Simple ways to prevent pneumonia for children during the changing seasons

The current changing weather causes many children to be hospitalized for respiratory diseases, especially pneumonia.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, Head of the Pediatrics Department (Bach Mai Hospital), said that the "fickle" weather, cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon, is the reason why many children fall ill. The number of children coming to the department for examination has doubled compared to normal days.

Doctor examines a child patient at the Pediatrics Department, Bach Mai Hospital.

Doctors recommend that to prevent pneumonia in young children, parents should pay attention to:

1. The most important thing is to regulate the temperature for the baby appropriately.

With the current weather, it is cold in the morning so you can wear a T-shirt and a thin jacket for your child to take off at school. For young children staying indoors, a long-sleeved T-shirt is enough, but not too much.

Parents can test by touching the baby's body, warm hands and feet are enough. The window should also be opened to circulate air. When babies first go to bed, they are often very hot and sweaty. At this time, wipe the baby's sweat, turn on the fan to let the wind blow, but parents should remember to turn the fan off for their children when it is cold at night.

2. Cover up when coughing or sneezing, wash hands frequently with soap, wear a mask...to avoid spreading the disease to other family members. Parents need to guide older children to be aware of maintaining general hygiene, preventing cross-infection within the same family.

3. Diet:Children should have a varied, nutritious diet rich in vitamin C to increase their resistance.

4. Clean and dry the items that children often come into contact with...Especially keep the baby's bedroom clean, do not use floor mats. Pay attention to old bookshelves in the family, which can easily cause children to inhale dust and mold from books, causing allergic rhinitis, acute asthma attacks and hospitalization...

According to doctors, children under 6 months old have low resistance, so the risk of getting sick is higher than that of older children. Moreover, pneumonia in young children is not as obvious as in older children (fever, cough, difficulty breathing...) and there are few typical signs. Some children do not even have a fever or cough, so recognizing the signs is very difficult.

For this age group, parents need to pay attention to three basic signs to determine the baby's condition and take them to the hospital in time. These are monitoring the feeding process, when the baby sleeps and how the baby breathes. However, there are children who only have one of the three symptoms but have pneumonia. Therefore, parents should not "wait" for all the signs to go to the doctor, but if they see that their child has an abnormal sleep pattern or rapid breathing, they should take their child to the doctor as soon as possible.

According to SK&DS