How to prevent pneumonia in children

How can we prevent 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.

Four 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 treatment. "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 aged 2-12 months have a respiratory rate of ≥50 times/minute; children aged 15 years 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.

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.

At the same time, carefully observe whether the child has chest retraction (when inhaling, the edges of the ribs on both sides sink inward and rise and fall with breathing). If this happens, the child should be sent to the hospital immediately for diagnosis and timely treatment.

Tip 4: Start preventing childhood pneumonia during pregnancy

It is very important for women to have regular prenatal checkups, especially in the late stages of pregnancy. If during the prenatal checkup, the doctor finds that you have gestational hypertension, malposition of the fetus, umbilical cord entanglement, fetal compression, or that you are overdue, then he will take appropriate monitoring and treatment measures.

To prevent pneumonia in children, mothers should prevent and actively treat infectious diseases such as vaginitis. During pregnancy, some infectious diseases of expectant mothers may also infect the fetus through the placenta. For example, in a few cases, bacteria and mycoplasma in the vagina of expectant mothers may enter the uterus and infect the fetus through the placenta. To prevent your baby from contracting neonatal infectious pneumonia, it is very important to keep your living environment clean and hygienic, and pay more attention to personal hygiene.

Pneumonia in children is a common disease. Once it occurs, it will seriously threaten the baby's health. In order to prevent the baby from being invaded by pneumonia, parents should take comprehensive protective measures to protect the baby's healthy growth!