Today, thanks to the Internet, which is in every home, many parents have learned to treat common ailments of their child on their own. This often applies to colds during the cold season.
Moms and dads once again do not seek to call a doctor from the clinic or take a child for tests. They believe that effective and advertised on the Internet and on television antiviral drugs for children are the very universal pill that will quickly relieve the condition of the baby.
Then such parents are surprised that their children get sick more and more often, one ailment is replaced by others, and so on in a vicious circle. The popularly beloved pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky warns that not so much viruses are dangerous as such unauthorized parental "treatment".
What mistakes is doctor Komarovsky trying to keep mum and dad from? How and when, according to the doctor, should antivirals be given to babies?
Dossier
Dr. Yevgeny Komarovsky, a native of the Kharkiv region, became famous for a series of books and publications for parents. He became one of the first physicians who, in an accessible and understandable form, explain to mothers and fathers what the causes of childhood diseases are and how to approach treatment correctly. Komarovsky himself is famous in the professional environment as an adherent of a not quite standard fundamental school of medicine, his opinion sometimes runs counter to the official position of the Ministry of Health. He raised two sons, now he already has a grandson and a granddaughter. Leads the TV program "School of Doctor Komarovsky" and a heading on "Russian Radio".
Antiviral drugs through the eyes of Komarovsky
Evgeny Olegovich has an ambiguous attitude to antiviral drugs, however, today his position is shared by the majority of modern pediatricians. The most important thing, according to Komarovsky, is that medicines for viruses are practically ineffective. The clinical effect has not been proven in the overwhelming majority of known drugs, and therefore parents who seek to feed their child with such medicines at the first sneeze first of all alleviate the condition for themselves.
They do it, rather, for their own reassurance, they say, the pill has been given, the child has been helped. This is actually a disservice. After all, antiviral agents, which function as immunostimulants and immunomodulators, make the baby's own immune system "lazy", which is formed in the first few years of life. That is why parents who, with or without reason, give their children medicines for viruses, babies get sick more often and stronger than others.
And here is actually Doctor Komarovsky himself who, in the transmission cycle, will tell us everything about children's antiviral drugs.
In his arguments, Komarovsky refers to the world pediatric practice, in which it is not considered a deviation from the norm if a child has a cold up to 12 times a year. In Russia and the former Soviet republics, the criteria are different - a baby is considered weak and painful, who catches a cold five to six times a year. They take him under increased supervision, put him on the dispensary register, take care of him and try to find more and more drugs for him.
This certainly plays into the hands of pharmacists and drug companies. During the seasons of increased morbidity, they earn billions in royalties, not really thinking about what will happen to the children who are forced, at the insistence of their parents (and some doctors of the old formation), to eat pills and syrups. Thus, parents and doctors themselves raise sick and weak children, from which unhealthy adults later grow. What to do?
One of the parents' favorite ways out is homeopathic treatment. There is no harm from them, in any case, the instructions for the use of drugs do not speak of any side effects and do not contain information about an overdose. But they cannot be called effective, according to Komarovsky. Studies of the effectiveness of such drugs are not carried out, because homeopathic remedies contain too small particles of active substances. This does not allow revealing their effect clinically in laboratory conditions.
Therefore, it is up to the parents to decide whether to use homeopathy when treating a child or not. Komarovsky says in this regard that if mothers and children need a "magic" pill, then it would be better if it be a homeopathic pill. Its action is based largely on the "placebo" effect, no matter how pharmacists and pharmacists in pharmacies try to convince parents of this.
Treatment of viral diseases according to Komarovsky
It is possible to recognize what kind of infection a child has on your own, although it is not so easy, Komarovsky says. If the baby's nose with signs of a cold is dry, not stuffy, and the throat hurts and a high fever has risen, most likely, the doctor says, we are talking about a bacterial disease (sore throat, etc.). If the snot, as they say, is pouring, the eyes are watering, the temperature rises rapidly, then a viral infection can be suspected.
Should I call a doctor? Required. Should you take antiviral drugs? Komarovsky says that only in extreme cases and only on the recommendation of a pediatrician. This is especially true for newborns from one to three years old, for them not so much a terrible viral infection as the intoxication associated with it.
A well-known doctor advises to treat a child with influenza and ARVI as follows:
- Leave the child at home at any cost. You should not take him to the kindergarten or take him across the city by transport to his grandmother, even if at first it seems that it is impossible to take time off from work and leave the baby with no one. All this increases the risk of further spread of the viral infection. Therefore, it is better to find time for your own child. Optimally, if in the very first hours at the first symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections or flu, parents will be able to provide bed rest at home.
- You need to dress your baby warmly, but do not entangle it so that the baby does not sweat.
- It is imperative to create the "right" conditions in the room in order for the child's immunity to cope with the virus on its own. Air temperature - 18-20 degrees, humidity over 50%, but not exceeding 70%. If there is no special device that humidifies the air, you can hang wet towels or sheets in the room.
- Observe the drinking regime... In order for the baby to sweat, the phlegm and the liquid separated from the nose were not viscous, thick and better to leave, there must be a lot of fluid in the child's body. Therefore, the patient should be given a large amount of tea, compote, decoctions, fruit drinks. But at the same time, one must be careful with additives such as raspberries, honey.
- Do not force the child to eat... This is the most common mistake parents make. Caring mothers try to feed the child at any cost, motivating their actions by the fact that "the child will not have the strength to recover."
Komarovsky looks at this unequivocally: such actions are criminal! If the baby loses some weight during the illness, this is a normal process. But he must ask for food himself when it becomes easier for him. Appetite usually returns a few days after the onset of the disease. The amount eaten does not affect the speed of recovery.
Doctor Komarovsky's advice
If you have a cold, do not give antivirus drugs immediately and according to your own parental wishes. These medicines, like any others, should be prescribed by a doctor for strictly defined indications, mainly when the child has a risk that a viral illness will be complicated by a secondary bacterial infection. Parents cannot assess the degree of such a risk on their own, it always seems to them that their baby is very sick and suffers terribly.
In order to raise a healthy generation, Komarovsky recommends that parents switch their attention from methods of treating certain colds with various medications to prevention and proper care. If a child is sick, he does not need a "magic" pill or "wonderful" syrup, but fresh air, bed rest, abundant warm drinks and vitamins.
Komarovsky advises parents of children who are often ill to see their children less. If a baby catches a cold many times a year, and at the same time receives proper care, diseases only "harden" his immunity, says Evgeny Olegovich. And a normal, strong immunity is a guarantee of health in the future.
The child's body is able to cope with acute respiratory viral infections or flu on its own, without antiviral pills, drops and syrups, Komarovsky said. After all, immunity "remembers" every threat from the outside. And if once he coped with a specific virus, then the next time he will do it even faster, in a natural way, thanks to interferon proteins that are produced at the cellular level in response to the invasion of the virus.
Most doctors advise and even strongly recommend giving antiviral agents for the prevention of influenza and SARS, but Komarovsky claims that it makes no sense to prevent diseases with the help of medicines. The best preventive remedy for seasonal colds is an active lifestyle, playing sports, walking in the fresh air, food rich in vitamins and minerals, and hardening.
Gauze masks, which are used and recommended for prevention during periods of mass morbidity, cannot contain the spread of the virus, Komarovsky claims. The fact is that the size of the viruses is much smaller than the gaps in the gauze. But from a drop of phlegm and snot, which infected people spread around them when sneezing and coughing, masks are partially able to protect others. Thus, according to the famous pediatrician, masks are not needed for healthy children, they are needed for sick children.
If the attending pediatrician prescribes antiviral drugs for your child as part of complex therapy, listen to Komarovsky, and do not hesitate to check with a specialist if antiviral drugs are required. Usually, there is no special need for them, according to generally accepted practice, doctors prescribe them to almost all patients with ARVI. This scheme, which partially relieves the doctor himself from possible legal responsibility for subsequently developed bacterial complications.
