What is happening inside ?

When we get a cold or some such thing, we get a blocked up, runny nose, often a sore throat from mouth breathing all of the time, a headache, general muscular aches and pains, sometimes a temperature and we just feel generally rotten. When kids get colds and similar viruses they feel just the same, but usually with a fever added for good measure. Whilst they obviously can't tell us, there is no reason to think that babies and toddlers feel any better when they are unwell than the rest of us. Bearing in mind just how crap we feel with a streaming cold, it is little suprise that young children get so fretful and upset when they have these bugs.

What is actually going on inside a baby with a cold is just the same as in an adult with a cold. The one thing that does differ is the size of the nose and airways that get their linings inflamed. This means that whilst you may feel a stuffy nose, in a child it is totally blocked. Similarly in the unlikely event of the virus irritating the breathing tubes enough to cause wheezing, it will be more noticable in a child with smaller airways.

The other big difference between small children and adults with colds is that the small kids are much more prone to getting a high temperature along with the other symptoms. Frequently it is the temperature that concerns parents more than the cold itself. However it is important not to make the mistake of regarding the temperature as the illness and just treating that. A raised temperature is just a symptom of some sort of infection, ( in this case an infection of the nose with a cold-virus) the temperature is not the illness. The high temperature in itself is not harmful, (though you feel pretty rotten at the time.) and how high the temperature is in no way indicates the severity of the infection.

How long does it last?

The normal course of events, the symptoms with a cold (or similar bug) will get progressively worse for one or two days, stay about the same for 2-3 days then resolve over the next 2-3 days. So the entire episode should be expected to last about a week to 10 days. Even after this the child is frequently left a bit sniffy and with a cough for some time after. Often several weeks.

This sort of duration is normal and should be expected. Sometimes you may be lucky and your particular bug may have cleared up in 2-3 days. This is great when it happens but please don't expect it.

It is frustrating when your child is still be blocked up with a nose pouring green snot, ages after all your friend's babies are fine. This does not mean that your baby has something wrong with it. Neither does it mean that your Doctor has told you that it is just a virus, when really your baby has some dreadful deadly disease that your incompetent GP totally missed. All that it means is that your child has been unluck and has picked up a bug that is taking a little longer than usual to clear. Some kids do seem to make heavy going out of colds, and appear to be snotty and blocked up nearly all of the time.

Unfortunately catarrhal blocked up children, grow up into catarrhal blocked up adults. There really is not a whole lot that you or anyone can do about this. People are not all the same, which is probably just as well.

How to treat it.

The first thing to remember is that this is just a cold, and not get carried away with enthusiasm for treatment. Also rebember that no matter how poorly your baby is with the cold, in a week he will be better. It is important to rememberthat it will be better in a week regardless of what you use for treatment, or if you do not treat it at all. So when the cold gets better just three or four days after starting on your latest pet medicine, remember that it would have been better by now anyway. The medicine does not get the credit!!

When it comes to effective treatment of the underlying virus infection, there is not any invented yet. All that we can do is to treat the symptoms to give some relief until it gets better anyway. Having said this, symptom relief is all that is usually wanted.

There are still some people who feel that their child is not being treated properly unless it is prescribed an antibiotic. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. Anti-virals treat virus infections and anti-fungals treat fungal infections. Quite how an antibiotic rather than an anti-viral is supposed to help with the treatment of a cold-virus, is something that I have never quite understood. It seems a bit like treating pneumonia with athletes foot cream. ( a good anti-fungal). It is simply the wrong type of drug that can not be of any possible benefit. Some say that their child will get an ear infection unless he has an antibiotic for his cold. Unfortunately if he was going to get an ear infection, but has his antibiotic before the ear infection appears. All that will happen is that he will still get his ear infection, but with a bug that is resistant to whichever antibiotic he was taking.

Symptom control

Despite all the gloom above there do still remain effective treatments to relieve the symptoms of colds in children and adults. Obviously the treatment varies according to the age of the child.

Most children will get feverish with a cold. This is best treated by either paracetamol or ibuprofen given regularly in the correct dose for the age of the child as per the manufacturer's label. If your bottle of medicine no longer has a label then throw it out and do not use it. These medicines come in a range of different strengths, and there is a very real possiblity of overdosing the child with the wrong strength medicine. Regular paracetamol or ibuprofen, or both if needed, will lower the child's temperature. It will also help the headache and musce aches and pains that we can only assume that a baby will be expierencing. So baby will feel a bit better. This should help him to be a bit less cranky and unsettled. You might even be able to get some sleep yourself !

Usually the child will be very blocked up in the nose. Whilst uncomfortable at any age, this is of particular relevance to young babies. If your nose is blocked then it is a bit difficult to suck and breathe at the same time. Whether baby is best or bottle fed he will have problems. Obviously baby will be hungry and probably thirsty after all of the mouth-breathing that he must be doing. He will try to feed and will getb some down but will swallow a lot of air at the same time. Hopefully you can wind him in time, otherwise he will vomit. With his stomach blown up with air the vomiting can be quite spectacular, so it is best to hold baby facing away from you when you wind him. If you prefer to wind him up on your shoulder, then it would be polite to warn whoever is standing behind you. This can of course be turned to your advantage. Nobody in their right mind is going to make you stand for long in a queue whilst your baby projectile vomits all over the waiting room.