Children who cough for more than two weeks after recovering from Covid-19 should take them to the doctor

The most common symptom

BSCKII Nguyen Tran Nam – Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital said that after contracting Covid-19, people often feel tired, anorexia, loss of smell, discomfort, and physical discomfort. substance, symptoms of shortness of breath, papules of hands and feet, symptoms of hair loss, nails. Severe symptoms are cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal and neurological. To date, WHO does not know whether to classify by organ system or immune response. These symptoms also affect the patient’s quality of life.

In children, Dr. Nam said that although children infected with Covid-19 in the acute stage are milder than adults and their post-Covid-19 symptoms are milder. However, milder is not absent, does not affect the child.

Every day, at the City Children’s Hospital, Dr. Nam said that the most common symptom children come to the doctor for is a cough. Children cough a lot, cough at many times of the day, cough at night, cough in the morning. Children cough dry, coughing intermittently makes children uncomfortable, adults worry. Children cough too much, it is difficult to eat and drink, accompanied by vomiting.

Dr. Nam said, cough is quite common, but when children cough is a way to remove viruses from the respiratory tract, children should only use warm water to soothe the cough. Dr. Nam noted, do not let children use cold water, carbonated water makes children more uncomfortable. Should use warm water with honey, herbal cough medicine to soothe cough for children.

If the cough does not stop for more than 2 weeks, the child grimaces when coughing because of chest pain, the cough symptoms affect the child’s health, then take the child to a medical facility. Because it may be due to pneumonia, acute respiratory infection, manifestations of other diseases that have not been examined and diagnosed before.

A child with MIS-C syndrome at City Children’s Hospital.

Children lack concentration, lose sleep

In addition to the cough, Doctor Nam also said that after Covid-19 in children, children are tired and lack concentration. Before being infected, children loved to be active and have fun, but after Covid-19 they are often tired, they play and quickly get tired and want to lie down. Children no longer crave the games and foods they used to love. Many children have anorexia because their taste buds are affected.

Children do not sleep well. Children’s sleep is more restless. When children sleep, they often have nightmares, they are afraid and wake up earlier than usual, making them more tired.

Mental disorders in children make children unable to concentrate on learning. Children do not pay attention to the lecture, difficult for the problem of the lesson. That makes children not want to learn, afraid to learn. The lack of concentration is related to many factors such as related to the children’s lives affected during the isolation period.

With the above symptoms, Dr. Nam advises parents to stay calm, not to be in a hurry to be afraid of using drugs that may harm their children.

When caring for children, nutrition is also very important. Adults also anorexia, lack of energy, children are also tired, anorexia. At that time should divide many meals a day, should not force eating will scare children. Children can eat foods that they like, according to their taste. Mentally encourage children. Parents can use high-energy foods to eat less and still have enough quality.

In terms of sleep, children do not sleep deeply, do not sleep peacefully, so limit the use of electronic means such as phones and laptops because using phones a lot at night makes it more difficult for children to sleep.

You should encourage your child to participate in outdoor sports games, play gentle sports with the right time and intensity for the child to recover better.

In the post-Covid-19 symptoms, a more serious problem that worries pediatricians is systemic inflammatory syndrome, damage to organs in the body, affecting the heart, digestive organs of children or children. called MIS-C syndrome.

MIS-C usually appears 2 to 6 weeks after recovering from Covid-19. Children have high fever, red eyes, skin lesions, purple fibers on fingertips, rapid heart rate, feeling of angina. Some children have abdominal pain, vomiting or mistaken for appendicitis.

Doctor Nam recommends that, when children have problems related to whole-body problems with fever, they should take them to a medical facility capable of diagnosing MIS-C syndrome. If not treated in time, the child may have complications of myocarditis, severe embolism, shock, etc. If detected early, the child can recover. At Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital, there were more than 100 cases of MIS-C syndrome and the children all recovered and responded to treatment.

Khanh Chi