Inhalation is a very popular procedure among parents. And even if you have not even thought about the possibility of making them for your child at home, then it is obligatory to find someone from your friends, relatives or even doctors who will definitely advise you to inhale a sick baby.
The famous pediatrician, author of books on children's health and well-known TV presenter Yevgeny Komarovsky talks about the most common parental mistakes, the benefits and harms of these procedures.
Komarovsky about the procedure
Unfortunately, parents rarely go to doctors for inhalations, says Yevgeny Komarovsky. And all because every family has its own ways of carrying out this procedure. Some generations have been breathing on a bowl of boiled potatoes, others have bought an inhaler and are experimenting with herbal decoctions and essential oils. Rarely does a mother go to a pediatrician for advice. And this must be done, says Komarovsky.
Is inhalations really so useful for the body and contribute to a quick recovery from respiratory diseases - Dr. Komarovsky will tell about this in the next video.
Inhalation therapy is based on the inhalation of gases or vapors in which a certain drug is dissolved. It is this medicine that will have an effect on the bronchi, lungs, trachea.... Parents who boil a pot of potatoes for any illness to their child simply do not know that there is no treatment during such inhalation. After all, the child breathes in vapors, water. And it moisturizes the bronchi well and is certainly beneficial. But it doesn't heal.
The effect of inhalation with warm steam, according to Komarovsky, is approximately the same with the effect of procedures from inhalation of herbal infusions and decoctions. That is, both boiled potatoes and a decoction of lemon balm or chamomile actively moisturize the respiratory tract. But in the second case, the placebo effect is triggered in a person - he breathes not just water or saline, but "herbs, the useful properties of which have been written in many books."
That is why Yevgeny Olegovich considers any inhalations at home to be a procedure useful primarily for the parents themselves, who simply cannot sit around when the child is sick. They need to do at least something, and even inhalation.
A serious therapeutic effect from inhalation therapy is given by procedures prescribed by a doctor, using serious drugs and special devices for spraying them.
What to do?
Specialty inhalation devices are called inhalers. They are intended for treatment in hospitals and physical rooms. Now a whole segment of devices is intended for home use. In general, the concept of "inhaler" is quite capacious, says Evgeny Komarovsky. This includes ready-made pharmacy inhalers with some kind of drug inside (for example, "Ingalipt"). You do not need to cook anything with them, just take, press the dispenser and inhale the aerosol with the medicine. The most traditional inhaler is steam. It acts like an electric kettle - it warms the solution poured into it and you can breathe in vapors over it.
Ultrasonic inhalers heat and vaporize medicinal solutions with ultrasound. And compressor ones create an aerosol from a liquid with a stream of air. The most modern device for inhalation therapy is called a nebulizer.
The difference between an inhaler and a nebulizer is that the latter create healing aerosols without steam, using a vibrating membrane, and in the fine substance that the child will inhale, as a result, small particles of the drug are contained. How to choose an inhaler will become clear after parents honestly answer the question of why they are purchasing this or that device. Komarovsky emphasizes that the main goal is not inhalation for the sake of inhalation, but the treatment of one or another respiratory disease.
Therefore, for parents who plan to treat diseases of the upper respiratory tract, when the child needs active moisturizing of the mucous membranes, it is better to buy steam inhalers. For therapy for diseases of the lower respiratory tract (and usually these are serious diagnoses, such as bronchial asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a nebulizer is more suitable, which will make it possible to take pharmacy medications during the procedure that the doctor prescribed to the child. They are usually pretty serious too, like Berodual. You can also buy a compressor inhaler.
As a rule, inhalers are designed for one or another dispersion (aerosol particle size). One inhaler, therefore, can be effective for bronchial asthma, and another for pneumonia, since very small particles are required to treat the lungs and reach their destination. There are very expensive models in which the ability to change the dispersion is provided. But they are so expensive that you can hardly find them at home, more and more often in clinics and clinics. They can treat diseases of both the upper and lower respiratory tract, just by changing the type of aerosol dispersion in the device menu.
Benefit and harm
In addition to the obvious benefits, inhalations have very tangible harm, which cannot be ignored. First, there are diseases for which inhalation is contraindicated. And there are much more of them than those ailments that can be treated with an inhaler. Komarovsky warns that in no case should it be possible to treat angina with inhalation. Steam inhalation should not be given to a child with otitis media. Heating in pairs will only intensify the inflammatory process in such situations.
Steam procedures, in all cases without exception, are categorically contraindicated for children who have not yet turned one year old, for preschoolers without a preliminary prescription from a doctor. You cannot try to treat a child in this way who has a bacterial infection, pain in the ear or a feeling of ear congestion, there is blood or pus in the sputum. You should never do inhalation at elevated body temperature.
The younger the child, the more dangerous inhalation is for him. The peculiarity of children is in the narrow nasal passages. And if the dried mucus is well moistened with steam inhalation, it will swell, increase in volume, but will not be able to go outside and this will provoke very serious consequences, up to asphyxiation.
Inhalation should not be carried out at the request of the parents or at the whim of the grandmothers, but according to strict indications and only on the recommendation of a doctor. Otherwise, the harm from the procedures will significantly exceed the potential benefit. Inhalation is always a risk, says Evgeny Komarovsky. Firstly, the risk of obstruction and otitis media, and, secondly, the risk of burns or electrical injury.
Essential oils
Inhaling the vapors of essential oils by a child is very useful, especially for parents who immediately feel calmer in their souls, and for those who sell these very oils. Evgeny Komarovsky emphasizes that oils cannot be used in any type of inhaler, except for steam.
But whether it is worth doing this at all is an open question. After all, the effectiveness of inhalation of cedar or eucalyptus oil vapors has not been proven by official medicine, one can only guess or follow the advice of traditional healers. But Komarovsky urges you not to experiment on your own children, because with such inhalations, the risk of not only getting a burn increases, but also of earning an allergic reaction to some herbal component.
Tips
- You should not do inhalation with medications with the onset of signs of SARS or flu. The benefits of it may be less than the harm. Prevention of viral diseases is impossible with any medication, whether they are in tablets or in the form of solutions for inhalation.
- Doing inhalations on your own is possible only for diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
- For inhalations with hot steam, it is better to use a special device, and not a pot of boiling water or potatoes. After all, under a blanket over a pan, a child has a very high chance of spilling this pan and getting multiple skin burns or suddenly inhaling hot steam and getting burns of the mucous membranes of the respiratory system.
- Correctly optimized drinking regime during illness, humid indoor air and normal air parameters in the room may well replace inhalation. If the conditions (temperature 18-20 degrees. Air humidity 50-70%) are met, the mucus will not dry out, and there will be no need for inhalation therapy.
- If the family is faced with the choice to buy an inhaler or nebulizer, Komarovsky advises not to take either one or the other, but to buy a humidifier.
