Pregnant expectant mothers or nursing new mothers are always careful and cautious, and sometimes they are at a loss even if they encounter the most common cold.
Some people choked back, no matter how serious the symptoms were, they did not dare to take medicine and did not take good measures to deal with them.
In fact, it is really unnecessary to bear so much discomfort. Next, let’s take a look at how to deal with colds during pregnancy and lactation scientifically.
Do you want to see a doctor?
If it is determined to be the common cold, the symptoms are not serious and there is no high fever (the body temperature is greater than 39 ℃), which will generally not affect the fetus. Pregnant mothers need not worry too much, drink more water, rest more, and do not need to go to a doctor or even take medicine for the time being.
However, if the body temperature continues to exceed 39 ℃, it may increase the risk of fetal physiological defects, so don’t carry it hard when you are in high fever, let alone think that it is good for your baby not to use drugs. If you feel that your symptoms are serious, you can’t bear them or have high fever, you should seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
When visiting a doctor, please choose general internal medicine or respiratory department. The doctor will judge whether you have bacterial infection according to your symptoms, physical examination (such as throat examination, lung auscultation, etc.) and auxiliary examination (such as blood routine, etc.), and then decide how to treat it.
If you meet a doctor who refuses to prescribe medicine for you because you are a pregnant woman, you can ask the doctor to at least provide you with examination and diagnosis, because the symptoms of some other diseases may be similar to the common cold and may damage the fetus, requiring early identification.
Symptomatic treatment is fundamental.
Fever and headache
Because persistent high fever is the most likely unfavorable factor to affect the fetus, especially in early pregnancy. Timely fever reduction is very important for pregnant and lactation women. When the body temperature is ≥ 38.5 ℃, you can consider consulting a doctor and taking safe fever reduction drugs when necessary.
Acetaminophen (trade name: Piriton, Tylenol) is currently the safest antipyretic and analgesic during pregnancy and lactation. It can be taken during high fever, body soreness and sore throat, and it is also not necessary to stop lactation during lactation.
Ibuprofen (trade name: Merrill Lynch, Fenbid) can also be used safely during 3-6 months of pregnancy and lactation. It can be used for high fever, body soreness and sore throat. Please consult your doctor when you need to use it during other periods of pregnancy.
Sore or hoarse throat
Dissolve 1/2 ~ 1/4 tablespoons (1 tablespoon = 5 ml) of salt in 1 cup (240 ml) of warm water to prepare warm saline, and rinse your mouth with warm saline many times a day to relieve throat pain or hoarseness. If the pain is severe, you can also take acetaminophen, an antipyretic and analgesic drug.
Cough
- Drinking more water can also relieve cough. Honey can be taken to relieve cough, 1/2 ~ 1/4 spoon each time, many times a day; If cough affects sleep, pillow can be raised during sleep. Most cough medicines contain dextromethorphan, which can be used safely during lactation, but is not recommended during pregnancy.
Nasal obstruction
You can use sea salt water spray to wash your nose, or you can inhale damp and hot steam to relieve nasal congestion.
Which cold medicines should be avoided?
1. Avoid Chinese patent medicine preparation
Chinese patent medicine preparations such as Banlangen Granules and Ganmao Antipyretic Granules do not have much effect and their toxic and side effects are unknown. They are not recommended.
2. Avoid compound cold medicine
At this stage, cold preparations with compound ingredients (such as Contec and Tylenol cold tablets) should also be avoided, because the ingredients are complex and most contain ephedrine, which is not safe for pregnancy and lactation, so it is not recommended for pregnancy and lactation.
Can you breast-feed with cold and fever?
The mother who catches a cold is in close contact with the baby. Even if she does not breast-feed, she is likely to infect the baby with the cold. However, if the mother insists on breast-feeding, the antibody produced in the mother’s body will be transmitted to the baby through milk. The baby is not easy to catch a cold after having the antibody produced by the mother. Even if she catches a cold, her illness will not be too serious.
Mothers with colds and fever should insist on breast-feeding. At the same time, Ying Qin should wash his hands, wear masks, do a good job of prevention, and do not kiss their children.
How to kill pathogens when catching a cold?
If it is a viral infection, because there is no drug that can not only effectively resist the virus, but also belongs to the safe medication during pregnancy and lactation, so it is impossible to treat the cause of the disease and can only relieve the symptoms.
However, if the doctor judges that there is bacterial infection, he needs to use antibacterial drugs, and there are many relatively safe antibacterial drugs during pregnancy and lactation, such as penicillin, azithromycin, clindamycin, etc. If the doctor judges that your illness is more serious, the advantages of using antibacterial drugs outweigh the disadvantages and can be used completely.
If safe antibacterial drugs are used during lactation, there is no need to stop lactation.
Beware of influenza
The common cold is generally fine, but if it is influenza (hereinafter referred to as [influenza]), it may affect the fetus.
Influenza is a kind of special virus infection caused by influenza virus. Most healthy people infected with influenza can return to normal within 1-2 weeks. However, if pregnant women are infected with influenza virus, pregnant women are prone to serious complications and even death. There are also reports that early pregnancy infection may increase the risk of fetal malformation.
At present, antiviral drugs for influenza such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir are classified as grade C during pregnancy (animal tests have confirmed side effects on fetuses, However, there is a lack of human tests), it cannot be ruled out that the use during pregnancy may have adverse effects on the fetus. However, as pregnant women are more likely to develop severe illness or even die after suffering from influenza, it is recommended to use it as soon as possible.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommends that pregnant women, pregnant women (regardless of what’s pregnancy) and postpartum women be injected with influenza vaccine, which can effectively reduce the incidence of influenza.
Author: Ma Lei
Editor: Xiaoyan