What should I do if my child has shortness of breath?

Breathing is essential for people to survive. If a person stops breathing, it means he is not far from death. So you will find how important breathing is to a person. Therefore, we must protect our respiratory system. We all know that children's resistance is very low. What if a child's respiratory system is not good, for example, if he has shortness of breath, what should we do? Let’s see what to do?

A detailed medical history and physical examination can usually provide the possible location and cause of the lesion. For example, a history of fever, foreign body aspiration, trauma, poisoning, etc. can provide important clues for diagnosis. In addition to respiratory rate, depth, rhythm, symmetry, respiratory effort (respiratory muscle work) and lung auscultation, the physical examination assessment also includes general reactions, state of consciousness, vital signs (heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, body temperature, etc.) and systemic circulation perfusion, which can be used to understand the severity of the disease.

Most children with obvious shortness of breath may also have varying degrees of respiratory distress or dyspnea. Children with respiratory distress may not experience shortness of breath. This is more common in severe central nervous system infections or central nervous system depression caused by hypothermia, trauma, poisoning, etc., and may manifest as shallow, slow, and irregular breathing. Respiratory distress and shortness of breath need to be differentiated. The causes of shortness of breath in newborns are different from those in children of other age groups, and a chest X-ray examination is required; if the result is normal, consider sepsis, hypoglycemia, metabolic causes, pain, fever, high ambient temperature and withdrawal syndrome; if the result is abnormal, consider hyaline membrane disease, transient tachypnea of ​​the newborn, pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, aspiration, atelectasis, pulmonary edema, left-to-right shunt congenital heart disease, pleural effusion, pneumonia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, congenital cystic adenoids and tracheoesophageal fistula.

Although the causes of shortness of breath and respiratory distress vary, the initial aggressive treatment is the same, namely opening the airway, improving ventilation and providing oxygen.

These are some common methods for children who have shortness of breath. Once your child has shortness of breath, you can try the above methods to see if they can help you. However, we still recommend that children should go to a regular hospital for treatment if they have shortness of breath.