.

Winter is always the peak season for pneumonia in children

When winter comes, the number of children visiting the respiratory department is on a straight upward trend, and most of them are pneumonia patients. Experts say that because pathogens are easy to multiply in winter, children have weak resistance, and people are often in a closed environment with poor air circulation, making children more susceptible to pneumonia.

In addition, from the outpatient perspective, a considerable number of cases are due to influenza or common colds that develop into pneumonia due to untimely treatment. Many parents think that children's colds are trivial matters and that they only need to go to the clinic to get some medicine, but they do not pay attention to the care of their children during their colds, causing their children's colds to be delayed for a long time and thus easily lead to pneumonia.

Experts remind that many families now use humidifiers in winter to moisten the air and increase the humidity of the respiratory mucosa, which can initially improve its disease resistance and play a role in preventing respiratory diseases. However, if the humidifier is used improperly, the humidity is too high, which will cause excessive moisture in the lungs. This can easily cause bacterial growth, thereby aggravating respiratory infections and even causing pneumonia in severe cases.

Don't think you can relax after getting vaccinated

Experts especially remind that some parents think that they can relax after their children get the pneumonia vaccine, which is wrong. The pneumonia vaccine is a pneumococcal vaccine or includes several bacterial vaccines. Only pneumococcal or its bacterial vaccine has a certain preventive effect on bacterial infection, and has no effect on other pneumonia viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, and chlamydia infections. Therefore, getting the pneumonia vaccine does not mean that you will not get pneumonia, but it reduces the chance of getting pneumonia.

Symptoms of pneumonia in children

1. Most of the fever is around 39-40℃, irregular, and the fever type is uncertain. Most of them are relaxation fever. The body temperature of infants and young children with rickets and malnutrition is not high; when newborns suffer from pneumonia, the body temperature will not rise.

2. Coughing is an early symptom of this disease. It starts with frequent irritating dry coughs, followed by phlegm in the throat. Coughing may be accompanied by vomiting and choking on milk.

3. Faster breathing, nasal fanning, slight cyanosis around the mouth and nails in some children

4. Early lung signs are not obvious, only rough breathing or slightly decreased breathing sounds. After a few days, medium and fine moist rales can be heard, especially fine moist rales, which are dense at the back lung base and spine and clearer at the end of deep inspiration. When lung lesions are fused, signs of pulmonary consolidation such as increased tremor, dullness to percussion, weakened breathing sounds or tubular breathing sounds on auscultation may appear.