Can children eat watermelon when they have a fever?

It is not a good thing for a child to have a fever, because a fever may mean that the child has some disease, such as a cold or pneumonia. At this time, the first thing parents should do is to help their children find the cause of the fever and then treat it as soon as possible. Some parents believe that when a child has a fever, his body is particularly hot, so he can eat something cool to cool down. So, can children eat watermelon when they have a fever?

Watermelon is rich in nutrients. According to Chinese medicine, watermelon is cold in nature and sweet in taste. It has the effects of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, eliminating restlessness and relieving cough, and promoting urination. It is the best fruit in summer. Don't eat watermelon without moderation. Eating too much can damage the spleen and stomach and easily cause pharyngitis, especially in the early stages of a cold. Eating watermelon in the early stages of a cold can make the cold worse or prolong the time to recovery.

Whether it is a wind-cold cold or a wind-heat cold, in traditional Chinese medicine, it is considered an external symptom in the early stages and should be treated with a dispersing method that eliminates the pathogenic factors from the surface. When the exterior symptoms have not been resolved, do not attack the interior, otherwise the exterior evil will enter the interior and the condition will worsen. Watermelon is cold in nature and has the function of clearing away heat. In the early stage of a cold, when the pathogenic factors are on the surface, eating watermelon is equivalent to taking medicine to clear internal heat, which will lead the pathogens into the interior, which will inevitably aggravate the condition or prolong the healing time.

However, when the cold worsens and symptoms such as high fever, thirst, and sore throat appear, eating some watermelon while taking normal medication can help cure the cold.

What causes colds in children

1. Short-term fever (fever < 2 weeks)

Short-term fever in pediatrics is mostly caused by infection, and generally has a good prognosis or is a self-limited disease. However, fever may also be an early manifestation of critically ill children, especially children with severe symptoms of poisoning such as mental depression, drowsiness, and pale complexion. Attention should be paid to the child's medical history, history of contact with infectious diseases, and the presence or absence of symptoms and signs of respiratory, digestive, urinary, nervous and other systems, as well as the presence or absence of rash, petechiae, jaundice, anemia, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, and local infection foci.

2. Long-term fever (fever ≥ 2 weeks)

(1) Infectious fever

1) Respiratory system infections are the most common, with pathogens including viruses, mycoplasmas, bacteria and tuberculosis;

2) Other system infections: intestinal infection, urinary system infection, central nervous system infection (encephalitis, meningitis), cardiovascular system infection (such as infective endocarditis, pericarditis), hepatobiliary system infection (such as hepatitis, cholangitis, liver abscess, etc.);

3) Systemic infections such as sepsis, tuberculosis, typhoid, paratyphoid, typhus, brucellosis, Epstein-Barr virus infection, cytomegalovirus infection, Lyme disease, leptospirosis, malaria, kala-azar, schistosomiasis and fungal infections;

4) Abscess or localized infection such as osteomyelitis, perinephric abscess, subphrenic abscess, appendiceal abscess, perianal abscess, etc.