Experience on the prevention and management of common childhood diseases

Prevention always takes precedence over cure. Rather than stocking up a drawer full of children's medicines and sending the child to the hospital whenever he coughs, the truly effective intervention is actually to pay attention to the three basic aspects of "eating, sleeping, and moving" on a daily basis. Accepting that 3-6 respiratory infections per year are part of the normal immune building process of children, there is no need to pursue "zero illness". Different families can choose care plans according to their own parenting concepts, and there is no need to impose uniform standards.

Last month, I met a new mother who pulled me and asked me, saying that her baby had fever three times in a month just after starting kindergarten. Is it because her immunity is defective? Should she buy imported protein powder to make up for it? To be honest, I encounter at least 20 such problems every month. If you ask my colleagues in pediatrics and Western medicine, they will most likely tell you that it is normal for children who have just entered collective life to be infected with respiratory diseases 6-8 times in a year - equivalent to the immune system just entering the "practical training field". Every time a fever occurs, it is like B cells have registered an extra virus. The antibody library is getting thicker and thicker. As long as they can heal themselves in about a week each time, there is no need to take any additional supplements to enhance immunity. If you ask colleagues in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, they may first look at the tongue coating of the baby and ask if the baby is tossing and turning in sleep and has dry stools. They will most likely judge that the baby is internal heat due to food accumulation. It is recommended that the baby eat less refined snacks, rub the belly more, and perform chiropractic massage if necessary. There is actually nothing wrong with both of these statements. When my eldest son entered kindergarten, he was even more exaggerated than this baby. He had four fevers in a month. My mother-in-law was always talking about giving colostrum to the baby. I finally chose a compromise: I didn’t give him any supplements, and I just bought the snacks from the supermarket every afternoon. I added candy puree instead of steamed apples, and ran around the community for half an hour before going home after school every day. After half term, I rarely got sick. My best friend’s baby has a weak spleen and stomach, and will suffer from diarrhea when eating cold food. She listened to the advice of traditional Chinese medicine and took the baby to do chiropractic twice a week, and indeed rarely got a fever due to food accumulation.

It seems that many parents are always afraid that their children will be cold, but in fact this is a common cause of colds. Two weeks ago, a grandmother brought her baby for a follow-up consultation. On a 22-degree day, she wore two autumn clothes and a thick coat. Her back was covered in sweat when she touched it, and she would catch a cold when the wind blew. The old saying, "If you want your baby to be safe, you need to be three-thirds hungry and cold." It's true. To judge whether the baby is cold or not, don't touch your exposed little hands. Touch the back of the neck. It's just right if it's warm. It's safest to wear half a layer less than you wear yourself. The same goes for food. I have seen too many babies develop tonsil inflammation when the seasons change. When asked, they are basically being chased and fed every time and snacking constantly. Eating too many high-sugar and high-fat foods will put a heavy burden on the spleen and stomach. Inflammation will easily break out if they get a little cold. My own two children did not eat any added sugar before they were 1 year old. Now they occasionally eat lollipops and potato chips, but the amount of vegetables and water they drink every day is at the bottom line. They rarely have thick tongue coating or dry stools, and naturally there are fewer problems caused by food accumulation.

Don’t panic if your child is sick. I have seen too many parents run to the emergency room overnight as soon as they see their child has a fever. In fact, you can observe the condition at home first. There is no need to argue here about "whether it is right to carry it without taking medicine": if the baby has a fever above 38.5 degrees and becomes less energetic, take ibuprofen or acetaminophen when it is time to take it, and don't force it on you. ； If the blood test confirms that it is a bacterial infection, antibiotics should be used according to the course of treatment, and there is no need to talk about the discoloration of the antibiotics - last year, a parent refused to give his baby food, and the result was pneumonia. Instead, he had to have transfusions and suffered more. As for coughing, Western medicine generally does not recommend the use of central antitussives for children under 6 years old. After all, coughing itself is a self-protective reaction to expel phlegm. Forcibly stopping the cough may hold phlegm in the lungs. ； But if the baby has trouble sleeping due to cough, there is nothing wrong with using some traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. For example, steamed oranges and roasted oranges are really useful for mild cold coughs. For babies over 1 year old, drink a spoonful of pure honey before going to bed. The effect of relieving coughs is no worse than cough syrup. I have tried it several times with my own children, and it really works.

Speaking of which, I have also been in trouble. When my second child got rash for the first time, I had only been working for two years. I was so panicked that when the fever reached 39 degrees, I was given antipyretics and almost given antibiotics. I didn’t realize it until the fever subsided and a red rash appeared all over my body. In fact, as long as you drink more water and do physical cooling, rash in young children does not require any drug intervention at all. Now that I have been exposed to more cases, I feel more and more that there is really no standard answer for raising babies. Some babies are thick-skinned and can run barefoot in winter without getting sick. Some babies are sensitive and will be allergic to pollen. As long as you don’t make principled mistakes in the general direction, there is really no need to worry about whether a certain detail is right or not.

To put it bluntly, the prevention and management of common children's diseases, in the final analysis, is not about the children, but about the parents' mentality. If your child occasionally gets a minor illness, treat it as a sign of an immune system patch and upgrade. It will be more useful for adults to be less anxious than to take more supplements or stock up on medicines.