Tips for overcoming minor illnesses in children

This is an automatically translated article.

Sickness in young children occurs very often, especially in children under 5 years old, almost any breastfeeding mother has had a headache because her child is often sick, the illness takes a long time to recover and often comes back again.
Content is professionally consulted by BSCKI Cao Thi Giang - Children's Center - Vinmec Times City General Hospital

1. Causes of childhood illness

Many mothers, because they are worried about their children's health, find all sorts of ways, but their baby's minor illness still does not get better. What is the cause and what can we do to improve?
One of the main reasons that children often get sick is due to a weak immune system and resistance. Mothers often try to supplement their children's nutrition through a rich diet and nutrient-rich foods. However, the digestive system of young children is not yet fully developed, so they may not be able to absorb all the nutrients from the meal.
At the same time, sometimes we also make mistakes in the way of processing and preserving food such as: food is not fresh or cooked too carefully, causing vitamins and nutrients in food to decrease or disappear. This inadvertently leads to the situation that children eat a lot but are still thin and lacking in nutrients. And of course, the child's resistance has not improved.
Cause 2: Inadequate nutritional supplementation (both in terms of macronutrients and micronutrients): For young children in the early stages of development, providing adequate nutrition is extremely important. In fact, the percentage of children under 5 years of age with nutritional deficiencies is quite high because parents do not balance their daily nutrition, do not know which group of substances their child lacks and supplement appropriately.
Want children to have a healthy immune system, it is necessary to ensure a nutritional balance between groups of substances (protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals such as zinc, chromium, selenium, vitamins of group B, vitamin C in daily meals. A good diet will help improve digestion and absorption of substances, so that the child's body is balanced and healthy
Besides adding vitamins and minerals for children from fruits , yogurt to improve intestinal health, increase the body's resistance; zinc is also a micro mineral known to help strengthen the immune system but also stimulate children to eat well, prevent some diseases. due to viruses that children often encounter such as colds, sore throats,...
3rd reason: Abuse of antibiotics Usually because of busy work many parents often buy antibiotics for their children to take by themselves. When you are sick instead of taking your child to the doctor, however, giving your child antibiotics every time they are sick may inadvertently destroy the main beneficial bacteria in the gut. To stimulate the body's immunity and make children more susceptible to illness
To limit the use of antibiotics for children every time they are sick, mothers need to monitor and take their children to consult a doctor. In addition, mothers can also use some folk remedies. For example:
If the child has a cough, the mother can use honey (for children over 1 year old), kumquat, rock sugar, lemon basil, ... to cure the disease. As for digestive diseases, mothers need to change their eating habits, give them regular belly massages, and feed them with probiotic foods such as yogurt, whey, etc.

The fourth reason: mothers who use diapers or milk when taking care of their children is to protect their babies too carefully, not to let them move and come into contact with the outside environment. This will make the children increasingly lose their body's natural resistance, adaptation and defenses and often fall ill.
Children should regularly participate in outdoor sports and physical activities that both help their bodies stay healthy, absorb vitamin D, and help increase the number of immune cells in the body.
The 5th and final cause is the unhygienic living environment and habits in children such as putting their hands in their mouths, sucking on toys, etc. are also one of the causes of children. or sick. Because when the environment is not hygienic, it will create opportunities for bacteria and viruses to attack and cause illness for children.
Therefore, parents should take care of cleaning the house, toys, keeping the child's surroundings always clean and correcting the baby's bad and unhygienic habits to limit the risk of disease.

2. How to improve to help children limit minor illnesses

Because of anxiety and impatience, many parents have not chosen supplements or micronutrient supplements without knowing what the baby's body is lacking? Therefore, to be able to overcome the situation or minor illness in children, parents should consult a doctor and find out the cause of their child's minor illness; from there can choose quality supplements, clear origin for children.
The improvement of symptoms can take place for a long time, so parents need to be calm and persistent for their children to maintain micronutrient supplementation for children and should not be interrupted if their child is healthy.
For more nutritional knowledge and child care for each age, parents should regularly visit the website vimec.com and make an appointment with the leading doctors, pediatric and nutrition experts of the National General Hospital. Vinmec when needing advice on children's health.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.