Kids and Colds

You wake up in a cranky mood. Your head hurts. You don't have the energy to even get out of bed. And you can't breathe out of your nose. What's wrong? You have a cold!

Having a cold is the number-one reason kids visit the doctor and stay home from school. Kids get up to eight colds per year with each cold lasting an average of 5 to 7 days. Let's find out more about them.

What Is a Cold?

A cold is an infection of the upper respiratory system. This just means it affects the nose, throat, and ears. A cold virus gets inside your body and makes you sick. There are over 200 viruses that cause colds. The rhinovirus (say: rye-no-vye-rus) is the most common cold virus, but there are more than 200 viruses that cause colds. Because there are so many, there isn't a vaccination, or shot, to prevent you from getting colds.

Fortunately, your body already has the best cold cure - your immune system. The immune system defends your body against illness. White blood cells are the immune system's main warriors. They're your own private army working to help you feel better. Take that, cold viruses!

How Kids Catch Colds

Mucus (say: myoo-kus) is the wet, slimy stuff inside the nose. When someone sneezes or coughs, mucus drops float in the air. Breathing in these droplets can spread a cold from one person to another.

You can also catch a cold if you touch your eyes or nose after handling something with cold viruses on it. Video games, the doors at the mall, and your school desk are all hot spots for viruses. So be sure to wash your hands regularly.

Getting a cold works like space travel - the virus actually has docking points that stick to the inside of your nose - just like a small spaceship attaching to a mother ship! The virus takes over the cells lining the nose and begins creating more viruses.

White blood cells charge to the nose's rescue and cause cold symptoms, while also killing the virus that caused the cold. Runny noses and sneezing actually help to prevent viruses from invading other parts of your body.

You sneeze because your nerves detect the irritation in your nose and get the lungs to push a blast of air out through your nose and mouth. Your body can sneeze over 100 miles an hour (161 kilometers per hour) - faster than a car travels on the road, unless you're at a racetrack!

Cold Clues

Symptoms (say: simp-tumz) are signs or clues that tell doctors you're sick. Once you've been in contact with a cold virus, it takes 2 to 3 days for cold symptoms to begin. If you have some of the following symptoms, you probably have a cold:

• low fever (100 to 101 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.2 to 37.8 degrees Celsius)
• body chills
• itchy or sore throat
• sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes
• coughing
• feeling tired and not hungry
• congestion (when your nose is stuffy and it's hard to breathe)

Helping Kids Feel Better

Although medicine doesn't make colds go away faster, some medicines can help you feel better while you wait for your cold to go away. Don't take any medicine unless your parent or doctor gives it to you. They might suggest acetaminophen or ibuprofen, which helps aching heads and muscles.

Decongestants sometimes can make it easier to breathe by shrinking the swollen lining of the nose. Antihistamines (say: an-teye-his-tuh-meenz) dry up mucus and may help stop runny noses and sneezing.

Here are some other feel-better tips:

• Bring on the heat. Hot drinks soothe coughs and sore throats while also clearing mucus. So eat (or drink) your chicken soup!
• Get steamed up. A steamy shower helps stuffy or irritated noses. Or run a humidifier (a small, quiet machine that sprays fine cool mist in the air) to relieve your scratchy throat, stuffy nose, and itchy eyes. Humidifiers make room air moist, which loosens mucus.
• Practice healthy habits. Your immune system will be ready to fight colds if you eat a balanced diet, get plenty of sleep, and keep your body fit through regular exercise.
• Blow your horn. Blowing your nose is the best way to get rid of mucus.
• Rest. Take a nap or go to bed a little earlier for a few nights.
• De-stress. Kids who are stressed out feel worse when they have colds. Relax and use the time to read, listen to music, or watch a movie. In other words, chill out and you might prevent a cold!

Updated and reviewed by: Kevin P. Sheahan, MD

What Is A Cold

What is a cold?

Sneezing is caused by the irritation of the soft lining of the nose, which is characteristic of the common cold.

A cold is a contagious viral disease which infects the soft lining (mucous membrane) of the nose. There are more than 100 different viruses which can result in a cold. The characteristic symptom is a runny nose.

Usually, it is a mild condition, recovery taking place within about a week. However, sometimes the same symptoms occur with other illnesses like influenza.

It is most common during the cold winter months and affects children and adults of all ages. Most people will catch a cold two to four times a year.

How do we catch a cold?

A person is contagious from the day before the illness breaks out until one to three days after they feel better. The infection is spread by airborne droplets when the sufferer coughs or sneezes.

It can also be spread by hand if someone has the virus on their hands and then puts them close to their eyes or nose. This is possibly the most common way of catching a cold.

What are the symptoms of a cold?

• A sore throat.
  
  
• There may be pain on swallowing.
  
  
• Sneezing.
  
  
• The nose begins to run with a water-like secretion which gradually becomes thicker and more yellow.
  
  
• As the mucous membrane of the nose swells it may be hard to breathe through the nose.
  
  
• An oppressive feeling in the ears.
  
  
• Headache.
  
  
• Coughing.
  
  
• A feeling of being unwell.
  
  
• A high temperature. Children are more likely to run a temperature than adults.
  
  

What can you do to avoid catching a cold?

• If possible, stay away from people with colds.
  
  
• Avoid crowded places where the risk of infection is greater.
  
  
• Do not touch your nose or eyes after being in physical contact with somebody that has a cold.
  
  
• Wash your hands thoroughly, especially after blowing your nose.
  
  
• Keep rooms well aired.
  
  

How does the doctor make a diagnosis?

Consultations with a doctor are unnecessary, unless the cold causes other infections.

Outlook

Usually a common cold causes no serious trouble and symptoms will clear up in one to two weeks. Possible complications include inflammation of the eyes, sinusitis, inflammation of the middle ear, tonsillitis, and pneumonia. The reason for these complications may be that a germ infects the irritated mucous membrane.

How do you treat a cold ?

• There is no effective way of treating an ordinary cold. If the sufferer has no other diseases than the common cold, and it goes away in one to two weeks, there is no reason to see a doctor. Since a cold is caused by a virus, antibiotics are not appropriate.
  
  
• Symptoms such as cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and headache can be relieved by a variety of over-the-counter medicines. You can get advice from a pharmacist about which are most suitable for you and your symptoms.
  
  
• There is no need to reduce daily activities but you should expect to become tired more easily.
  
  
• The symptoms can be relieved by warm drinks.
  
  
• Nasal decongestants may ease breathing.
  
  
• Sleep with the head on a high pillow.
  
  
• Avoid smoking; it irritates the mucous membrane of the nose further.
  
  
• Throw away paper tissues after use to prevent the spread of infection.
  
  

Based on a text by Dr Hanne Korsholm, GP

Welcome To The Cold Truth

I work in a research lab that studies colds and, I wanted to share information with you to make for a healthier world.

There is one sure thing for colds and flu - there’s a lot of it about. How much is actually about varies from year to year, but you can be sure that you will catch them sometime. This must be the golden age of colds and flu. So many people crowd together indoors in winter, at home, at work, at school, and in travelling. This makes the chances of coming into close contact with someone who has one of the viruses so much more probable. Even though the viruses are quite hard to catch, this means there are a lot of chances when you are exposed to them in everyday life. They are also travelling all around the world in a matter of hours. Colds and flu are having a very successful jet-set life travelling all around the world, and not just where it is cold, they are also at home in the heat.

We are all exposed to these viruses on a regular basis, but we do not get an infection every time. The great majority of times our body’s defences work well and we are not infected. Less often we are infected, but our body’s defences act quickly to kill the infection, without us ever being aware that we have been infected. Less often still we are infected and suffer mild symptoms. Thankfully, least often of all, we catch the virus and have a really bad infection. How bad our infection becomes therefore depends on chance, the strength of the virus, and our body’s defences.

The usual way we catch the virus is to breathe them in on droplets in the air when someone sneezes. They can also easily be caught by touching something with the virus already on it, such as a cup, door handle, or telephone. The virus sticks to our hand, and then we touch our eye or nose and it sticks there. From our eye it is washed down with our tears into the nose.

Your first line of defence is the layer of mucus lining your nose. Unfortunately central heating can dry this, making it less efficient at preventing infections pass through.

The flu virus is more infectious than a cold virus because it can last longer in the air, and still be infectious. This is why a new strain of flu can be so dangerous, we may not have any natural resistance to it, and can spread all over the world so quickly, affecting so many people. This makes any new strain of flu a potential major killer on a world wide scale, as without any natural resistance to it flu can kill even fit and healthy people.

The virus attacks the cells lining the nose and throat, and infects them. It only takes one virus to infect one cell. Each infected cell is taken over by the virus, and it makes many copies of itself, kills the cell, and releases these new viruses to infect other cells. This happens so quickly that within 12 hours of first arriving there may be a million cells killed in the nose and throat.

The nose and throat are now awash with viruses, and this is the time when we are most likely to pass the infection on to someone else. Usually by blowing (or wiping) our nose with our hands, and touching something before washing them. What we touch could be a door handle, a light switch, a telephone, a newspaper or a cup. The virus is infectious, and waiting for someone to touch it, and then touch their eye or nose, and spread the infection. Sneezing also spreads the infection into the air.

You are now the reluctant owner of a cold or flu infection!