What are the methods for preventing and managing common childhood diseases?

After working as a community child care worker for six years, I have to say that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the prevention and management of common childhood diseases. The core is to focus on daily life, control in the early stages, and care in the recovery period. The essence is to help children build a solid foundation for their own immunity, which is more effective than any number of supplements taken.

Don't underestimate these small daily efforts. Recently, I met Sister Zhang's 3-year-old child in the community. He had two colds and fevers in the first month of kindergarten. Sister Zhang always blamed the kindergarten for not being disinfected properly at first. After careful questioning, I found out that the family had never practiced "cold adaptation" for the child. She was wrapped in thicker clothes than the elderly at home when going out. Her little hands were always wet with sweat, and she would get infected by the slightest breeze. It’s easy to say. You don’t need to dress your baby in more layers than adults. Take your baby to run and jump outdoors more often in spring and autumn, and get at least one hour of sunshine every day. Don’t chase after him when it comes to food. Eat a good mix of meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits. Don’t force your baby to eat if he doesn’t want to eat. One or two hungry meals won’t cause any problems at all, but can give the spleen and stomach a rest. In the past two years, there has been a lot of debate about whether to give babies health care products to improve immunity. There is actually no unified conclusion in the industry: one group believes that as long as the baby has a balanced daily diet and a regular work and rest schedule, the baby's immunity can develop normally. The extra supplements for products that claim to enhance immunity are mostly IQ taxes. If you supplement too much, it will increase the burden on the liver and kidneys. ； The other group believes that if the child does suffer from recurrent respiratory tract infections and is picky about food and has insufficient nutritional intake, he can appropriately supplement vitamin D, zinc or specific strains of probiotics under the guidance of a pediatrician or pediatrician. There is no need to kill him with a stick. I generally recommend that parents take their children for a comprehensive nutritional assessment before making a decision. Don’t listen to the scammers who sell products in live broadcast rooms and often buy thousands of imported supplements to take home and give to their children.

Of course, even if the prevention is in place, the child will inevitably have headaches and fever, and the management at this time will test the parents' mentality even more. Last month, a mother of a baby sent me a voice message at 2 a.m., crying and saying that her baby had a fever of 38.8°C and that she needed to run to the emergency room immediately because she was afraid that the fever would make her crazy. I asked her to give the baby the corresponding antipyretic medicine for children first, feed more warm water, and take the temperature every half an hour. As long as the baby can be woken up, is willing to play and drink water, there is no need to rush to the hospital, which makes both adults and children unable to rest. Later, the baby's fever went down the next morning. When he went to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a common viral cold and no more medicine was prescribed. It should also be mentioned here that many parents give antibiotics to their children when they see a cold or fever. This is something that must be avoided. 90% of common diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections and autumn diarrhea in children are caused by viral infections. Antibiotics are not symptomatic at all. Instead, they will destroy the normal flora in the baby's intestines and slow down the recovery process. Only when a blood test confirms that it is a bacterial infection, antibiotics need to be used as directed by the doctor.

Many parents think that everything will be fine once the fever has subsided and the cough has stopped. In fact, care during the recovery period is the key to reducing subsequent recurrences. Two weeks ago, a grandma brought her baby for a review. The baby had just recovered from mycoplasma pneumonia last week. The grandma felt sorry for the baby's weight loss, so she gave her black-bone chicken soup and steamed egg custard every day to supplement her nutrition. However, within three days, the baby had a fever again. After a round of tests, it was caused by food accumulation. This situation is called "food recovery" in traditional Chinese medicine. To put it bluntly, the spleen and stomach function of the baby has not recovered when the baby is recovering from the illness. Too much oily and nutritious food cannot be digested, which puts a burden on the body. I usually remind parents that in the first three days after their child recovers from illness, they should try to eat some light porridge, soft boiled noodles, add a little boiled vegetables, and slowly add high-protein foods such as meat and eggs. Do not send the child back to the kindergarten immediately, and raise it at home for another day or two until the child's condition is completely stable. This can reduce a lot of the probability of cross-infection.

To put it bluntly, your child's immunity is actually like a sapling. If you always keep it in a greenhouse, it will break easily if exposed to a little wind. Occasionally let it bask in the sun and blow the wind, crawl on the ground and play with some sand, and get in touch with normal environmental flora. On the contrary, it can build the small wall of immunity stronger. You really don't have to worry too much.