I believe that the cool weather these days has made many people feel the message that summer is coming to an end and autumn is coming.
While enjoying the cool and fine weather in autumn, Ding Ma had to remind her parents unpleasantly that there was another big wave of infectious diseases ready to move.
Children’s immune function is not yet fully mature and they are most vulnerable to various pathogens. Knowing these common infectious diseases in autumn in advance can help parents to better prevent and deal with them.
First, let’s look at what common infectious diseases are in autumn.
Autumn diarrhea
Autumn diarrhea is caused by rotavirus infection, which is called [rotavirus] because it looks like annual rings under electron microscope.
The virus is mainly transmitted through feces and mouth, and is most likely to occur in infants aged 6 months to 2 years.
Although adults will also be infected with rotavirus, they basically have no symptoms, but will become recessive rotavirus disseminators, transmitting the virus to children.
Moreover, rotavirus is highly infectious, and large-scale infection is easy to occur in places where children gather, such as kindergartens and schools.
The most important manifestation of autumn diarrhea is diarrhea, with a large amount of stool, water and frequency, which can reach 5-10 times a day. Stool is yellow water or egg flower soup. In addition to diarrhea, the baby may also have fever, vomiting and other symptoms.
When the baby suffers from autumn diarrhea, vomiting and diarrhea will cause the baby to lose water and electrolyte in a short period of time, resulting in dehydration. Severe dehydration will also lead to damage to important organs such as the brain, and in serious cases it will also endanger life.
What should I do if autumn diarrhea occurs? Click on the right to view.
Pink eye
Pink eye can be caused by virus or bacterial infection, which is called infectious conjunctivitis. It is most common in spring and autumn and is highly infectious. It can be transmitted by rubbing eyes with unclean hands or sharing towels with patients.
In addition to redness of eyes, there are itchy eyes, more tears, more eye excrement, foreign body sensation like sand in eyes, fear of light and other manifestations. Both eyes can suffer from diseases at the same time or successively.
There are many pathogens that can cause pink eye. When a child’s eyes are found to be red, he or she needs to take the child to see a doctor in time and give corresponding treatment after clarifying the cause.
What should the baby do if he gets pink eye? Click on the right to view.
Hand, foot and mouth disease
Caused by enteroviruses, the most common pathogens are Coxsackie virus group A type 16 and enterovirus type 71. Although the peak onset occurs in April to July, it may also occur in autumn, mainly through air, diet and close contact. Hand-foot-mouth disease is most likely to occur in babies under 5 years old.
The most prominent feature of hand-foot-mouth disease is maculopapule and herpes in hands, feet, buttocks, etc., and sporadic herpes or ulcer in oral cavity.Because of rash in the mouth, the baby may refuse to eat because of oral pain. In addition, there will be fever, cough, runny nose and other symptoms.
Most children heal themselves within a week, and a few children may cause complications such as meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema, etc. Some severe children develop rapidly and even die.
What should the baby do if he has a hand, foot and mouth? Click on the right to view.
How to do prevention work?
Children’s infectious diseases in autumn are far more than that, but the following measures can help prevent most common infectious diseases and protect babies from being recruited.
STEP 1 Pay Attention to Hygiene
Parents should pay more attention to hygiene in their daily life and do a good job of cleaning and disinfection.
And washing hands as a simple and efficient way to prevent and treat infection, parents need to let their children understand the importance of washing hands, and teach them the correct way to wash hands, so that children can form a good habit of washing hands frequently. (Click to view the correct way to wash hands)
- Teach your baby to wash your hands frequently, in addition to washing your hands before meals and after defecation, after touching dirty things, such as touching garbage, playing with mud, sneezing or coughing with your hands, etc., also want to wash your hands. Educate your children to develop the habit of not rubbing your eyes with your hands and not gnawing your nails. Avoid sharing towels, bath towels and other supplies, tableware and toys to be disinfected regularly.
2. Vaccination
Vaccination is an important measure to prevent infectious diseases.
Severe cases of diarrhea in autumn are basically primary infections. Inoculation with rotavirus vaccine is equivalent to completing the primary infection and will produce protective antibodies. Even if infected again, the symptoms are often mild or even asymptomatic.
Hand-foot-mouth disease caused by enterovirus 71 can be prevented by vaccination in areas with conditional vaccination of EV71 inactivated vaccine.
What if you are already infected?
If the baby has been infected, giving correct and effective protective measures can avoid cross infection within the family and help relieve the symptoms of the baby.
1. Disinfection and isolation
Children’s rooms should be ventilated in the morning and evening, and used clothes, bedding, bed sheets, etc. should be boiled or disinfected by sunlight. Children attending school should take temporary vacations, and families should try their best to reduce the number of visits to children’s houses to prevent cross infection.
If it is a mild case, it can be isolated at home. If it is a severe case, it needs hospitalization.
2. Diet and Nutrition
For children accompanied by fever, children should be encouraged to drink more water, give drugs to cool down when necessary, pay attention to observe body temperature changes and whether there is water loss, and prevent electrolyte disturbance and dehydration.
In terms of diet, children should be given nutritious and digestible liquid food, semi-liquid food or soft food, and children should not be given sour, spicy, sweet and dry hard food.
3. Home care
According to the different manifestations of the disease, attention should be paid to giving corresponding nursing measures.
- Diarrhea baby, pay attention to supplement water and electrolyte, prevent baby dehydration. Hand, foot and mouth disease skin will have papules and herpes, pay attention to avoid children scratching, at the same time keep skin local hygiene. Babies with pink eye disease, especially need to pay attention to avoid rubbing eyes with hands, so as not to cause cross infection of left and right eyes, or cause aggravation of infection.
Step 4 See a doctor in time
In addition to the above three points in family care, parents also need to pay attention to the baby’s mental state and the severity of symptoms.
If the baby’s mental state, eating and sleeping become worse, or the baby’s symptoms do not improve or even worsen, he should be sent to the hospital in time for treatment.