What should I do if my 1-year-old baby has a cold and cough?

It is normal for children to catch a cold and cough. This happens to every child. Every mother has a different solution to this cold and cough. Most mothers choose to give their babies injections all the time. In fact, continuous injections are not a good choice, as they will cause harm to the child's weak physique. The method of drinking more water while getting an injection can often have a good effect and is very helpful for the development of a child's physique.

When you have a cold, drink plenty of water and get enough rest. You can take medicine in moderation. The reason why a cold does not heal for a long time is because the body's immunity is weak. The most fundamental way is to improve the body's immunity, which can better prevent the occurrence of colds. Be sure to increase outdoor exercise to improve the body's immunity.

How to improve immunity?

The sufficiency and balance of nutrients in the human body are related to the strength of the body's immune system, and also have a certain correlation with certain infectious diseases. According to existing nutritional research results, adequate nutrient supplementation of the human body will greatly enhance the body's immunity to diseases and play a role in preventing atypical pneumonia. So what is immunity? Simply put, immunity is the body's resistance to various diseases, and the resistance comes from the body's immune system, which is composed of immune organs such as the thymus, bone marrow, spleen, lymphoid tissue, and immune cells such as macrophages, natural killer cells, and lymphocytes.

A healthy immune system has three major functions, the first of which is defense. Strong immunity can help the body eliminate foreign bacteria and viruses and avoid diseases, and has the defensive ability to protect the body from damage; the second is stabilizing function. Good immune function can help the body repair or eliminate metabolic, damaged or aged dead tissue cells in the human body, and maintain the internal environment of the body's metabolism in a stable state at all times; the third is the monitoring function. Strong immunity can help the body kill and eliminate abnormal mutated cells.

Only when the various functions of the human body reach a balanced state can health be guaranteed. The body's nutritional status is closely related to the strength of the immune function. In the process of supplementing nutrition, attention should be paid to ensuring the body's immune ability through balanced nutrition.

Three steps to balanced nutrition and immunity

How several typical immunity-related nutrients build the human body's nutrition-immune system.

First of all, the "VA+Zn" combination (vitamin A plus zinc) constitutes the first step of the "balanced nutrition and immunity trilogy". They can help prevent viruses from entering the human body and protect the respiratory tract from infection. Medical experiments have shown that vitamin A is an essential substance for maintaining the normal function of epithelial tissue. It can promote the differentiation and repair of epidermal cells in the respiratory tract and other areas, ensure the integrity of the epidermis, and thus resist the invasion of pathogens. Vitamin A is known as the "anti-infection vitamin." Zinc works synergistically with vitamin A to improve its absorption and function. Therefore, the simultaneous action of vitamin A and zinc can effectively prevent the invasion of viruses.

Vitamin C forms the second step of the "balanced nutrition and immunity trilogy", helping to kill viruses that enter the human body. Because it can interfere with the virus's attack on white blood cells, activate white blood cells throughout the body, enhance the white blood cells' ability to phagocytize viruses, kill germs, thereby enhancing the body's immunity and protecting the body from virus attack. The vitamin C content in the white blood cells of cold patients is significantly reduced.

In addition to trace elements, there is also taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that promotes the growth and reproduction of lymphocytes of the immune system. In addition, it can clear away heat, relieve pain, and alleviate the symptoms of fever caused by the body's own automatic regulatory defense system activated to resist viruses. This is the third step of the "Balanced Nutrition and Immunity Trilogy". When the human body is severely damaged, taurine can also play a role in clearing heat and reducing fever, thereby enhancing the body's resistance. In other words, if people, especially children, can supplement a variety of nutrients that are beneficial to improving human immunity in a balanced manner and build a nutritional-immune protection barrier in the body, they can more effectively protect the body from viruses.

As soon as a child has a fever, it is a taboo in medical treatment to use antipyretics immediately regardless of the reason. Fever is not all bad. First of all, fever is a signal that the child is sick. Secondly, fever is beneficial to mobilizing the child's immune function, which is beneficial to killing and eliminating bacteria and viruses, and promoting recovery from the disease. This is because after a fever occurs, the heart rate increases, and the heart rate increases by about 10-20 times for every degree Celsius increase in body temperature. The heart rate increases, blood circulation is vigorous, and the amount of blood flowing to the inflamed area increases. On the one hand, it can dilute the bacteria and the toxins they produce. On the other hand, the number of white blood cells also increases, which can not only directly destroy and engulf bacteria and viruses

In addition, it can also produce an endogenous heat to produce antibodies that have the ability to kill bacteria or viruses, thereby promoting the improvement of the disease. At the same time, the iron in the blood is temporarily stored in the liver. Bacteria need iron more than humans. Once iron is deficient, bacteria will find it difficult to grow, thus achieving the purpose of eliminating bacteria.

If you use too many antipyretics as soon as you have a fever, not only will the above series of changes be difficult to achieve, but it may also mask the condition and delay treatment. In addition, the symptoms become atypical after the fever subsides, which also makes diagnosis difficult. Therefore, when you have a fever, do not rush to reduce it before the diagnosis is confirmed. Only choose the corresponding antipyretic analgesic when one of the following situations occurs: the fever is too high (above 39 degrees), especially in children with high fever convulsions. Although the fever is not too high, there are obvious headaches, insomnia, impaired consciousness, which affect the child's rest; due to persistent fever, the heart and lung function has been endangered, or the high fever cannot be tolerated, etc., antipyretic analgesics may be used as appropriate. After a fever is confirmed, do not simply reduce the fever, and do not use too many medications to reduce the fever.

Generally speaking, if the body temperature is below 38 degrees, there is no need to take antipyretics. Just drink plenty of water (small amounts and multiple times) and rest in bed. If the fever is above 38.5 degrees, you can use a wool patch soaked in cold water to place on the forehead, armpits, thighs and other parts of the child to cool down. Ice packs will be more effective. In case of high fever, give the child an appropriate dose of antipyretic medicine under the guidance of a doctor. Don't be in a hurry and use medicine indiscriminately.

Pediatric nutrition experts recommend that young children with a fever should undergo the following dietary adjustments.

1. Stay hydrated

Water is better than medicine. When you have a fever and sweat a lot, it is necessary to drink warm water frequently to replenish your body. For infants under six months old, continue to breastfeed. Breast milk is easy to digest, can meet nutritional needs, and replenish water. Artificial feeding can be fed with diluted whole milk, i.e.

Add 2 parts of milk powder to 1 part of water (2:1). Although the baby's milk intake is reduced, the water is replenished, which is more conducive to digestion and absorption by the baby. It is advisable for young children to drink boiled water when they have a fever. They can be fed some boiled water appropriately to supplement the body's vitamin C and enhance disease resistance. Drink enough water to keep your lips moisturized, but don't drink too much.

2. Liquid diet

For young children with fever, the diet should mainly consist of liquid food, such as milk, lotus root powder, milk (with less oil), etc. You can also drink some mung bean soup or ice watermelon to help cool down, promote diuresis and fight disease. However, for infants (less than 6 months old) with diarrhea, who have poor resistance, weak gastric motility, and poor tolerance of gastric mucosa, cold drinks are not conducive to physical recovery and should be avoided. When the child's body temperature drops and his appetite improves, he can be fed semi-liquid food, such as minced meat porridge, noodles, rice porridge, egg drop porridge, and some easily digestible food (fish). The diet should be clean

The principle is to eat light and easy to digest food, use less oil and salt, eat small meals frequently, and avoid spicy and irritating foods. But there is no need to avoid certain foods to prevent malnutrition and decreased resistance.

3. Take sugar and salt water

If a young child has fever and diarrhea, the medicine can be taken multiple times. Take sugar and salt water. The preparation ratio is 500 ml of water, one teaspoon of sugar and half a bottle cap of salt. 500 ml can be taken within 4 hours. At the same time, you can supplement with electrolyte foods such as citrus, bananas and other fruits (high in potassium and sodium), milk and soy milk (containing calcium), rice soup, and pasta (containing zinc). For those with more severe symptoms, they should temporarily fast and receive intravenous drips to replenish water and electrolytes. After the diarrhea and vomiting are relieved, you can eat liquid food, such as rice soup, filtered vegetable juice, lotus root powder, etc., but you should avoid milk and soy milk (which can easily produce gas).

Children with fever and cough should not eat too much to prevent vomiting. They should eat easily digestible food and less seafood and salty and greasy food to prevent allergies and coughing and aggravate symptoms.

It is generally not recommended to inject immunoglobulin to increase the resistance of children with weak constitutions, because immunoglobulin is a blood product and its use has certain risks. Children with low resistance should exercise more, which is the key to strengthening their physical fitness.

It is not advisable for children to take injections and take medicine all the time when they have a cold and cough. They should combine it with drinking water to achieve different effects. At the same time, there are also some rules for eating. What can and cannot be eaten when you have a cold and cough is very particular. I have told you above. Methods on how to solve this problem are also proposed. Friends whose babies have cold and cough symptoms can write them down, and then take the right medicine to give their babies a healthy body.