Children are mobile creatures, little concerned about their own safety and lacking a developed sense of self-preservation. Therefore, various injuries can haunt the child constantly. It also happens that as a result of an accident, a child develops signs of concussion. In children, such symptoms require compulsory treatment at a medical organization for medical help.
Baby's body
Childhood is the time for active changes in the body, because a person needs to grow from a newborn baby into a grown-up personality. Activity and curiosity are the main features of a growing personality. Moreover, this is characteristic of both the baby starting to crawl and walk, and considering himself a very adult and independent teenager. And it often happens that a concussion of the brain becomes a consequence of children's worldviews. The child is 2 years old or 12 years old, it does not matter, in case of a head injury in any case, a consultation with a medical specialist is required.
Concussion like an injury
Shocks, inadvertent sudden movements of the head in most cases lead to concussion. This phrase is the lightest, so to speak, form of trauma of this major organ that precedes a bruise. However, the concussion is also divided by experts into several degrees:
- mild - no loss of consciousness, slight lethargy, the child may experience nausea, after 20-30 minutes the condition returns to normal;
- medium degree - there may be a loss of consciousness for a short time, the child periodically feels sick and vomits, you can see the external signs of trauma - a trace of an impact, a hematoma; health status can normalize after a few hours;
- severe degree - sufficient prolonged loss of consciousness or disorientation in space, paroxysmal vomiting and nausea, severe headaches; Mandatory hospitalization and round-the-clock monitoring of medical staff is indicated.
They are characterized mainly by the time of loss of consciousness during trauma, as well as the severity of symptoms and consequences. So, for example, a concussion in a one-year-old child is diagnosed precisely by external signs, since the baby cannot yet independently talk about his condition.
A concussion in itself is a small contact of the gray matter surrounded by the cerebrospinal fluid with the solid walls of the skull. This occurs with sudden movements of the head: falls, collisions. A stronger contact of the brain with the bones of the skull is called a bruise. It is noteworthy that with this form of traumatic brain injury, pathomorphological changes can be detected only at the cellular and subcellular levels, but external, let's say, signs are diagnosed as a result of a concussion.
What should alert you?
The first signs of a concussion in a child may not alert parents if they did not see the moment of injury themselves, and the child either cannot tell it on his own or hides it. But the sudden onset of lethargy, drowsiness, nausea, or vomiting should alert and force the parents to contact a child with a specialist who can determine the amount of injury. Signs of a concussion in children may be mild, not taking place in a complex, but as if separately, but in any case, a child’s examination and doctor’s consultation will not be superfluous.
How does concussion manifest in infants and young children?
It would seem, how can a concussion occur in a baby? Symptoms of the problem indicate damage to the brain associated with a stroke, a bruise. But the baby is quite abrupt, rough treatment, when the concussion is defined as "shaking syndrome." Parents may not realize that the child received a mild form of head injury, attributing crying, moods, refusal to eat, spitting up, drowsiness for other reasons. A child who cannot speak and explain what is bothering him, in the absence of pronounced manifestations of a concussion, such as loss of consciousness, open wounds, can only behave differently than usual for several days. This should be the reason for contacting a pediatrician.
As for older children, they may not talk about head injuries due to fear or punishment from the parents themselves or if they received threats from a person who indirectly or directly caused a traumatic brain injury. Therefore, a change in the behavior of the child, as well as bouts of nausea and vomiting, complaints of a headache require an appointment with a specialist who can determine the cause of the ailment and prescribe treatment that is appropriate for the situation.
Teenager has a problem
A concussion in a teenage child can also be a health problem. After all, children are curious, do not think about their safety, and extreme hobbies, we can say, in adolescents just boil in blood. Such craniocerebral damage is manifested, depending on the severity, by the following symptoms: nausea, frequent vomiting, loss of consciousness and disorientation, headache, external signs of head trauma. Unfortunately, adolescents can often hide from their parents an incident that happened to them, and therefore the period of the problem can go away without medical supervision, but if the injury is severe enough, then its consequences can be quite unfavorable for the child’s health. Attentive attitude on the part of adults to a teenager, a trusting relationship in a child with parents will help to cope with any difficult situation correctly, without fear of punishment and misunderstanding.
Medical aspects of the problem
The degree of concussion in children can be different, only a specialist can determine the quality of the injury. Modern neurology, unfortunately. recognizes the fact that it’s quite problematic to diagnose concussion today. This is due to the non-specificity of the result of the injury, since the signs that appear with a concussion serve as indicators of a number of health problems. Many experts rely on the fact that concussion is diagnosed as a differentiation method, that is, the gradual exclusion from the list of potential problems of similar manifestations of pathologies. As a result, a concussion of a certain degree of severity is diagnosed.
Craniocerebral trauma can manifest itself as individual, single symptoms, and their complex. In addition, an uncharacteristic sign may appear - the temperature during concussion in children. This is associated more with the reaction of the body to a traumatic situation than with the development of the inflammatory process. Although a brain injury, the appearance of a hematoma and the lack of adequate treatment can cause inflammation at the site of injury to the skull.
Urgent measures at home
Any symptoms of concussion in children require a specialist visit for consultation and a thorough examination. Whatever the reason for the deterioration of well-being, the child needs to receive quality therapy. If parents or other adults saw the fact of the injury or the child was able to tell what happened, you must first perform the following steps:
- call an ambulance, explaining the situation;
- to lay the child on a flat surface;
- reassure the victim emotionally, without resorting to special medicines, even seemingly as harmless as valerian;
- apply something cool to the injury site, for example, a towel moistened with cold water to reduce the risks of complications - the development of edema and hematoma;
- if necessary, treat open wounds and abrasions with special means, for example, “Chlorhexidine”.
A concussion in the infant is accompanied by crying, as the baby cannot tell him what is bothering him and what happened. And if there was no clearly recognized moment of injury, for example, the child did not fall from the changing table, but there was rough treatment of the baby, for example, sharp shaking, then parents should assume the potential danger of concussion in the baby and also call an ambulance.
If you suspect a brain injury, give the child any medication, even symptomatic, to eliminate nausea, for example, without consulting a doctor.
Diagnostic Principles
Diagnosis of concussion in children is a whole range of measures that work both to identify the causes of deterioration of well-being, and to identify the depth and extent of the injury. For this, the specialist uses a survey of either the child himself or adult relatives, an external examination, the appointment of generally accepted tests - the baby needs to pass urine and blood to determine the inflammatory process, for example, which can cause the disease. Then, MRI, CT, radiographic examination are prescribed. Which method of examining the child to choose in each individual case, the specialist decides, depending on the situation.
An informative method for the diagnosis of traumatic brain injury, as well as congenital pathologies - electroencephalography. It allows you to identify the electrical activity of brain cells and draw conclusions about the pathological processes taking place in a particular area of the organ. Neurosonography is also used to establish the fact and extent of brain trauma in infants, in which, through an unprotected bone tissue, the cranial section - the fontanel - is examined by ultrasound examination of the baby’s brain. But ultrasonic encephalography allows you to literally "see" the state of the brain on the monitor screen - tumors, hematomas, injured areas.
Ways of treatment
Mild concussion in children most often does not require hospitalization. The treatment of such an injury is carried out on an outpatient basis, but the child needs to ensure maximum rest, both physical and psycho-emotional. More severe forms of brain trauma require hospitalization, where the patient will be assigned both additional examination methods and appropriate treatment, which may include a whole range of drugs:
- antiallergenic drugs (such as "Fenkarol");
- vitamins;
- diuretics;
- nootropic drugs;
- pain medication;
- sedatives.
Some symptoms of concussion in children may require appropriate therapy. For example, vomiting can be tamed with antiemetic drugs and drugs aimed at regulating the water balance. In a hospital, a small patient should also be provided with peace.
Throughout the treatment period, the child is required to observe bed rest - this is the main guarantee of successful treatment of concussion for any severity. Unfortunately, medicine today cannot guarantee that any disturbances in the activity of the central nervous system that may arise in subsequent life are not the result of a trauma to the cranial structure. Therefore, the more carefully all recommendations of the treating specialist are followed, the better the result of therapy.
Rehabilitation period
A concussion in a child is one of the forms of traumatic brain injury that can occur for the most seemingly harmless reason. Breastfeeding, for example, suffers a strong shake during rough handling to get such a problem. Diagnosis of a concussion depends on its external manifestations, because a mild form of injury may not make itself felt after a couple of tens of minutes. And if the parents are not too attentive to the baby, and the fact of the injury was not visually indicated and recorded, then it may happen that no one can even guess about it, attributing the crying and regurgitation of the baby to digestive problems.
An older child or teenager can also hide the injury for some reason, and a mild form of concussion can manifest itself only as weakness and a slight nausea. Naturally, adults, having noticed changes in the condition of a small person, in any case should show the child to a specialist, especially if brain trauma was serious enough and was manifested by loss of consciousness, disorientation, nausea and vomiting. In addition to the therapy itself, which contributes to the normalization of brain function, the rehabilitation of the child after an injury is important.
All measures that need to be provided to a small patient who has suffered a brain injury should be prescribed by a doctor or agreed with him. It is necessary to ensure the daily routine corresponding to the child’s age, high-quality nutritious nutrition, to observe a gentle period of time sparing physical activity and, of course, to avoid repeated injuries. External signs of concussion in children can go away within a few days, but changes at the cellular level can persist for a long time and lead to health problems even after years. Unfortunately, modern diagnostics are not yet able to detect such changes and prevent their consequences with a 100% guarantee.
Avoid future problems
Modernity is full of trauma risks. This is especially true for children of any age: kids are curious and restless, older children are curious and do not have a developed sense of self-preservation, adolescents have a feeling of their invulnerability. And therefore, child injuries occupy the first positions among the problems of medicine. Signs of concussion in children may be implicit if the traumatic brain injury is mild. But even if the child feels relatively well after hitting, falling, colliding with an object, it is necessary to show it to the doctor, undergo the necessary examinations and receive treatment and rehabilitation measures appropriate to the situation. A concussion can pass in a matter of days, but manifest itself after years of disturbances in the nervous system.