ᐈ Emergency conditions in children: first aid ~ 【Kyiv】

Monitoring the health of a child is perhaps the main responsibility of parents. But careful care at home and special attention can not always protect the baby from sudden changes in the condition. If complex symptoms appear and vital functions have sharply worsened, it is necessary to take emergency measures. Thus, calling an emergency MEDICOM will help quickly and efficiently provide medical care to a small patient for the initial stabilization of well-being.

In case of obvious deterioration in health, it is possible to be accompanied to a hospital for detailed examination and treatment. Comprehensive assistance to a child in an emergency situation can be provided in the children's hospital of the MEDICOM clinic.

You should definitely call a doctor in the following cases if your child has:

Vomit.
Dehydration of the body.
Heat.
Labored breathing.
Excessive sleepiness, seizures, confusion, or unreasonable aggression.
Abdominal pain.
Sudden pain in the groin area in boys.
Signs of bacterial meningitis.
Blood in the stool.
After vaccination, a change in general condition sometimes occurs.

Vomit

If your child starts vomiting, you should pause for about 30-40 minutes before giving him anything to drink. Then give the child a few small sips of simple clean water: boiled, filtered or mineral water without gas. If possible, go to the pharmacy and buy some saline solution (Gastrolit, Regidron, Humana-electrolyte). If vomiting does not recur after 15 minutes, continue to give water in increments every 15 minutes. Do not let your child eat for about 4 more hours. If the vomiting does not stop, the child may become extremely dehydrated. Therefore, in this case, be sure to call the pediatrician.

If vomiting does not stop for more than 24 hours, and especially if it is not accompanied by diarrhea, you should call an ambulance. Vomiting and fever in the absence of diarrhea can be signs of many dangerous diseases: appendicitis, streptococcal sore throat or urinary tract infection. If the vomit contains traces of blood or mucus, or the vomit is greenish in color, this may indicate an intestinal injury or obstruction and requires emergency medical attention.

Signs of particularly dangerous diseases accompanied by fever

Fever can be a sign of serious illnesses such as meningitis, urinary tract infection and sepsis. It is necessary to urgently call an ambulance or take the child to the hospital emergency room if he has:

There is tension and stiffness in the neck muscles,
A rash has appeared that does not go away when you press on it with a finger
The child is very irritated by light,
The attack of fever does not go away, the child “shakes” with chills
The child has unusually cold hands and feet
Your baby has pale, mottled, blue, or gray skin
The baby's crying has become weak, moaning, and does not look like usual
The baby is sleepy, lethargic, and difficult to wake up
The child has difficulty breathing, the stomach is pulled in under the ribs when breathing
In a newborn baby, the fontanel on the top of the head has become bulging

What should you do if your child has a seizure? Seizures are a very serious side effect of fever in some children. Febrile seizures occur in 2–4% of all children under 5 years of age. Not all seizures cause sudden muscle twitching. Some seizures look like “fainting.” If your child develops a seizure, do the following:

Place your baby on his side.
Do not put anything in your child’s mouth, even if “experienced” grandmothers recommend doing so.
Call an ambulance immediately if the attack lasts more than five minutes.
If the attack lasts less than five minutes, call your doctor or make an emergency visit to your doctor.

Dehydration

Dehydration can be dangerous. Dehydration occurs especially quickly with diarrhea and vomiting. Sometimes children with severe sore throat tend to drink less fluid because it hurts to swallow, which can also lead to dehydration. In these cases, it is important to give the child clean water little by little, but constantly, as when vomiting. Signs of dehydration: the child urinates less than 3 times a day, he may have a headache, drowsiness, dry lips or tongue, the fontanel in infants is slightly pressed. The symptoms listed above require an urgent call to the doctor.

Heat

An increase in body temperature to 39.4 ⁰C may indicate a severe bacterial infection. Call your doctor right away, no matter what age your child is. If the child is not yet 3 months old, then you should immediately consult a doctor at a temperature of 37.8 ⁰C, if the child is between 3 and 6 months old - at a temperature of 38.3 ⁰C.

In general, not only the fact of high temperature is important, but also the behavior and condition of the child at the same time. If you give your child an antipyretic (paracetamol), and an hour after that he is still crying or fussy or behaves unusually (for example, he cannot wake up), you should urgently call a doctor, even if the temperature was no more than 38 degrees. If the child’s temperature has subsided, he is lively and calm, a doctor can be called as planned. Especially if the high temperature lasts more than 24 hours.

Intestinal flu in children

One-year-old Olezhka was hospitalized with swine flu. The temperature rose for the fifth day, plus a painful cough, and then a clinical blood test revealed severe leukopenia - 2 thousand leukocytes per microliter. The parents got scared and decided to hospitalize the child out of harm’s way.

In the hospital I felt better within a day. The blood test was repeated - leukocytes rose to 4 thousand. The department doctor also offered to stay for a day - like not all the tests had come yet - but it was clear that he was just trying to get a bed-day for reporting.

And suddenly - a new attack. On the morning of discharge, Olezhka suddenly began to vomit uncontrollably. “I told you, don’t steal food from home,” the department doctor grumbled... But the doctor was slightly disingenuous. In the next box, a girl with pneumonia also began vomiting and diarrhea. After a couple more boxes, the stomach of a patient’s mother was very upset. So homemade food clearly had nothing to do with it.

Olezhka was put on a drip, the vomiting subsided, but in the evening his temperature rose to 39. By morning, watery yellow diarrhea poured out of him. Olezhka’s grandmother called me almost crying: “We don’t know what to do now! He only got worse in the hospital. He lies all lethargic and does not get out of bed. Doesn't eat anything. Maybe we should go to another hospital?”

“In fact,” I answer, “he’s no worse off.” This is just a new disease - no less dangerous than the previous one. Most likely, the boy simply picked up another flu after his swine flu - intestinal. This often occurs in hospitals, and you are probably not to blame for anything. Most likely, the nurse, leaving the room with an intestinal infection, forgot to wash her hands and came in to see you. And since they gave you this diarrhea, let them treat you themselves. It’s okay, they’ll give Olezhka another day and he’ll come to his senses.”

Know the enemy by sight

Of course, there is no “intestinal flu” in the literal sense of the word. This is the common name for acute gastroenteritis, a viral intestinal infection. Gastroenteritis is most often caused by rotavirus. This infection is transmitted through dirty hands along the chain. The incubation period is 1–3 days.

Therefore, if something happens, we carefully collect anamnesis: for example, on Saturday the father had a stomach ache, on Monday the mother vomited, and on Thursday a one-year-old child had a temperature of 39, which ultimately lasted for three days, and there was frequent vomiting and diarrhea. Well, it looks like rotavirus.

How to fight

There are no etiotropic drugs for rotavirus. Yes, they are not needed; the virus itself will disappear from the body in a few days (weeks). The main danger of rotavirus infection is the development of dehydration. It is the cause of hospitalization and even death.

Labored breathing

Difficulty breathing can be the cause of many diseases. Noisy or wheezing breathing is a sign of croup, an asthma attack, or an ingested foreign body. Croup is a respiratory illness most often accompanied by a barking cough that gets worse at night. Difficulty breathing with croup occurs when you inhale, but can be relieved by inhaling warm water vapor from a strong shower or cool outside air. Try to provide first aid and at the same time call a doctor. You should also consult a doctor if you experience any symptoms of difficulty breathing if it lasts more than 20-30 minutes.

Excessive sleepiness, seizures, confusion, or unreasonable aggression

These conditions can be caused by many reasons, but they all require calling a doctor. Seizures are usually characterized as rhythmic jerking of the head or other parts of the body. Some of the causes of seizures can be a head injury or high fever. If the convulsions do not stop for more than 2-3 minutes, then you need to call an ambulance. Head injuries occur quite often in young children.

If a child hurts his head, carefully monitor his condition for at least 4 hours after the injury. In many children, head trauma is accompanied by drowsiness and headache, and isolated cases of vomiting may also occur. You can let your baby sleep during these 4 hours, but you should wake him up every half hour to make sure he can be easily awakened. In case of loss of consciousness, convulsions, unusual behavior or frequent vomiting, be sure to!!! call a doctor.

Accidental ingestion of medicine or poison requires immediate medical attention. Try to give the child plenty of water and a sorbent, for example, Enterosgel or Smecta.

What not to do when the temperature rises

Do not undress your child or cool him or her with blows or rubs; fever is a natural and healthy response to infection. Hypothermia can lead to complications from the infection.
Do not cover your baby with a warm blanket or wrap him up, as this may cause heat stroke. Just cover your baby with a sheet or light blanket.
Do not give aspirin to children under 16 years of age. Absolutely never! This may be due to a rare but dangerous disease called Reye's syndrome.
In children under one year of age, medications available in the form of rectal suppositories are recommended to reduce fever.
Do not self-medicate. For young children, the dose of drugs and the frequency of their use should be calculated individually; the prescription can only be made by a doctor after diagnosis.

Abdominal pain

Abdominal pain can have a variety of causes, from constipation to indigestion or the stomach flu. You should consult a doctor if the pain does not go away for a long time and is accompanied by a complete loss of appetite, greenish vomiting or diarrhea with blood. If the pain is so severe that the child cannot walk or doubles over, call a doctor immediately.

Pain above the belly button is often associated with digestive problems, indigestion, gas, or psychological anxiety (stress). Pain in the area below the navel may be due to a bladder infection. Constipation can cause severe pain in the left lower abdomen. Well, acute pain in the right side can be caused by appendicitis, and this is a reason to call a doctor.

What can lead to vomiting with fever?

The most likely causes of vomiting with fever include:

Food poisoning, most often caused by contamination of food with pathogens and their toxins. In this case, they talk about food poisoning. A sick person’s body temperature quickly rises and repeated profuse vomiting develops, soon followed by abdominal pain and diarrhea. And due to excessive fluid loss through vomit and loose stools, symptoms of dehydration appear.
Intestinal infections associated with infection with certain microorganisms (rotavirus, Escherichia, Shigella, Yersinia, enteroviruses, etc.). All of them usually begin with fever, vomiting, nausea and general weakness, soon followed by cramping and nagging pain in the abdomen with diarrhea. Intestinal infections, like poisoning, can lead to quite dangerous levels of dehydration.
Acute non-infectious diseases of the digestive system: pancreatitis, cholecystitis. Inflammation of the walls of the gallbladder and pancreas is accompanied by a moderate increase in temperature, vomiting, nausea, pain in the upper abdomen and hypochondrium, flatulence, and stool disorders. Most often, the appearance of these symptoms is caused by overeating, taking difficult to digest food and alcohol. The same picture will appear with exacerbation of existing chronic cholecystitis or pancreatitis.
HFRS (hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, also called mouse fever). This is an infectious disease in which kidney damage occurs with the development of acute renal failure. In the acute stage, the body temperature rises, urine practically ceases to be excreted, and a rapid accumulation of nitrogenous metabolic products occurs in the body with severe intoxication and vomiting.
Infectious and inflammatory diseases of the brain and its membranes (meningitis, encephalitis). Symptoms include severe headache, fever, vomiting due to increased intracranial pressure, sensory disturbances, paralysis, oculomotor disorders and even seizures may occur.
Whooping cough. This infectious disease is characterized by attacks of spasmodic, hysterical cough leading to vomiting, accompanied by moderately elevated body temperature. Whooping cough is a childhood infection, but can also develop in adults. The disease is characterized by a protracted course and long-term persistence of cough, even after the elimination of the pathogen.

There are many reasons for vomiting and fever; most often, the combination of these symptoms indicates food poisoning or an intestinal infection. But we should not forget about the likelihood of developing other diseases that are not associated with damage to the gastrointestinal tract. Only a doctor can correctly assess the complex of existing symptoms and select the optimal therapy, so repeated episodes of vomiting are a clear reason to contact a specialist.

Sudden pain in the groin area in boys

In the first weeks or months of the baby’s life, a protrusion is detected in the groin area. In boys, it may descend into the scrotum. When screaming, crying, walking, sneezing, or the urge to stool, the swelling increases in size. However, in a horizontal position, the protrusion sometimes disappears and is easily and painlessly reduced into the abdominal cavity.

In 20% of cases, sudden strangulation of the hernial contents may occur. This means that the intestine is stuck in the inguinal canal and the blood vessels are bent and blocked.

The result is severe pain, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety in the child.

In this case, emergency surgical treatment is indicated. Therefore, do not waste time and call either a pediatrician or an ambulance at home!!!

Signs of bacterial meningitis

The main early symptoms of meningitis are fever, headache with vomiting, stiff neck with a tendency to throw the head back, and a red and sore throat. They usually occur after acute respiratory diseases of the airways.

In children under 2 years of age, meningitis usually leads to increased body temperature, lack of appetite, vomiting, irritability, and convulsions. The child cries constantly. The skin over the fontanel becomes tense and the fontanel may bulge. Unlike adolescents and adults, children in the first year of life do not always develop a stiff neck. Therefore, if a child experiences the symptoms described above, be sure to urgently call a pediatrician or an ambulance at home.

What is a fever?

The normal temperature for babies and children is around 36.4°C, but this may vary slightly from child to child.

Low-grade fever is an increase in temperature from 36.7 to 38 degrees.
Fever is a high temperature of 38 C or more.

The following symptoms appear when you have a fever:

Your baby's forehead, back, or stomach feels hotter than usual.
The surface of the skin becomes sweaty (moist) and sticky.
The baby's cheeks and sometimes forehead turn red.

To measure temperature, it is best to use a safe digital thermometer without mercury filling.

Blood in the stool

If you have traces of blood in your stool, you should always consult your doctor. Depending on which part of the gastrointestinal tract the bleeding occurred in, the color of the blood may be different. A newborn baby may ingest the mother's blood during birth or from the breast during feeding. In this case, the blood is usually black and slimy. However, no other symptoms are observed and the child appears healthy.

Inflammation of the small and large intestines can cause bloody, watery stools. Abdominal bloating may be observed, the child looks extremely weak and painful.

Check your child's diet for the last 24 hours. It is likely that the child ate red food (such as beets or jelly with red dye), which may look like blood.

Dark-colored stools may occur when taking certain medications. Such as iron supplements, for example. Although the causes of blood in the stool may be minor, such as minor trauma to the intestines or anus due to constipation, seeing a doctor is necessary to rule out more serious causes.

And it is very important that the mother carefully describes the color of the stool. Is the blood mixed with mucus or stool? Consistency, frequency, smell, color of stool. Describe the child’s general condition and take the temperature before the doctor arrives.