Managing Colds this Season.

Hello Beautiful People,
How have we been? I hope we enjoyed the weekend?
Here in Nigeria, it's the rainy season and it is raining cats and dogs in most places everyday. Along with the rains, seem to be an increase in people coming down with colds. So today, I would like to talk about colds and how to manage them.
A cold is a viral infection of the nose and throat. It may be caused by over 200 different viruses and commonly affects children. The immune system of children are often times still developing so they tend to easily come down with a cold and may have up to 12 episodes in a year. But as they age and develop immunity, they have less colds.
Some of the symptoms of a cold include:

• Runny or stuffy Nose.
• Sneezing.
• Cough.
• Fever.
• Sore throat.
• Red eyes.

Ways to manage a cold at home
This depends on the symptom you're having. Generally, you can do the following:

• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Take paracetamol if having fever.
• For a child with runny or stuffy nose, you can put one or two drops of salt water in each nostril to help loose-up mucus.
• You can make the child breathe in the steam from hot water using a thick cloth as a tent with you and the child inside. This humidifies the lungs and can help relieve congestion.
• Over-the-counter prescriptions like  Anti-histamines and vitamin C are beneficial to reduce symptoms like runny nose and cough and help you feel better.
• Antibiotics are rarely needed except the infection progresses to become secondarily infected by a bacteria and should be prescribed by a doctor.

However, you must visit a hospital if the following occurs:

• A baby less than 3 months comes down with cold.
• Fever develops a few days after the cold.
• Breathing becomes increasingly difficult and uneven.
• There is discharge and/or pain from ear.
• Fever lasts more than 5 days or runny nose more than 10 days.
• General condition seems to be deteriorating.

How to Prevent Colds?
Colds are usually transmitted from person to person via sneezing, coughing, shaking with infected hands. So try to wash your hands with soap and water after coughing or sneezing. Also encourage children to wash hands often.
Most times a cold caused by a virus will run its course and go on its own with or without treatment. The above measures just ameliorate symptoms. However, if the cold shows no sign of easing up and is getting worse, it is worth checking out.
Till next post, do stay beautiful, well and healthy-pink.
Dr Anire Oduko.