Wheezing in young children: Very common respiratory symptom
Infant wheezing or wheezing in young children is very common, with about 25% to 30% of infants having at least one wheezing episode. By the age of three, this number rises to about 40% of children, and by the age of six nearly half of children will have at least one episode of wheezing.
1. Symptoms of wheezing
Wheezing is often accompanied by a productive or non-productive cough. Other symptoms depend on the cause of the wheezing such as wheezing and coughing, infants with stuffy nose wheezing, fever, runny nose, and poor feeding (due to heart failure or difficulty swallowing).
Wheezing occurs when a child’s airway narrows and air flows rapidly through the narrowing. Young children are more likely to wheeze than adults because of physical differences. The bronchi of infants and children are both small, resulting in higher peripheral airway resistance. As a result, diseases affecting the small airways have a relatively larger impact on total airway resistance in children. Newborns also have less elastic recoil of lung tissue and more collateral airways, leading to obstruction and greater susceptibility to atelectasis. The ribcage, trachea, and bronchi in infants and young children are also softer. All of these factors increase the likelihood that children are more susceptible to wheezing and respiratory distress than adults.
Wheezing is usually heard when the child exhales, however, if the child has severe airway narrowing, the doctor may hear wheezing when the child breathes in. In addition, severely ill children may also breathe rapidly, use a lot of chest muscles to breathe, rise and fall, and change the color of their skin. Fever may occur if the child has a lung infection.
2. Causes of wheezing
The most common cause of sudden wheezing in infants and young children is usually due to:
- Viral respiratory infections
- Bacterial lung infections
- Allergy
- Asthma
Other less common causes include chronic dysphagia that can lead to aspiration of food or liquids entering the lungs, gastroesophageal reflux, foreign bodies in the lungs, or heart failure. Whatever the initial cause of wheezing, symptoms are often made worse if the child has allergies or breathes in other irritants such as cigarette smoke.
3. Diagnose the cause of wheezing
When seeing a child with wheezing, most doctors order a chest X-ray to look for signs of a foreign body in the lungs, pneumonia, or heart failure. In addition, the doctor will measure the oxygen level in the blood by placing a sensor on the child’s finger.
Children with recurrent wheezing usually do not need to be tested, unless the child shows signs of severe shortness of breath. Children with frequent recurrences or symptoms that are not relieved by bronchodilators or other asthma medications may require additional tests and diagnostic techniques, such as testing of the child’s ability to swallow, imaging computed tomography, or bronchoscopy
4. Treatment
If infants and young children suddenly develop wheezing, the doctor prescribes an inhaled bronchodilator (such as albuterol) and if the wheezing is severe, the doctor will prescribe oral or intravenous corticosteroids.
- If the child is unlikely to have asthma as a child with no signs of allergies or a family history of allergies or asthma and has relatively mild episodes of wheezing with infrequent frequency, the doctor will only
- Prescribe inhaled bronchodilators as needed to control symptoms.
- Most children with frequent and/or severe wheezing have their doctor prescribe a bronchodilator as needed and daily anti-inflammatory medication for asthma. Although daily use of a leukotriene modifier (Leukotriene modifier) or certain low-dose inhaled corticosteroids (such as beclomethasone) reduces the severity and frequency of wheezing episodes, these drugs do not Treat the cause of the wheezing and the progression of the disease. Therefore, besides treating wheezing, the doctor must still treat the cause of the child’s wheezing.
In addition, parents should also add some supporting foods containing lysine, essential micro-minerals, and vitamins such as zinc, chromium, selenium, and B vitamins, … to help fully meet their needs. requirements for nutrients while supporting the immune system, enhancing resistance, and reducing the risk of upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, and flu.
Lysine is very necessary for the development of children, Lysine promotes the production of digestive enzymes to stimulate children to eat better and digest easily and effectively, increase food metabolism, and absorb maximum nutrients. From food. Strengthening lysine for babies helps the body create antibodies, and develop resistance to help reduce cough, and thin phlegm in children.
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