Pneumonia in children 5 years old: symptoms, causes, effective treatment and recovery

In the article, we consider the symptoms of pneumonia in children 5 years old. What is this pathology?

One of the dangerous diseases among young children, mainly at the age of five, is pneumonia (that is, the development of pneumonia). It is dangerous, first of all, serious complications that lead to disability and even death. Every year in the modern world, about one hundred and fifty million cases of pneumonia in children are recorded. The disease kills the lives of approximately two million babies under the age of five, which is 20% of the total child mortality rate.

What is pneumonia?

Pneumonia is an acute infectious inflammatory disease with damage to the lobe of the lung, its segments or alveoli, and at the same time the interalveolar space.

In most examples, the symptoms of pneumonia in a 5-year-old child develop against a background of viral infections (more often with influenza, adenovirus or respiratory problems) with the addition of bacterial flora. Among bacteria, especially frequent causative agents of this disease in infants are streptococcus along with staphylococci and hemophilic bacillus.

Viruses with bacteria commonly found in the nose or throat can infect the lungs when they are inhaled. They can, among other things, spread by airborne droplets during coughing or sneezing.

Thus, pneumonia is one of the potentially dangerous ailments, but, fortunately, our medicine has already learned how to deal with it quite effectively. Most pneumonia are caused by pathogenic viruses. In children, the disease usually occurs between the ages of six months and six years and in 60% of cases pneumococcus is caused, which can be quite contagious.

It is very difficult to identify the symptoms of latent pneumonia in children.

Causes and factors of occurrence

The course and development of this disease is influenced by many factors, for example:

1. The presence of infectious diseases of the mother during pregnancy.
2. Presence of fetal hypoxia or asphyxia during childbirth.
3. The occurrence of aspiration (vomiting in the respiratory canals).
4. Among infants and young children, repeated otolaryngological pathologies can also affect the development of this ailment.
5. The effect of repeated purulent otitis media.
6. Exposure to congenital malformations, especially of the heart and lungs.
7. The presence of hematologic diseases.
8. The effect of primary and secondary immunodeficiencies and others.

Risk factors that contribute to the onset of pneumonia symptoms in children 4–5 years old may include:

1. Weakened immunity, which in turn can be caused by improper or insufficient nutrition of the body. This applies in particular to infants who do not receive mother's milk in the form of the main option for feeding.
2. Previous pathologies like frequent otolaryngological ailments, bronchitis, otitis.
3. The negative effects of factors such as living in a crowded home along with indoor air pollution caused by cooking and using biofuels (such as wood or manure) for heating, parental smoking, and more.

Symptoms of the disease

So, what are the symptoms of pneumonia in children 5 years old?

In the case of acute respiratory diseases, you should pay attention to such manifestations:

1. The presence of high body temperature (more than 38 ° C) for more than three days.
2. The presence of groaning breathing and coughing.
3. The occurrence of shortness of breath. For example, a respiratory rate of more than 60 per minute under the age of two months is pathological. In children from two to twelve months, more than 50, and in babies from one to three months, more than 40.
4. The presence of chills in combination with retraction of the intercostal spaces.
5. The occurrence of cyanosis (blue lips and skin).
6. Refusal of the kid from food and drink.
7. Presence of anxiety or drowsiness.

Diagnostics

It is quite difficult to identify the symptoms of pneumonia in children 5 years old. Not every pediatrician, while listening to a child, will be able to immediately detect wheezing along with changes over the surface of the lungs. There is a saying that in young children, pneumonia is much better seen than heard.

That is, symptoms in the form of pallor and cyanosis of the nasolabial triangle, along with rapid breathing difficulties, bloating of the wings of the nose, fatigue, unwarranted sweating and the like are evidence of the presence of possible pneumonia in the child.

Diagnosis is based on anamnesis (a set of information about the development of the disease), clinical manifestations, the result of laboratory and radiological studies. The most reliable method for diagnosing pneumonia is considered the x-ray method. As part of the confirmation of the diagnosis and the identification of symptoms of latent pneumonia in children, only the doctor prescribes the appropriate treatment.

Effective treatment and recovery

The treatment of this disease can be successful and effective only if it is detected early. As a rule, therapy is carried out in a hospital: treatment of children at home is allowed subject to the rules of the stationary regime. Antibiotics are used to recover from pneumonia. The choice of medications directly depends on the type of microscopic organism that caused this disease.

It is very important to monitor the effectiveness of antibiotics in the first two days of their use. In the event that the result is absent, the doctor may decide the question of replacing the antibacterial drug with some other. Against the background of treatment at home, it is necessary to provide the baby with an adequate drinking regime with normal nutrition. In this case, the room must always be fresh and clean, it should be more often ventilated. This will help deepen breathing.

Mustard plasters with banks when developing pneumonia are not recommended for children, since they do not contribute to recovery. Expectorant medicines will be needed in case of difficult to separate sputum. Getting rid of pneumonia is accelerated by breathing exercises with chest massage, but such are shown exclusively with normalization of temperature.

The basic criteria for recovery are normalization of temperature along with an improvement in the well-being and condition of the child, the disappearance of clinical, radiological and laboratory signs of inflammatory processes.

Absolute lung blood flow restoration occurs one or two months after the onset of the disease. Therefore, during this period, it is required to abandon physical overload and contact with patients. It is impossible to completely isolate the child, but it is necessary to reasonably limit the number of his contacts.

Preventive measures

Prevention of this disease in children, starting from a very early age, is one of the main conditions for reducing child mortality and disability. In the prevention of these diseases in children, an important role is played by:

1. Conducting timely immunization against hemophilic infection, measles, pneumococcus and whooping cough.
2. Providing the baby with breastfeeding during the first six months of life along with his adequate and proper nutrition in the future.
3. Conducting a systematic hardening of the child's body.
4. Introducing the baby to physical education and sports.
5. Conducting the fight against gas contamination and dustiness of the environment, exactly as indoors.
6. Protecting children from secondhand smoke.
7. It is important to observe the rules of hygiene.
8. Isolation of healthy children from patients with acute respiratory infections.
9. Timely response to any ailment of the child.

Parents always need to remember that pneumonia can be avoided if they strictly follow the above recommendations, carefully and carefully treating their children.

Consider the symptoms and treatment of mycoplasma pneumonia in children. What is this ailment?

Mycoplasma form of pathology

Such pneumonia is an infection of the respiratory canals that is caused by harmful microscopic organisms from the category of mycoplasmas. The latter are microbes that can parasitize in the respiratory canals, genitourinary system and joints. Mycoplasma infection occurs in the form of sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis and pneumonia. The main symptoms of infection are sore throat in combination with shortness of breath, dry obsessive cough, a slight increase in body temperature, and so on.

Not everyone understands what symptoms there are in children with pneumonia.

This infection is very common among toddlers. In teams, it can provoke a whole focus of the disease. Pulmonary mycoplasmosis is caused by the mycoplasma form of parasites. Infection is carried out by airborne droplets, that is, through saliva and sputum, which are released to patients with coughing. In addition, infection can occur through things that contain pathogenic substances (we are talking about toys, dishes, food). Respiratory mycoplasmosis in children can occur in the form of bronchitis or pneumonia.

The primary symptoms of pneumonia in children 5–6 years of age are sore throat along with coughing, nasal congestion and a slight increase in temperature. Parents usually take this type of infection as a standard respiratory illness, starting self-medication using expectorant and antitussive medicines. But it must immediately be said that such therapy will be inconclusive.

Against the background of the progression of the infection, SARS occurs in children, the symptoms and treatment of which are similar to the usual type. The temperature rises to 39 ° C, a general malaise with a headache and cough is observed. In the absence of treatment, the temperature can rise even higher, and breathing is difficult and quickens. Chlamydia with mycoplasmas have similar symptoms. Treatment when these microbes occur in the body is not very different. Sometimes, in the absence of the ability to establish the microbe that caused the infection, trial therapy is performed.

Atypical inflammation often occurs as a complication of mycoplasma. At the same time, the cough is dry, but sometimes a small amount of purulent sputum is secreted, streaks of blood can be recorded. This condition appears on the x-ray as a blurry shadow. It denotes a disseminated focus of pneumonia.

In almost all situations, mycoplasma pneumonia in children is successfully excreted from the body, the outcome and course of the disease are favorable, but complications, for example, nephritis or meningitis, can occur in infants with a weakened immune system. In babies, mycoplasmas can provoke sinusitis along with pharyngitis, and other varieties of the microorganism affect the genitourinary system.

Community-acquired pneumonia: symptoms in children

Particularly common causative agents of community-acquired pneumonia among children are respiratory syncytial viruses, along with influenza A or B, parainfluenza, adenovirus, rhinovirus and so on. As a rule, measles pathogens most often cause pneumonia in children living in developing countries. Pneumococcus is the most common causative agent of this disease in adolescents and schoolchildren.

The first signs of pathology

The first symptom of pneumonia in a child is a strong cough, accompanied by sputum. In addition, almost immediately, the disease manifests itself with frequent breathing and high fever. It is possible to quickly suspect pneumonia in a baby in the case of a combination of the following symptoms:

1. The presence of a temperature of more than 38 ° C for more than three consecutive days.
2. Presence of wet cough and groaning and frequent breathing (more than forty breaths per minute among children aged one to six years).

It is worth noting that the severity of the disease can be indicated by blue lips and nails in combination with pale skin, as well as the child's refusal to eat and the presence of severe weakness. These are the main symptoms of community-acquired pneumonia in children.

Is pneumonia contagious?

Pneumonia, which is caused by pneumococcus, is actually contagious. It should be noted that, in addition to pneumonia, the pathogenic microorganism in question is capable of causing an ailment in the middle ear (i.e., otitis media), and, in addition, meningitis. Despite the great infectivity of pneumococcus, people who have been ill can become asymptomatic carriers of it, so you may not even notice at all who the child was infected from.

Pneumonia can also develop as a complication of a long-running viral infection. In this case, bacterial manifestations are superimposed on the viral due to a decrease in the protective forces of the child's body.

We learn what the pediatrician Komarovsky says about the symptoms of pneumonia in a child.

Opinion of the doctor Komarovsky

The doctor reports on the danger of such an ailment as the development of pneumonia in a child, and advises parents, as part of home diagnostics, to pay attention to the presence of cough in a child, since this symptom is the main symptom of the disease in question. Parents should be wary, according to a well-known doctor, if the baby experiences instant deterioration after improvement or any catarrhal disease lasting more than seven days.

Symptoms of pneumonia in children 5 years old should not be ignored.

As a rule, it is impossible for children to take a deep breath, and therefore each such attempt leads to coughing fits. It is not excluded, as previously noted, the appearance of severe pallor of the skin against the background of other symptoms of an otolaryngological disease. Another signal, says the doctor, is the lack of effectiveness of antipyretic drugs.

But Komarovsky emphasizes that all of the above symptoms are not at all a reason to make a diagnosis and independently begin treatment of the child. Suspicion of pneumonia is a signal that self-medication is now unacceptable, and it is required to show the baby to the doctor as soon as possible.

Thus, pneumonia is an extremely dangerous disease, from which, alas, not a single child is safe. Nevertheless, it is up to the doctor to make the diagnosis, and this applies not only to children, but also to adult patients. There are many reasons for pneumonia. The fact is that absolutely any microorganism, with blood flow or with mucus entering the lungs, is potentially capable of provoking inflammatory processes. If we talk about children, that often their disease is formed as a complication of respiratory viral infections and bronchitis.

We examined the symptoms of pneumonia in children and Komarovsky’s reviews of this pathology.