Cold or Flu - Which Does Your Child Have?
Dr. Jana's 5 Tips for Giving Medication to Infants
How Important Is It For Your Child To Take All The Medicine?
Cold or Flu – Which one does your child have?
Sometimes it can be overwhelming – should you call the pediatrician or not? Many moms think they call the pediatrician too often. However, if your child has the flu, it is important to talk to a pediatrician. But how do you know if your child just has a common cold or the flu? Below you will find key differences between the two.
Both the cold and the flu are respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. Typically, the cold is milder than the flu and generally doesn't result in serious health problems.
Sometimes it may be difficult to tell the difference between the two, but according the National Institutes of Health there are some obvious differences in symptoms.
Symptoms the cold and flu may have in common:
General aches & pains- colds sometimes have these, but they are common and often severe with the flu
Fatigue & weakness – colds are sometimes associated with this, but it usually occurs with the flu and can last up to 2-3 weeks
Stuffy nose & sneezing – common with colds and sometimes occurs with the flu
Sore throat – common with colds and sometimes occurs with the flu
Chest discomfort & cough – mild to moderate with a hack for colds, but can be more severe with the flu
Symptoms that are not shared by colds and flu's:
Fevers – rare in colds, while usually occur with the flu (100°F-102°F, occasionally higher in younger children)
Headache – rare in colds, but common with the flu
Extreme Exhaustion – never occurs with colds, but it usually occurs with the flu, especially at the beginning of the illness
Complications of the cold vs. the flu:
The Cold – sinus congestion, middle ear infection, and asthma
The Flu – Bronchitis, pneumonia, and can be life threatening
If you think your child is suffering from the flu be sure to contact your child's pediatrician right away.
If you're still not sure, play it safe and talk to your child's pediatrician.
This article was brought to you by ReliaDose® - The Easy & Accurate Way to Give Medicine to Your Baby.
www.ReliaDose.com
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases – September 2005, www.niaid.nih.gov
Dr. Laura Jana, Leading Pediatrician and Author:
Five Tips for Giving Medication to Infants
All too often, parents forget to handle with care the everyday medications we give our
children, especially when it comes to the readily available over-the-counter medications. The
recent infant cold and cough products recall serves as a frightening, but important reminder that
no medicine comes without risk.
Dr. Laura Jana, accomplished pediatrician, author, and mother of three, acknowledges parents' natural instinct to try and make their children feel better when they're sick, but warns that overdosing can cause serious side effects. Here she provides five important ways parents can ensure accurate dosing of medication for their infants and young children:
1. Children are not simply little adults. Never assume that adult medications are OK to give to children. What is recommended for treating adults is not always approved for use with children. Not only can dosing and frequency of use vary significantly, but children may also be at risk for unwanted side effects not experienced by adults.
2. Weight matters. Too much of a medication can be very harmful, while too little may prove ineffective. While medications approved for use in adults and older children typically offer dosing instructions by age, what's most important for accurate dosing of medications given to young children (especially those under the age of 2) is their actual weight. Given that weight can change significantly over relatively short periods of time at this age, parents should always talk to their doctor or pharmacist before administering medication to their children to make sure they're giving the right amount.
3. Treat symptoms only as needed. It's important that parents don't over treat their children by using medications designed to tackle an all-encompassing list of symptoms. If a child has a horribly runny nose and a hacking cough significant enough to warrant treatment, then it's best to use medications made to treat those specific symptoms. Also, be sure to continue to use them only for as long as they are truly necessary.
4. Coping with rejection. Let's face it, some medicine - both over-the-counter and prescription - doesn't taste so good. And even when it does, young children who don't feel well are prone to spitting it out, throwing it up, or simply rejecting it altogether. While it may be tempting to try and mask the taste by mixing the medication directly with other liquids in a child's bottle, unfortunately, parents are all-too-often left guessing how much medication has actually been absorbed when children fail to finish drinking it. Since repeat dosing runs the real risk of an overdose, it's critical to discuss with your child's doctor before offering a second dose, and better yet - getting it right the first time.*
5. Contact Your Doctor or Pharmacist. Remember, you're not a doctor. You're a parent. Rely on credible sources, such as your pharmacist and child's pediatrician, to make sure you always get the right medication for your child's symptoms, the right amount of medication for your child's age and weight, and that you are giving it to your children the right way. Doctors and pharmacists can give you additional valuable information, such as which medications should not be mixed with other liquids, so you can make sure the medicine you're giving is not only necessary, but that it is going to be safe and effective as well.
As we head into yet another cold and flu season, remember to ask yourself (and your child's doctor) if over-the-counter medications are really necessary before getting them off the shelf. If your child is eating and playing normally, and you find yourself having to chase him all around the house in order to give him something to treat his symptoms, the odds are in your favor that he's probably going to be OK without it. Just as adults don't always need medicine to make them feel better when they're sick, the same rules apply to kids. As a parent, always remember to ask yourself: "Does this [runny nose] bother me more than it actually bothers my child?" If so, a tissue may be all the treatment you need.
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How Important is it for Your Chilld to Take all the Medicine?
What is compliance? Compliance is taking the right amount of a drug at the right time for the total length of days of treatment.
It's common for a visit to your doctor's office to end with a written prescription for medications. Those little pieces of paper are extremely important for you, your child and your pharmacist. They provide the exact medication directions for the pharmacist to dispense, and for you to administer, in order to properly treat your child's symptoms. The speedy control of disease requires that your child take all the doses at the proper intervals of time. This requires compliance, which you know is not an easy thing. Yet, for your child, being almost 100% compliant is almost as critical as the medicine itself.
Skipping doses or forgetting to take medications or ending a drug regimen early are serious matters. In fact, not finishing a complete treatment program or not following directions from your pediatrician and/or pharmacist can be harmful to your child's health.
In order for a drug to be effective it must circulate in the blood system to the ailing tissues. Some drugs require only one dose per day and persist in the body for 24 hours. Others, however, are destroyed or excreted by the body, and require more frequent dosing. For children taking liquid medications, compliance can be particularly difficult to achieve when medications are bitter, sour or foul-smelling. In fact, The Academy of Pediatrics estimates that compliance in children is as low as 53%, indicating that children frequently fail to take medications properly. Therefore, drugs are not made available in the body to combat disease.
Source: International Association of Medicinal Compliance