What should I do if my child has encephalitis?

Encephalitis in children is the name of a disease. Usually, this condition can be mild or severe. Encephalitis is similar to a cold at the beginning, and may cause fever, body aches, or loss of appetite. Later on, the patient will become sleepy, excited, and have convulsions, and in the early stages it is easy to be misdiagnosed as a cold. Therefore, you need to go to the hospital for a comprehensive examination to prevent more serious situations. The following are the specific circumstances in which encephalitis occurs.

Symptoms of encephalitis in children

1. Children in the prodromal phase have symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia, vomiting, and diarrhea.

2. The symptoms of encephalitis vary in severity, mainly manifested as neuropsychiatric abnormalities. Manifestations of neurological abnormalities include fever, headache, vomiting, drowsiness, coma, convulsions, etc. In severe cases, abnormal symptoms may occur in the cerebrum, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, brainstem, cerebellum and spinal cord. Mental abnormalities manifest as excitement, talkativeness, irritability, crying and laughing at random, insomnia, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, fantasies, or indifferent expression, silence, decreased activity, refusal to eat, poor orientation, memory loss, incontinence, etc.

3. Associated symptoms: Symptoms of corresponding viral infection occur before or simultaneously with the onset of encephalitis.

2 Treatment of encephalitis in children

(I) Hospitalization

General treatment: Children with encephalitis should be hospitalized. After hospitalization, closely observe changes in consciousness, pay attention to changes in body temperature, pulse, breathing and blood pressure. Pay attention to pupil size at any time. Once changes occur, symptomatic treatment should be carried out. Pay attention to nutrition and calorie supplementation, and comatose patients can be fed through the nose. Frequent convulsions should be intravenously infused, with a daily fluid volume of 50-0ml/kg. When using dehydrating agents, pay attention to supplement potassium salts. Comatose patients should be turned over frequently, keep their skin clean and dry, and prevent bedsores. Keep the mouth clean. Comatose patients who cannot close their eyes should protect their eyes, pay attention to hygiene and protect the cornea. Children with convulsions should prevent tongue bites and prevent the root of the tongue from falling back and blocking the respiratory tract.

(II) Symptomatic treatment

1. When the temperature is high, lower the room temperature (

Controlled at 26-28℃). Physical cooling of the patient can be performed by alcohol bath, warm water bath or ice pack. Analgin can be used for nasal drops or intramuscular injection of Bupleurum. If the fever persists or is accompanied by convulsions, sub-hibernation therapy can be used, using chlorpromazine and promethazine 0.5-1 mg/kg each time, intramuscular injection once every 4-6 hours.

Generally, children with encephalitis need to be hospitalized for treatment. They need to be carefully cared for during hospitalization, keep their skin clean and dry to prevent infection due to uncleanness on the body, keep their mouth clean, protect their eyes, and take appropriate medications until their condition improves. Children are always weak and need to be cared for all the time.