What to do if your child catches a cold and has a fever

Children catching cold and having fever is an inevitable phenomenon in the growth process. It is often encountered in the process of growth. There are generally several factors that cause children to catch cold and have fever. The first is bacterial infection and other reasons. It is not ruled out that it is due to inflammation in the body. During the fever, be careful not to cover too many things, wipe with alcohol, and drink more soup.

Myth 1: Cover your face when you have a fever

Babies with a fever often have poor limb circulation, and their hands and feet feel cold. At this time, parents often mistakenly believe that their children's hands and feet are cold because they are not dressed enough, and then cover the babies more warmly. However, children's sweat glands are underdeveloped, so the more they are covered, the hotter they become, which can easily lead to dehydration. Therefore, the correct approach is to undress the child to dissipate heat, ensure adequate water, and give the child plenty of water to help dissipate heat to avoid dehydration.

Myth 2: Using rubbing alcohol to cool down

Among the fever-reducing measures implemented by doctors and some parents, one of the physical cooling methods often adopted is to use a 30% alcohol wipe bath. Research by the World Health Organization has shown that it is unscientific to use alcohol baths to reduce fever (38°C to 41°C). Doing so violates the physiological fever regulation mechanism and is not only ineffective, but may also cause children to shiver and aggravate pneumonia and other diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization did not advocate the use of alcohol baths for fever reduction in the 1990s.

Myth 3: You can’t take a shower, use air conditioning or a fan when you have a fever

Some elderly people believe that babies should not be bathed, used with air conditioners or electric fans when they have a fever, otherwise they will easily catch cold and their condition will worsen. This statement has not been scientifically confirmed.

Myth 4: Fever goes away immediately

When the child's fever temperature is below 38℃, no treatment is required. The child's mental state should be closely observed. If he or she is drowsy, has a very poor appetite, has a severe cough or has difficulty breathing, then it needs to be taken seriously.

If the child's temperature is not very high and his mental state is okay, do not blindly reduce the fever easily, because doing so may reduce the body's resistance, mask the condition and disrupt the development of the disease, which is not conducive to diagnosis and treatment.

In addition, from the perspective of medical professionals, if you feel your child has a fever, it is not necessary to go to the hospital in the first 24 hours. However, it should be noted that if the child exhibits some extreme behaviors within 24 hours, such as severe coughing, drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea and other serious symptoms, go to the hospital immediately.

If your child has a fever, you can try physical cooling first.

In fact, giving your child a warm bath when he or she has a fever is a very economical and effective physical way to reduce the temperature. If taking a bath is inconvenient, wiping your body with warm water can also help dissipate heat and reduce fever. The water temperature for bathing should be 1-2℃ lower than body temperature, and each bath should last about 15-30 minutes. If you only wash for 3-5 minutes, the cooling effect will be greatly reduced. If your body temperature is still high after a warm water bath for a while, you can repeat it again after a short period of time. Physical cooling is different from taking antipyretic drugs. There is no limit on the time interval and frequency of cooling.

It should be noted that children must drink water after having a fever. Children with high fever must dissipate heat by sweating, which results in the consumption of a large amount of water. Therefore, what children need to replenish most during a fever is water rather than food.

During the fever period, the diet must be mainly liquid or semi-liquid. The following diet is more suitable for children with high fever:

Milk rice soup: Rice soup is rich in carbohydrates, can provide sufficient water and calories, and is easily digested by the stomach and intestines. Moreover, the carbohydrates in rice water can convert the indigestible casein molecules in milk into molecules that are easy to digest and absorb. The preparation method of milk rice soup is very simple. You just need to wash the rice slightly, add clean water to boil it, filter out the rice residue, add milk and mix well.