Symptoms

The symptoms of pneumonia can be quite different in children. A typical pneumonia usually begins suddenly with a strong feeling of illness. It can lead to high fever and an increased respiratory rate, which is typical for pneumonia in children.

The cough is productive, which means that the children cough up greenish sputum. Pain during breathing, which makes it difficult to breathe, is also typical. Atypical pneumonia shows a slightly different course and is not so rare in children.

It is often caused by mycoplasma. Usually the onset is very gradual and pneumonia can easily be overlooked. The disease begins with headache and aching limbs.

A slight fever may accompany the disease, but it can also be absent altogether. Breathlessness and dry cough without sputum are typical. However, since the onset is very gradual and the symptoms of atypical pneumonia can be very unspecific, especially in children, it is possible to confuse it with a cold.

Fever is a symptom that is typical for pneumonia. However, it does not necessarily have to be present. There is also pneumonia, which causes only slight increases in body temperature, or none at all.In general, typical pneumonia is accompanied by high fever and an equally strong feeling of illness.

In children, the fever can also rise to over 39.0 °C. However, this does not necessarily have to be the case. Atypical pneumonia tends to show mild to no fever.

It must be noted, however, that the classification and assignment of causes is not so simple. The symptoms alone do not allow us to deduce the germ that caused the pneumonia. The fever as a symptom is also too unspecific to allow causes to be narrowed down.

Reasons for the absence of a fever in children can be, for example, severe pre-existing conditions such as cystic fibrosis or other immune deficiencies. Not every child’s pneumonia must be accompanied by a cough. Although coughing is usually a symptom of pneumonia, it can also be absent.

Especially in the case of atypical pneumonia in children, the cough can be completely absent. In most cases RS viruses are the cause of atypical pneumonia. The course of an atypical pneumonia is also generally less symptomatic in children than the course of a typical pneumonia.

However, the boundaries are fluid, so that no strict differentiation based on symptoms alone is possible. On the other hand, a pronounced cough with sputum is more likely to have a bacterial cause. In most cases, pneumococci are the cause of pneumonia.

However, other germs can also be the cause. The sputum can be green to yellowish. A dry cough is also possible.

This means that no sputum is coughed up by the cough. The treatment of pneumonia in children depends, among other things, on which germ is the cause. Furthermore, the severity of the pneumonia is also taken into account in the therapy.

Treatment is possible both on an outpatient and inpatient basis. When an inpatient admission of the child is necessary depends on the severity of the disease and the general condition of the child. Mild pneumonia can be treated on an outpatient basis.

A stay in hospital is not necessary here. The therapy consists of a drug treatment with antibiotics. The drugs of first choice are aminopenicillins (e.g. amoxicillin), but other antibiotics are also approved for treatment.

Treatment of pneumonia that can be treated on an outpatient basis is usually finished after 7 days. Moderately severe to severe pneumonia is treated in hospital. Patients are given a combination of different antibiotics through a vein access.

The antibiotic therapy is stopped 2 to 3 days after defibrillation. Children who get pneumonia in hospital are always treated as inpatients. The therapy includes special combinations of antibiotics that are effective against the germs found in hospital.

The treatment of pneumonia in children also includes important supportive measures that promote healing. Coughing up the secretions and good breathing are important for the lungs to heal well. Physiotherapy, if available, is therefore highly desirable.

Furthermore, oxygen can be administered via a nasal probe if the oxygen saturation (the oxygen content in the blood) is too low, such as in severe pneumonia, which requires in-patient treatment. A high fluid intake is very important, as this helps the secretion to dissolve well. The active ingredient ibuprofen is usually used to reduce fever and relieve pain in children.

Pain relief is particularly important because chest pain hinders breathing in the affected children. However, good breathing is necessary for healing. Antibiotics are probably the most important therapeutic measure for pneumonia.

They fight the pathogens that cause pneumonia. Depending on whether it is pneumonia that a child has contracted in a hospital or outside a hospital, outpatient, different antibiotics are used. Pneumonia that can be treated on an outpatient basis is usually treated with amoxicillin.

The antibiotic azithromycin is also often used in children because it is effective and has comparatively few side effects. In inpatient treatment, the antibiotics are administered via a vein access. Combinations of different antibiotics are then usually used to combat as many germs as possible and to prevent germs from becoming resistant.

A possible combination in cases of moderate or severe pneumonia would be, for example, amoxicillin, clavulanic acid and azithromycin.In case of allergies to these antibiotics, other active ingredients such as cephalosporins, other macrolides or fluoroquinolones can be used. These are also antibiotics. Pneumonia is a serious illness and can even be fatal for the child if the therapy is inadequate. Therefore, homeopathic methods are absolutely not recommended. There are no effective homeopathic remedies that could cure pneumonia in a child.