What are the indications why my child needs cortisone?
Cortisone is an endogenous substance that can be converted by the body into cortisol. This is a stress hormone of the body and reduces inflammatory reactions and also overreactions. This results in a wide range of diseases, especially in the chronic area, where cortisone can help.
Applied locally as an ointment, cortisone helps with skin diseases such as neurodermatitis. A further indication can be asthma bronchiale. Cortisone can also alleviate the symptoms of acute diseases such as bronchitis or sinusitis.
Many asthma sprays contain cortisone to prevent swelling of the airways. As a long-term medication, cortisone is used in the treatment of rheumatism in children and as a concomitant therapy for cancer. In the case of allergic shocks, cortisone can also be used as an emergency medication in combination with adrenaline.
In all the cases described above, the focus is on reducing the body’s own defensive reactions. If the body is not able to produce cortisone itself, a replacement therapy with cortisol preparations is already necessary in babies to provide enough hormones for stress reactions. This is necessary if the adrenal cortex is hypofunctional.
In the case of a normal cold with a simple cough, a cortisol preparation is not recommended. However, some children tend to have a so-called pseudocroup. This is an acute coughing attack, usually when the child has already caught a cold, in which the larynx swells very strongly and the child develops difficulty breathing.
For these cases there is cortisol in suppository form, which can also be administered acutely as a medication by the parents. The seizures usually occur at night, as the body’s own production of cortisol is lower at this time. Treatment with cortisol sprays is also possible for asthmatic irritable cough to make it easier for children to sleep.
In this case, it is usually a long-term therapy in combination with other agents such as salbutamol. Neurodermatitis is an inflammation of the skin, usually caused by an allergy, which can be treated with an ointment containing cortisol. The ointment is usually not used as a permanent medication, but is only applied thinly to the affected skin areas in phases of severe symptoms.
The inflammation of the skin usually improves within one day. Cortisone can only be used to improve an acute attack, but it does not represent a curative therapy as neurodermatitis is a chronic, genetically determined disease. With this local application the side effects are manageable and are usually limited to the affected areas.
This can lead to a thinner skin which is translucent. Children with sinusitis can also be treated with cortisone. However, this is only necessary if the symptoms have not subsided after two weeks, as most sinusitis heals itself without treatment.
This is a nasal spray, which also has a local effect. In sinusitis, the mucous membranes at the access points to the sinuses are usually swollen, preventing ventilation and healing of the inflammation. The nasal spray containing cortisone can lead to the swelling of the mucous membranes and restore the aeration of the sinuses.
As with sinusitis, inflammation of the middle ear is often a disease resulting from the lack of ventilation. In this case it is the ear trumpet, which connects the middle ear with the nasopharynx. The opening of the ear trumpet can be achieved by swelling of the mucous membrane.
In this case, however, cortisone is not used. In most cases, decongestant nasal drops are sufficient. In severe cases, an antibiotic can also be prescribed to control the inflammation of the middle ear. Amoxicillin is the most commonly used antibiotic.
