Treatment
When deciding how and where the child should be treated, the severity of the baby’s pneumonia plays a decisive role. If the infection is mild or moderate, the baby can be treated on an outpatient basis, i.e. at home. The criterion of hypoxia, the reduced oxygen concentration in the blood, is decisive for a hospital stay.
A sufficient oxygen supply to the organs must be guaranteed to protect the baby from permanent damage. If the child experiences severe respiratory distress, if the speed of breathing is permanently increased, or if the illness leads to dangerous restrictions in drinking behaviour, the child should be admitted to hospital even though he or she has sufficient oxygen saturation. For newborns and babies up to the age of 3 months, it is always advisable to decide on a hospital stay.
The treatment of pneumonia in babies can be based on the use of antibiotics or optimize it. Since the latter should be aimed at, the condition of the child can be positively influenced. If oxygen saturation is below 93%, the patient must be ventilated through oxygen glasses, or, if the nose is displaced, through a mask or head box.
Since extremely large amounts of fluid are excreted due to the fever and rapid breathing, some babies reach a state of dehydration during the course of the illness. This must be counteracted with a stomach tube or an infusion. The stomach tube should be as small as possible so as not to restrict breathing further.
When infusions are given, the electrolytes in the baby’s blood should be checked regularly to ensure that the balance is maintained. Painkillers can increase the child’s willingness to move. This helps to cough up accumulated secretions and can promote the progression.
Antipyretic therapy relieves the patient’s suffering, but has no therapeutic effect on the pneumonia itself. The right antibiotic must be selected based on age and the pathogen. Since drug therapy usually does not wait until the pathogen has been detected, the choice of drug is based on geographical and seasonal concentrations, as well as on the standard pathogens for infant pneumonia.
Attention must be paid to a possible penicillin allergy, which requires the use of other antibiotic groups. Oral administration of the drugs should always be aimed for and should last 7 to 10 days. The viral therapy is usually limited to treating the symptoms.
The use of antivirals is almost never necessary. In case of a proven influenza pneumonia, various neuraminidase inhibitors can be used, but an infection can be circumvented with an annual vaccination. Fungal infections are treated with antimycotics, but already in adults they have sometimes considerable side effects. A drug treatment of pneumonia should therefore always be carried out under the supervision of a specialist.
