Pneumonia is an inflammatory process, the course of which is provoked by pathogenic microflora. This disease is also called pneumonia. Moreover, it is referred to as life-threatening conditions.
Its feature, unlike other ailments of the respiratory tract, is the defeat of the lower part of the lungs, leading to blocking of gas exchange processes.
The most dangerous form of pathology is bilateral inflammation. It covers the lung tissue. The disease is complicated by the fact that it is able to be transported by airborne droplets. This leads to the fact that even after recovery, pathogenic microbes continue to be in the body, passing into a passive state. A similar fact allows us to make an assumption about the possibility of transmission of the pathogen of pneumonia to another person.
That is why bilateral pneumonia in a child must be recognized in a timely manner, which will help the small patient provide the necessary assistance. Indeed, in childhood, pneumonia is much more common than in adults.
What is this disease?
Damage to the lungs to the same extent is very rare. The pattern of pathology in these respiratory organs sometimes has significant differences. For example, in one lung, focal inflammation may occur, and in another, several segments are affected simultaneously.
The causes of bilateral pneumonia in a child can be infections:
- bacterial;
- viral;
- fungal.
But most often, inflammatory processes in the lung tissue occur due to pneumococcus. These microorganisms affect the respiratory system, which provokes the development of violations of the gas exchange process, the rapid progression of intoxication, as well as oxygen starvation.
Pneumonia in young children
Symptoms of pneumonia in a one-year-old child are of great concern to parents. After all, this ailment is quite serious and requires an immediate course of therapy. Particular care should be taken in infants. Indeed, advanced inflammation in the smallest patients provokes the development of respiratory failure.
In pneumonia, not only the lungs fail. Simultaneously with them, symptoms of disorders in the digestive, urinary and nervous systems are manifested.
What are the symptoms of bilateral pneumonia in a child? Manifestations of the disease in children of different ages have some differences. All of them are associated with the peculiarities of the formation of the body's immune forces.
Causes of pneumonia in menstruation
Inflammation of the lungs at such an early age is most often caused by pathogenic bacterial pathogens entering the bronchial tree , as well as weak local immunity. The general protective system of the body in newborns has not yet been formed. In this regard, pathogenic pathogens feel very comfortable in the bronchi of the baby and multiply there.
Sometimes a newborn has a surfactant defect, with which they were born. Surfactant is a structural component of the alveolar membrane. Its main purpose is the function of preserving the skeleton created by the pulmonary alveoli, as well as supporting the elasticity of these elements. But sometimes infections affect the baby in the womb. This is the reason for the lack of surfactant, which is a high risk factor for dyspnea in monthly children, as well as respiratory failure.
If the inflammatory process in the lungs proceeds quite actively, then normal activity of the gas exchange process becomes impossible. Carbon dioxide accumulates in the blood of a newborn, which becomes a cause of inhibition of the activity of brain cells.
Is bilateral pneumonia in a child very dangerous if he is premature? In such weakened children, the disease can be fatal. That is why, when the first symptoms of the disease occur, premature infants are immediately placed in a hospital. After all, at any moment they may need intensive therapy or artificial lung ventilation. All this is a consequence of the weakness and underdevelopment of respiratory tissue.
Symptoms of pneumonia in monthly children
Due to the risk of serious complications, bilateral pneumonia in a child aged one month is treated immediately after the following symptoms occur:
- temperature and cough;
- increase the level of white blood cells during a general blood test;
- runny nose and sputum production;
- shortness of breath and increased heart rate;
- blue skin.
It is very difficult to treat the pulmonary inflammatory process in infants 0-1 months of life. However, if the pathology is detected in a timely manner, then the prognosis of its therapy is very favorable.
Pneumonia in 3-month-old children
Inflammation of the lungs in babies at this age can be:
- Small focal. In this case, the X-ray diffraction pattern is detected by inflammatory zones, in size similar to large grains, which are located at a small distance from each other.
- Segmental. This is an inflammation that is simultaneously localized in several segments at once and causes pathological changes in the bronchi. This type of pathology is extremely difficult in the baby and has a high probability of complications.
- Krupozny. This is bilateral pneumonia in a child. 3-5 months - the period of life when this type of disease can occur. Children with reduced immunity are at high risk for respiratory failure.
- Interstitial. This type of pneumonia is provoked by viruses and is observed very rarely in 3-month-old children.
By the nature of the clinical picture, bilateral inflammation in children aged 3 months occurs:
- acute (lasting from 3 to 6 weeks);
- protracted (lasting more than six weeks).
If you listen to 3-month-old children with a phonendoscope, then against the background of the inflammatory process taking place, the doctor reveals quiet breathing with characteristic small bubbling rales.
Pneumonia in babies 4-6 months
The cause of pneumonia in infants at this age, as a rule, is the entry of viruses into the body with the addition of bacterial flora. Pathogenic microorganisms actively multiply in the cells of the bronchial epithelium. At the same time, they reduce the activity of local protection, thereby causing the possibility of an inflammatory process. Against this background, bacteria begin to penetrate into the areas damaged by the disease. Their presence in the respiratory organs provokes a secondary lesion of the lung parenchyma.
Most often, at the age of 4-6 months, a radiograph determines one or two-sided focal pneumonia. In this case, the child develops inflammatory reactions very quickly, which is due to the structure of his respiratory organs, their rich blood supply and the horizontal location of the ribs.
The cause of the occurrence of inflammatory changes in a 4-6 month old baby is often a weakened immune system.
Very often, in young children in the pulmonary parenchyma, congestion is observed. They are caused by the fact that the child lies most of the time, being in a horizontal position. In addition, congestion in the lung tissue in children from 1 to 6 months can be caused by the presence of artificial feeding, as well as poor hygiene. In this case, antibiotic therapy is not able to bring the proper effect, in connection with which, as a rule, the doctor prescribes combined dosage regimens.
Despite the stability of the immune system, infants 1-6 months suffer pneumonia heavily. That is why with a suspicion of an inflammatory process, a small patient is subject to mandatory hospitalization. This will allow you to urgently connect the baby to the ventilator in case of respiratory failure, the probability of which is high.
The general picture of the manifestation of the disease
Bilateral pneumonia in a child up to a year is characterized by the vastness of lung tissue lesions. Moreover, the more active and larger the foci of the pathology, the more severe its course will be. In addition, the course of the disease in children up to a year of life is characterized by good reactivity when influencing antibacterial agents. With the rightly started and properly prescribed course of therapy, the problem can be eliminated within one week.
Inflammation of the lungs in babies begins in the form of a cold. Symptoms such as cough and runny nose gradually form. The respiratory tract is affected by a bacterial infection, which, as the pathology progresses, enters the body. It is believed that at the initial stage it is very difficult to diagnose pneumonia in young children. After all, babies are not able to cough effectively, that is, show the main symptom of pneumonia. In addition, the doctor may not always hear wheezing in infants. In this regard, a suspicion of a disease arises only with a combination of such signs as:
- rapid breathing;
- shortness of breath;
- blue, arising in the area of the nasolabial triangle;
- decreased appetite;
- temperature rise;
- drowsiness.
Severe cases of illness in babies up to a year are accompanied by convulsions and pulmonary failure, as well as very severe shortness of breath. When inhaling a sick child, the wings of the nose expand, and the noise from breathing is heard even at a distance from it.
Pneumonia is diagnosed in such an early age only on the basis of data obtained as a result of radiography. This study allows you to clarify the type of ailment. Treatment should be started immediately.
Causes of pneumonia in children aged 1 to 3 years
Inflammation in the lungs in babies from one year to three can be caused by:
- pneumococcus;
- hemophilic bacillus;
- streptococcus;
- viruses;
- atypical flora, namely legionella, mycoplasmas, chladimia.
At this age, a slightly grown organism is distinguished by a strengthened immunity and a formed surfactant. They protect the baby from bacterial agents that can provoke pneumonia. At the same time, pathogenic flora containing toxins, the action of which is aimed at the destruction of the bronchial epithelium, comes to the fore. There is pneumonia in such babies and in connection with the penetration of a viral infection into the body.
Bilateral pneumonia is most often caused by pneumococcus. Moreover, its course, as a rule, is rather severe. What is the course of treatment for bilateral pneumonia in children aged 1 to 3 years? If the necessary antibiotics are prescribed by the doctor correctly and in a timely manner, then it will be possible to save the small patient from the pathology in 10-14 days, while preventing possible complications. If secondary diseases occur, then in such cases the course of the disease is delayed.
Symptoms of pneumonia in patients aged 1-3 years
What signs are characteristic of bilateral pneumonia in children (see photo below)?
These include:
- high temperature lasting more than three days;
- hard breathing, which is heard by a phonendoscope;
- retraction of intercostal spaces during inspiration;
- shortness of breath, that is, the presence of more than 40 respiratory acts within a minute;
- cyanosis of the skin;
- symptoms of intoxication in the form of weakness, lethargy and drowsiness.
Pneumonia per year
Bilateral pneumonia at this age does not occur in babies as severely as in the chest period. Less pronounced in such patients is respiratory failure. This makes it possible to treat mild forms of inflammation at home, but always under the supervision of a pediatrician. However, most often one-year-old babies are still sent for hospitalization, since there is a danger of bronchial obstruction and shortness of breath.
One of the main symptoms of pneumonia, which is very common in one-year-old babies, is bloating of the nasolabial triangle.
Pneumonia in two years
At this age, pneumonia is most often caused by a bacterial infection (hemophilic bacillus, streptococcus or pneumococcus). The last of them, as a rule, rarely provokes the development of bilateral pneumonia in a child at 2 years of age. With a normally formed immunity and with a timely course of antibacterial therapy, the pathology is eliminated in 7-14 days.
Bilateral pneumonia in a child at 2 years old begins with a general restless state of the baby and sleep disturbance. At the same time, parents are worried about the poor appetite of their child, as well as unreasonable whims, which had never happened before. Then, gradually, a nasal congestion increases in a small patient. Breathing becomes difficult. Coughing is also one of the symptoms of pneumonia in children aged 2 years, but it may be absent at the initial stage of the disease. Inflammation of the lungs is always marked by an increase in body temperature. But this symptom may not always occur. That is why the condition of a small patient should be treated very carefully.
Bilateral pneumonia in two-year-olds can manifest as a symptom such as apnea. This is a respiratory arrest lasting for several minutes. Sometimes it causes psychological disorders in the baby.
Also, in two-year-old patients, one of the signs of pneumonia is cyanosis, which occurs in the area of the corners of the mouth and wings of the nose. In addition, an organism dehydrated by inflammatory processes is able to respond with constipation or diarrhea (with infection entering the digestive system).
Pneumonia in 3 years
This age is considered to be special in babies from a medical point of view. From three years old, the number of leukocytes in the blood begins to increase in children, and at the same time, the volume of the lymphocyte decreases. In this regard, at such an age, weakening of immune factors often occurs, which significantly increases the risk of an inflammatory disease.
How does bilateral pneumonia in a child of 3 years manifest itself? It begins, as a rule, with an increase in body temperature. In this case, parents should pay attention not to the height of the mercury column, but to the duration of the fever. With pneumonia, it lasts more than three days, even with the competent treatment of a viral infection.
The most formidable sign indicating the presence of bilateral pneumonia in a child at 3 years of age is the appearance of shortness of breath (up to 40 breaths in a minute), as well as tension in additional muscles. These symptoms are more important for determining pathology than listening to wheezing.
In addition, three-year-old children with pneumonia certainly suffer from coughing. At the initial stage of the disease, it can be dry, and after resolving acute inflammation, go into a productive wet one.
The disease manifests itself as cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle, as well as general intoxication syndromes (pallor and drowsiness).
If a pediatrician called to a small patient diagnoses pneumonia, he will immediately send him to the hospital.
Pneumonia at 4 years
At this age, the inflammatory process in the lungs proceeds, as a rule, benignly. Bilateral pneumonia in a child at 4 years of age is rarely accompanied by large lesions of the parenchyma. In this case, the pathology is recognized by:
- increased body temperature, which lasts more than 3 days;
- small bubbling rales;
- hard breathing.
If the child has only an increase in temperature and a runny nose, and the remaining symptoms are mild, then a small patient can be observed at home. In this case, oral administration of antibiotics is prescribed, which will not only eliminate the disease, but also will not allow the development of pathological processes.
Radical pneumonia
This is one of the types of course of the disease. It is characterized by the presence of pathological foci in the zone of the root of the lungs. This type of disease is difficult to diagnose, especially at its initial stage. Indeed, in this case, pneumonia occurs without its specific symptoms. So, with bilateral basal pneumonia in children at its first stage, the temperature only slightly increases. In addition, the child does not change breathing, and there are also no wheezing. That is why pathology must be recognized as early as possible so that the course of therapy does not subsequently allow serious complications to develop.