How to protect your child from SARS at school. How to protect your child from flu and colds

Colds distributed everywhere. And they are especially common among children. All parents want their child to grow up healthy and get less sick. And therefore the question of how to protect a child from colds is truly relevant.

First you need to understand what conditions you have to deal with. A cold is most often understood as a disease that develops against the background of hypothermia. That is, the mechanism of symptoms is associated with the activation of saprophytic flora present in the respiratory tract. But it appears completely different with viral infections - a pathogenic pathogen enters from the outside, triggering inflammatory process. Although in everyday life both are called colds, more attention should still be paid to ARVI.

The branch of medicine that deals with the prevention of diseases is prevention. She considers various aspects of preventive care, including epidemiological, sanitary and hygienic, and medication. To prevent the occurrence of a respiratory infection, all links in the pathology development mechanism should be affected:

1. Source (of a sick person).
2. Pathways of pathogen transmission.
3. Susceptible organism.

If you stop the infection at some stage, it will no longer develop. By understanding the basic principles of prevention, you can easily protect your child from illness.

Measures regarding the source

It is known that the only source of respiratory infections is humans. Moreover, adults catch colds much less often than children. And where there are many potentially sick people, the risk of infection can be very high. A kindergarten, school, clinic are places with large concentrations of children where there is a risk of infection. But ARVI can be caught even in the subway or bus, supermarket or closed room with a crowd of people.

The sick person must stay at home or in a medical facility and not infect others. But it is difficult to influence the consciousness of others, but it is possible to change the model of your own behavior so as not to expose your child to danger. The less contact there is with other children during the flu and ARVI season, the better.

If possible, you should not take your baby to kindergarten, where many people have a runny nose and cough, do not take him to the clinic unless absolutely necessary, and do not visit crowded places, especially closed ones. Another thing is that this is not always feasible in practice, because everyone has different situations, and you can’t limit your circle of communication with peers. Then you need to pay attention to other methods of prevention.

The source of infection must be isolated and treated. This is the first stage at which the spread of the disease can be stopped.

Measures regarding transmission routes

The next way to protect a child from a cold involves obligatory exposure to the transmission route of the pathogen. For ARVI, several mechanisms of infection are known:

• Airborne (predominant).
• Contact.
• Fecal-oral (adenoviruses and enteroviruses).

Many people understand that most viruses are spread by coughing, sneezing or talking. Therefore, there should be no doubt about the desire to limit this route of transmission. The main role here again belongs to the patient himself. When sneezing and coughing, he should cover himself with his hand, a tissue, or even better, wear a mask. This will limit the splashing of saliva with viral particles.

A very important aspect that can significantly reduce the concentration of the virus in the air is regular ventilation of the room. It must be done even when everyone is healthy, and when a patient appears, it is mandatory. Quartz treatment also kills viruses, but no one does it at home (or even in kindergarten). The following measures will help reduce the risk of contact and fecal-oral transmission:

• Thorough hand washing with soap.
• Wet cleaning of the premises.
• Disinfection of toys and common items.
• Separate dishes for the sick person.

Some aspects, of course, have little to do with parents. For example, it is impossible to control how sanitary and hygienic measures are carried out in a garden or school, but at home, if someone is sick, you need to try to implement them in full. This will be a good protection for a healthy baby from respiratory infection.

To break the mechanism of transmission of viruses, it will be necessary to carry out separate sanitary and hygienic measures.

Measures for susceptible organisms

Probably everyone understands: in order not to catch a cold, it is important to have a high immune system activity. Resistance (immunity) of the body to infections is another goal to strive for. When considering how to protect a child from colds, you should remember the factors of local and general protection. The first include the normal secretion of mucus with the lysozyme and immunoglobulins it contains, and the work of the ciliated epithelium. And to keep these processes normal, you must adhere to following rules:

1. Ensure optimal temperature (18–20 degrees) and humidity (about 70%) in the room.
2. Walk outdoors regularly.
3. Always keep the apartment clean.
4. Use saline solutions in the nose.

The last recommendation will help normalize the local microclimate in the nasal cavity if external factors (heat and dry air) cannot be eliminated. As saline solutions, you can use any drugs that can be found in the pharmacy (Aqua Maris, Salin, Nosol, etc.). But it is better to use them not in a spray, but in the form of drops, especially in young children.

General resistance to infections is formed in a healthy body. Therefore, in order to catch colds less often, a child must eat well, lead an active lifestyle, harden himself, while at the same time avoiding hypothermia. These are general recommendations, but there are also specific measures, the main one being vaccination. It is the flu vaccine that can most effectively protect a child from viruses before the epidemic season. The choice of vaccines is quite wide - inactivated or live, subunit or whole virion, split - but which is best to use in a particular case, the doctor will decide.

To increase the body's defenses, so-called immunotropic drugs can be used. Their list is also quite impressive. By influencing various parts of the cellular and humoral immunity, medications help not only prevent the development of infection, but also ease its course during infection. To increase local and general protection, medications containing bacterial lysates are used:

• Broncho-Munal.
• Broncho-Vaxom.
• Ribomunyl.
• Imudon.
• IRS-19.

They are highly safe and effective for nonspecific prevention of respiratory diseases childhood. And besides drugs of bacterial origin, others are also used:

• Anaferon.
• Polyoxidonium.
• Proteflazid.
• Laferobion.
• Derinat, etc.

For preventive purposes, medications marketed as antiviral, for example, Amiksin, Arbidol, Amizon, are also prescribed. But the use of any medications should be carried out on the recommendation of a doctor and under his supervision. And you shouldn’t rely only on “magic” pills - the best result will be a combination of all the above-mentioned measures.

It is extremely important to increase the child’s body’s resistance to infections by any means. This is accomplished through increased activity of local and general, specific and nonspecific immunity.

The question of how to protect a child from colds can be answered after considering the main aspects of preventing respiratory infections. Best effect will happen if they are combined, but in each specific case the list of preventive measures will be different.

It would seem that just recently there was summer heat outside the window - and now autumn is on the threshold with all the seasonal delights: cold weather, drizzling rain, and then frosts... A child’s body is much weaker than an adult’s, and therefore with the onset of autumn the number of children who catch a cold increases sharply increases. Many doctors believe that seasonal illnesses are quite normal. But still: is it possible to protect a child from a cold? Can!

To protect your child from catching a cold during a seasonal outbreak, follow the following tips, simple but effective!

Teach your baby to breathe through his nose

This simple recommendation is very important. The fact is that it is the nasal mucosa that becomes the very first barrier that stands in the way of microbes. When breathing through the nose, a significant part of the microbes are neutralized before they enter the body. This means breathing through your nose is the first way to avoid illness.

The child should always have a clean handkerchief

It is best to use disposable paper tissues - this will prevent the spread of infection. Besides, good habit- sneeze not into your palm, but into the crook of your arm: after all, germs easily migrate from all surfaces in the house onto the baby’s palms, and from there straight into the respiratory tract.

Don't forget the onions and garlic

Natural phytoncides of onions and garlic have the excellent ability to kill microbes - and therefore it is very useful to leave a saucer with chopped onions or garlic cloves in the room where the child sleeps. In addition, you can put finely chopped garlic in a Kinder Surprise container.

Ventilate the room

Even if there is bad weather outside, take fifteen minutes to ventilate the rooms. Fresh air is an effective remedy for germs. Stop smoking indoors once and for all - tobacco smoke tends to seep into any cracks, and it does not affect the child’s health in the best possible way: in particular, significantly reduces immunity.

Do not neglect medications to prevent colds

Currently, there are a number of homeopathic medicines that help not only cope with colds, but also prevent them (for example, Oscillococcinum or Anaferon). Homeopathic medicines are particularly effective in the earliest stages of the disease and their ability to prevent infection. However, it is worth remembering that the effect of such drugs is significantly reduced when taken regularly: to achieve maximum effect, you should not take the same drug more than once every six months. However, you can always alternate medications.

Strengthening the immune system

Remember that products for children's table must be natural! Semi-finished and instant foods, when consumed regularly, have a bad effect on the health and well-being of the baby.

Active lifestyle

Physical activity helps strengthen the body. Running, swimming, cycling, scootering, rollerblading, walking - all this only benefits the baby’s immunity. Particularly useful physical exercise in the fresh air. If the baby walks a lot, runs, jumps, actively explores the playground, climbing wherever possible - rejoice, most likely his health is strong enough to withstand diseases.

Temperature changes

An organism that is accustomed to withstand temperature changes can also resist colds. Therefore, pouring cool water and visiting a bathhouse or sauna are very useful. Note that any hardening procedures must be introduced gradually - gradually reduce the water temperature, and in the sauna start with just a few minutes.

However, measures to strengthen the immune system are not a panacea or a magic pill: it will take time for them to have any tangible effect. In addition, you need to constantly strengthen your immune system. But once you achieve the result, you are unlikely to regret it - your baby will get sick much less often, become stronger and healthier.

A child's immunity after birth is a blank slate. Over time, when the body begins to encounter certain viruses and bacteria, it will begin to resist them. The body will produce special antibodies, which together form immunity - that is, the ability to resist various diseases. The most common childhood illness is the common cold, or ARVI. Often children, especially those who go to kindergarten, get colds very often. What to do to protect your child from colds?

Strong immunity against colds

Nature itself has endowed humans with strong immunity. Our task is not to interfere with its work and to support the body’s defenses in every possible way. How to do it?

1. Try to feed your baby whenever possible breast milk for as long as possible, at least up to a year. Mother's milk contains a huge amount of antibodies, which, like bricks, lay the foundation for a child's strong immunity.
2. Nutrition is very important in developing a healthy immune system. It should be balanced and varied so that the body receives different vitamins and microelements every day. A child's daily diet should include cereals, meat, dairy products, fresh fruits and vegetables. Moreover, if today you prepared buckwheat porridge, tomorrow give preference to rice, the day after tomorrow - oatmeal. Such variety will eliminate vitamin deficiency in the body.
3. Fresh air is another essential component of a strong immune system. With a child in the first years of life, you need to walk every day for at least three hours a day. If you follow this rule, your baby will get sick much less often. At the same time, walks in the fresh air can be combined with physical activity, which also plays an important role in the formation of immunity.
4. Immunity largely depends on the functioning of the intestines. Therefore, try to avoid constipation and diarrhea.
5. For a baby to be healthy, he needs good sleep and no stress. Try to put your child to bed no later than 9 o'clock - sleep before midnight is extremely important for a child's body. Do not sort things out in the presence of the baby.
6. Follow basic hygiene rules - wash your hands before eating, after walking, etc.
7. Dress your child according to the weather - this is very important. After all, overheating is just as dangerous as hypothermia. Remember, you need to dress your baby a little warmer than yourself, since he lies down and practically does not move. But children over two years old need to be dressed a little lighter, because they are constantly on the move - running, jumping, climbing. Choose layers of clothing so that you can take off one blouse on the street if necessary.
8. In order for a child’s health to be strong, it needs to be hardened. This is one of the most powerful factors of good immunity. You need to start hardening in the summer or early autumn. Start with a simple contrast shower at the end of your water treatments. Let the water be lukewarm at first, then cool. Gradually bring the water temperature to 25-27 degrees.
9. Do not allow dry air in the room, especially in winter time. The temperature should not exceed 25 degrees - this is the limit. To get rid of this, moderate the operation of the radiators, and also install a humidifier. If you add a little tea tree oil to the humidifier water, you will get disinfected air with a pleasant aroma.

These simple rules will help you build immunity in your child. But what should you do if your baby goes to kindergarten and comes home with snot every week?

How to protect your child from colds if he goes to kindergarten

Firstly, all mothers and fathers need to be prepared for the fact that the child will get sick often during his first year in kindergarten - this is inevitable. A clean child's body is faced with a huge number of pathogens. You just need to get through this period. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the child’s immunity so that illnesses are easier. The natural process of adaptation sooner or later befalls everyone - in the garden or at school. It’s better to get sick in kindergarten so that absenteeism does not affect the child’s performance.

Viral diseases are contracted through airborne droplets, through common household items, toys, and dishes. In such a situation, the actions of workers are very important kindergarten. They must regularly wash toys, quartz the room, ventilate the room several times a day, and ensure that children follow the rules of hygiene. And most importantly, they should not accept sick children into the group - those with a cough and snot. This, of course, is an ideal scenario and is often far from reality. What should parents do in this situation? What actions depend on them, and what can moms and dads do?

During the adaptation period (the first few months), you need to lubricate the child’s nasal mucosa with oxolinic ointment. Even if it does not protect the baby from colds 100%, and it only lasts 3-4 hours, it is at least a small chance that the baby will pick up fewer viruses.

During frequent colds You can hang a garlic pendant around your child’s neck. To do this, take a plastic kinder egg, make several holes in it and put a couple of cloves of chopped garlic inside. This will allow the child to inhale healing vapors that will protect him from the virus. Before the cold season, you need to take a course of fish oil - it will strengthen the body. Teach your child to breathe only through the nose - the nasal mucosa moisturizes, cleans and warms the air before it enters the lungs. If there are problems with nasal breathing (enlarged adenoids), they need to be addressed.

As soon as you notice a slight deterioration in your child’s health, you should not take him to kindergarten for at least a few days. If the baby comes home from kindergarten with snot, you need to immediately rinse the nose and give the child more water. In general, correct actions at the beginning of the disease are the key to a quick recovery. If you have an acute respiratory viral infection, do not rush to give antibiotics; moreover, they are powerless against a viral pathogen. Ventilate the room, do wet cleaning, do not force the child to eat, it is better to give a lot of tasty compote or juice. These simple rules will help your child survive the disease on their own without complications.

And, of course, give your baby more foods and drinks that contain vitamin C. These are rosehip decoction, berries, citrus fruits (if there are no allergies), apples, tea with ginger, lemon and raspberry jam.

You need to be very careful when using medications for your immune system. The principle of their work is that they produce their own antibodies that fight the disease. But you do not allow the child’s body to harden and resist the disease on its own. Artificial antibodies suppress your own body. The child will begin to get sick even more severely if one day he stops taking this drug. Therefore, many immunologists are sounding the alarm and do not advise interfering with the work of a complex mechanism - immunity.

How to protect your child from colds if there is a sick person at home

It happens that dad comes home from work with a stuffy nose and high temperature. What to do in this case and how to protect the baby from infection?

1. If possible, try to isolate your baby. You can go with your mother to visit your grandmother for a while. If your mother is sick, the situation is more complicated.
2. If isolation is not possible, you should temporarily stop kissing and hugging; the sick person should wear a mask and change it often.
3. Be sure to pay attention to hygiene - no shared handkerchiefs, dishes, or towels.
4. You should place chopped onions and garlic around the house to prevent infection.
5. Ventilate and humidify the room often - viruses do not survive in cool and clean air, but they like dry and hot air.
6. You can give your child preventive rinses of the nose with sea water to wash away the virus that has entered the mucous membrane.
7. There is such a grass - common harmala. When burned, it emits bactericidal smoke, which disinfects the room. In the absence of a child, you can burn a bunch of dry harmala in the room where the patient was, and then ventilate everything well.

By following these simple rules, you can protect your child from infection.

One of the best means Protecting your baby is getting vaccinated against influenza. However, remember that such a vaccine must be done at the very beginning of autumn before the cold season so that the body is completely healthy. Such a vaccine will not only protect against a dangerous and serious flu disease, but will also make it much easier to tolerate ARVI.

Video: how to protect your child from colds

When faced with any disease, it is important to learn as much as possible about it. Forewarned is forearmed. Having a full range of information about pathology, a person knows when to see a doctor, what symptoms to focus on, whether it is possible to get rid of health problems on one’s own, and what complications one should be prepared for.

The website provides information about various diseases, their symptoms and diagnostic methods, directions of therapy and a specific list of medications. Publications are created by us using reliable scientific sources and are presented in an easy-to-understand manner.

In the first section " Traditional medicine» information materials on various medical areas are published. Second section " Health from colds» is dedicated to ENT topics and colds, as the most common diseases in the world. The third section “” (abbreviated N.I.P.) - the name speaks for itself.

We wish you pleasant reading and be healthy!

Sincerely, Site Administration.

Every child entering kindergarten goes through a period of adaptation, which is accompanied by frequent colds. Why is this happening? This question is usually answered: “This is a kindergarten, what do you want, children there are always sick”...

What are the reasons for the frequent illnesses of children in kindergartens?

The main source of infection is children themselves. A child, once in a kindergarten group, is immediately faced with an aggressive viral environment. When children find themselves in a new environment, they begin to exchange viruses, resulting in a surge in colds. Some children, without being sick themselves, can be carriers of various infections. It should also be noted that viruses often mutate, acquiring new forms. Therefore, until the body develops immunity to new viruses and their modifications, diseases will recur.

3 days in the garden - two weeks at home

The most common colds in children are upper respiratory tract infections, which are part of the group of acute respiratory viral infections. Viruses are spread through the air through sneezing and coughing, but most of them are transmitted through objects that a sick child has touched: door handles, household items, children's toys, etc. Once on objects, ARVI pathogens can remain viable for up to 3 weeks.

Expert opinion:

German professor, Dr. Peter Theiss, who has been dealing with the problem of colds for more than 30 years, draws Special attention to preventive measures recommended by the scientific community. With the onset of the period of respiratory viral diseases (ARVI), it is necessary to pay more attention to observing basic rules of personal hygiene: wash your hands more often, quartz and ventilate the room, do wet cleaning. Few people know that the main mechanism of transmission of respiratory viral infection is contact. According to recent studies, it surpasses even the airborne route.

Therefore, the task of parents is to teach their child to wash their hands. Explain to children that they need to wash their hands after visiting any public places. And if it is not possible to wash your hands under running water and soap, you can wipe them with an alcohol-containing wipe.

A cold can be easily recognized by a number of signs: runny or “clogged” nose, cough, sore throat, increased body temperature up to 38 degrees, lethargy, poor appetite. Watch your child: if his runny nose gets worse, then most likely in the near future he will begin to cough, because... mucus accumulates and enters the nasopharynx, causing a sore throat.

Advice to parents:

It is very important to be able to leave the child at home at the slightest ailment (slight runny nose, cough) without waiting for the disease to develop and without exposing other children to the risk of infection. When getting a job, it is worth remembering that no matter how excellent the child’s health is, he will still get sick more often at first. The child’s adaptation period can last a year, and sometimes more. You should also remember about psychological aspects, because a sudden separation from your beloved mother can also affect the baby’s health.

Pay attention to the type of cough: it can be dry and barking or wet with sputum production. A dry cough is a sign of upper respiratory tract disease (pharyngitis, laryngitis, tracheitis). A prolonged, paroxysmal cough with sputum production (wet cough) indicates that the infection has descended deeper and reached the bronchi and lungs.

Educational program for parents:

Correlation of colds with an anatomical atlas: nasal cavity (rhinitis), pharynx (pharyngitis), larynx (laryngitis), trachea (tracheitis), bronchi (bronchitis).

Typically, colds go away without complications if the baby receives timely medical attention. But if a cold is not treated, it can become severe and chronic.

Where there is a cough, there is illness

If a child begins to cough and has a sore throat, it is necessary to consult a doctor and select products that improve sputum production. It is impossible to stop coughing: mucus must be removed from the body. At the same time, the baby’s temperature may rise to 38°C - this means that the body’s defenses have turned on and it is fighting the infection.

Today, mucolytics are considered the most modern and effective drugs for the treatment of cough in children. They dilute and remove mucus from the patient's respiratory tract. In terms of their composition, mucolytic drugs are of chemical and natural origin. In medical practice, mucolytics of plant origin are considered the safest. For children they are available in the form of syrups and drops.

Advice to parents:

Be careful: not all syrups of plant origin contain only natural ingredients; alcohol (glycerol, etc.), various synthetic dyes and sweeteners (flavoring substances) are often used as excipients and preservatives. Carefully study the composition, the fewer excipients, the better.

Natural sugar beet syrup is considered the safest sweetener; it not only gives the medicine a pleasant taste, but is also rich in vitamins and pectin substances, which help cleanse the body.

As effective remedy, for both dry and wet coughs, the German Cough Syrup Doctor Theiss, which contains only natural ingredients and is approved for use by children from 1 year of age, has proven itself well. It is also prescribed to women during pregnancy and breastfeeding.