Children have a cold and cough, these 4 types of cold medicines are useless but may be harmful, don't use them
As soon as the child has a cold, parents are anxious, and all kinds of cold medicines are on the battlefield, just hoping that the child can get better as soon as possible, but no matter how anxious you are and how critical the situation is, these cold medicines really can't be used indiscriminately, and they will be fatal.
1. These cold medicines cannot be used
1. Compound cold medicine
Compound cold medicine, to put it simply, is a cold medicine that adds several ingredients together.
Because when people have a cold, they will have several symptoms at the same time, such as fever, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, body aches, etc.
For fever and body aches, use analgesic and fever-reducing drugs, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, pseudoephedrine drugs for nasal congestion and sore throat, and cough suppressants for cough.
Therefore, for comprehensive symptomatic treatment, there is a compound cold medicine.
Many adults feel that the effect is relatively fast with this kind of compound cold medicine, but the ingredients of this type of medicine are complex, and some of the ingredients in the medicine are not allowed by children, such as some compound cold medicines contain promethazine.
Promethazine is an antihistamine drug and will also be used clinically to treat cough, but because this drug may inhibit breathing and may cause suffocation in children, WHO and other authoritative institutions have clearly pointed out that promethazine should be completely banned for children under 2 years old, and children over 2 years old should also be cautious when using it and use it in accordance with the lowest dose.
Therefore, it is not recommended to give compound cold medicine to children, especially not to take it at the same time as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, etc.
The ingredients and content of common cold medicines available in the market
2. Antitussive drugs
As soon as they hear that their child is starting to cough, parents will worry about whether they will cough up pneumonia or even white lung, so they want to use cough medicine immediately.
However, cough itself is not a disease, but a kind of self-protection of the human body to ensure the smooth airway.
Blindly suppressing cough will only suppress this behavior of physical self-protection, but may harm the child's health.
Moreover, many cough medicines contain ingredients that children cannot take, such as poppy husks, codeine and other ingredients, and long-term use of such drugs to suppress cough can form dependence and addiction, and even life-threatening!
3. Analgin antipyretics
Anandamide is a common fever reducer that is also inexpensive and has been used for generations.
However, on November 12, 2021, the State Food and Drug Administration suddenly announced that 34 drugs, including analgin, were removed from the shelves.
Anandamide belongs to the pyrazolone class of antipyretic analgesics, and the adverse reactions are mainly in the blood system, such as causing agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenic purpura, aplastic anemia, etc. In addition, it may also cause severe allergic reactions, such as severe drug eruption, anaphylactic shock, etc.
4. Phlegm-reducing drugs
Speaking of phlegm-reducing drugs, everyone is familiar with Ambroxol Hydrochloride Oral Solution (Musutan), but in fact, there is no clinical evidence that Ambroxol Hydrochloride Oral Solution can be expectorant, and it also has some adverse reactions, such as rash and itching and other allergic reactions, headache, dizziness and other neurological symptoms, as well as severe allergic reactions and so on.
Therefore, taking ambroxol hydrochloride oral solution may not achieve the purpose of expectorant and may increase other side effects. Moreover, thinning the phlegm does not clearly improve the child's own disease.
To remove phlegm, it is necessary to understand the cause of excessive phlegm and solve the problem at the root.
Second, what can we do if the child has a cold?
Of course, it does not mean that we can't do anything when our children have a cold, but we must use medicine and care scientifically.
1. Rational use of antipyretics
If your child has a fever when he has a cold, if he is listless and has a bad appetite, he can take antipyretics no matter how high the temperature is.
At present, there are two types of pediatric fever reducers recognized by the medical community: ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Just follow the instructions or your doctor's instructions.
2 Use sea salt water to relieve runny nose
When your child has nasal congestion and runny nose, you can use sea salt water to spray your nose to relieve your child's discomfort.
Physiological sea brine can also be called isotonic sea brine, because it contains more trace elements than ordinary raw brine, so it has cleaning, bactericidal, antiviral effects. When there is too much nasal secretion, it is still necessary to use it appropriately when there is a cold and nasal congestion.
3. Use honey to relieve coughing
For children over 1 year of age, 2-5 ml of honey can be taken appropriately to relieve the discomfort of the child's cough. Note: Children under 1 year old cannot use it.
In addition, there are some other ways to alleviate children's discomfort, such as drinking more warm water, maintaining a certain humidity in the room, increasing or decreasing clothing, resting more, and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.