It can be scary when your child catches a cold, or anything debilitating, but if you know what you're dealing with, then you'll know how to make the right choices and do everything you can to help your child get well soon. Here's everything you need to know about flus, colds and kids.
The Common Cold
The average child catches about six to twelve colds a year. Some minor, some more serious. So when your kid gets sick, it doesn't mean you're a bad parent, it means that your kid is, well, just a kid. Kids get sick a lot because their bodies are still developing-their immune systems are still learning how to deal with these viruses and as we all know, kids typically don't wash their hands as regularly as most adults.
In other words, they call it the "common cold" because it's really quite common.
The cold is a viral infection affecting the upper respiratory tract and can be contracted from just about anywhere. Interestingly, it was Benjamin Franklin who first noted the contagious nature of the cold, which is impressive when you consider that viruses hadn't even been discovered at that point. Franklin pointed out that the cold seemed to pass form person to person when they shared small rooms together or talked closely while at a party. About one hundred and fifty years later, science proved Franklin right.
Symptoms of a cold include sore throat, runny nose, fever, headache, coughing, sneezing, and stuffy nose.
As they say "there's no cure for the common cold," but there is treatment and prevention. It's interesting to note that alcohol and anti-bacterial soap actually don't do much to kill the virus off. Using plain old soap and water, on the other hand, is an effective way to physically remove the virus from the surface of the skin.
You can use analgesics, cough medicine, chest rub vapors, and salt water gargling to treat the symptoms of the cold, but there's no known treatment to shorten the span of the illness. Luckily, the disease is self-limiting and will typically clear itself up in about a week.
The Flu
Almost everyone has suffered the flu a few times in their lives, but it can be at its scariest when it happens to kids. Children seem to suffer a lot more than adults under the physically taxing symptoms of the flu.
These symptoms include fatigue, fever, chills, coughing, general pain, weakness and discomfort, and various cold like symptoms including runny nose, headaches, sore throat, and so on. While the flu is often mistaken for a cold (and vice versa), the flu is actually much more serious than even the roughest colds. Flu sickness involves muscle pains and digestion problems that the cold can't come close to replicating.
Interestingly, the flu virus, influenza, is not responsible for the so called "24 hour flu" which is not a flu at all, but gastroenteritis.
Influenza is spread essentially the same way as the cold, though-it easily contracted when sharing living quarters with one who has the flu, talking closely, or rubbing your hands around your mouth or eyes without having recently washed.
Influenza is also contracted through direct contact with unsanitary surfaces. For instance, direct contact with bird droppings can lead to the flu. Still, most cases of the flu begin with "aerosol", or airborne viruses.
Luckily, the flu is almost never terminal, in spite of what the media might have you believe. Most flus, even the most serious, won't kill anyone who is of relatively good health.
Flu season lasts through the winter, which seems odd, considering that colds can occur all year round. The more common prevalence of the flu in colder weather seems to be caused by the drier air and the fact that people spend more time indoors when the weather outside is disagreeable. Spending a lot of time cooped up is bad for your immune system and overall health.
Your best bet to avoid the flu is to get vaccinated. If you've been keeping up with the controversy surrounding flu shots, the truth of the matter is that this controversy was drummed up by people with little to no real evidence surrounding their claims. There's no reason your kids should suffer through two weeks of vomiting, diarrhea, and sneezing because of unfounded accusations. Flu shots work and there are little to no negative side effects involved in getting them.