April 28, 2011

What is Flu and How to Treat Flu?

We cannot deny that it is very common for us to check our child’s temperature by touching his forehead and neck just to see if he has a fever or not, this what we did last Tuesday at 3AM because we are having a hard time checking my son’s temperature. So, we gave him paracetamol for his fever. The only time that we can check his temperature is when he is sleeping; his temperature ranges from 99.8 to 100.1 Fahrenheit.


He was able to go to school for the last two days because he looks so fine and active. But yesterday, I am starting to get worried because I feel that my son is not ok because he is not very active, he always wants me to carry him and he keeps on hugging me. Though I cannot check his body temperature again, I know that he has a fever, aside from that; he also has watery eyes, loose bowels, runny nose and sometimes he coughs. When he vomited last night we decided to bring my son in E.R.



As expected, the nurse is also having a hard time checking my son’s temperature though he is using an ear thermometer, temperature is 38.9 degree Celsius. My son is not really cooperating during his check up so I am not really sure if the diagnosis is accurate, the E.R. doctor was not able to check my son’s ear and mouth. There was no stool sample after two hours so the E.R. doctor said that is flu. Now, my son has flu when he had his flu vaccine last April 16, 2011. (Not good). We were told to give him paracetamol every four hours for fever and Probiotics once a day for 3 days. Nurse gave us stool collector so just in case my son’s poops.
I was reading the instructions sheet and this I have found out about flu. 

Flu 

is very common in children and it is considered as a viral illness. The germs can be passed from one person to another from a cough and sneeze spray. Antibiotics will not help and there is no medicine that can cure flu because it will go away on its own. It may last for one to two weeks.
Symptoms of flu 

are chills, fever, sneezing, stuffy or a runny nose, watery eyes, decreased appetite, headache, decreased activity, muscle aches, sore throat, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing and rashes.
How to treat?

The child should not get dehydrated by giving him plenty of clear liquids. Do not force them to eat solid food, if they don’t want to. Use cool mist vaporizers not hot steam vaporizers if the child has a stuffy nose, cough or a sore throat. Give paracetamol for pain or fever. Give your child plenty of rests.
Return to E.R. or call your child’s doctor if the child’s breathing seems heavy, dehydrated, no tears when he cries, no urine for six hours, he acts tired and will not play, looks like he lost weight, looks or acts sicker, very sleepy or irritable and if fever lasts for more than 4 to 5 days. If he develops news symptoms like stiff neck, rashes, nose bleeding, gum bleeding or pains.

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