Can a child get sick from. Why do some children often get sick. Psychological causes of children's illnesses. The child has an earache

Teething is an important and sometimes difficult period for babies and their parents. laying the rudiments of their teeth correct height and health occurs in the womb of the expectant mother.

For each baby, teething is an individual process.

The average baby is faced with this process from the age of three months, the period ends by three years. There are cases when a newborn is born already with 1-2 teeth.

Restlessness during sleep.
Coryza with clear watery liquid.
Throat redness.
Decrease or lack of appetite.
Constant scratching of the gums and strong salivation. The child begins to put everything in his mouth.
An increase in temperature from subfebrile to pyretic (37-40 ° C).
Capricious behavior (crying, lethargy, anxiety, irritation).
Biting the mother's breast or nipples.
The gums become red and swollen. Sometimes a white stripe or purple color appears at the site of the future tooth, this will indicate the appearance of a tooth in the next few days.
Diarrhea, vomiting.
Regurgitation.
An unpleasant smell from the oral cavity of the baby, a rare sign, but occurs when an infection is introduced during this period.

Symptoms may be mixed or absent altogether. Some children show 1-2 signs just before the appearance of a tooth from the gums.

Video from an expert:

The danger of reddening of the throat during this period

During teething, the baby's body weakens and becomes vulnerable to pathogenic bacteria or colds.

When the baby's teeth climb, the child endlessly thrusts miscellaneous items into the mouth, which are not always sterile. It infects and hyperemia of the tonsils occurs (tonsillitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis occur), this is a very dangerous disease for such young children.

If some symptoms get worse and last more than 2-3 days (fever, red sore throat, runny nose with yellow or green discharge, cough or wheezing in the chest), you should contact your pediatrician.

Redness in the throat of a baby can be a sign of diseases:

mechanical, thermal damage;
sore throats;
pharyngitis;
laryngitis;
tonsillitis;
allergic reaction;
SARS;
diseases of the stomach, esophagus;
problems with the nasopharynx.

How to help the baby?

During this period, the child needs maximum attention, kindness and affection of the mother - this the best remedy for calm.

For removal pain there are special gels, ointments, syrups, drops:

Kalgel;
Dentokind;
Holisal;
Pansoral "First teeth";
Kamistad Baby gel;
Dentol;
Dentinox gel;
Nurofen syrup;
panadol syrup;
Dantinorm drops;
Viburkol (candles);
Baby doctor "First teeth".

When using any of the means, it is necessary to consult a pediatrician and read the instructions.

It is important to carefully monitor the behavior of the child after using the drug and examine for the presence of allergic reactions. If they occur, the drug is canceled.

There are several other ways to help the baby get through this difficult period:

Gum massage (for this, they wash their hands well with soap, wrap a sterile bandage around their finger, moisten with warm, boiled water or a decoction of herbs).
Massage with a teether, a rubber toy, a toothbrush for babies.
Massage with a whole apple or carrot, but this method requires extra attention for the child so that he does not bite off a large piece that can get stuck in the airways.
It is necessary to review the child's diet, add more foods containing calcium (cheese, milk, cottage cheese).

You need to help in a complex way, then there will be a chance to overcome the period of teething unnoticed by the baby and parents.

Video from Dr. Komarovsky:

If the throat is reddened, there is a runny nose and fever, then antipyretics should be used:

Panadol;
Paracetamol;
ibuprofen;
Nurofen;
Viburkol;
Analdim;
Cefekon D.

It is important to strengthen the immune system during this period, then the disease will pass faster and without complications.

Suitable tools for this:

Viferon;
Anaferon;
Arbidol;
Vilozen;
Taktivin.

To cleanse the nose and treat a runny nose, sprays, drops, solutions are used:

Nazivin;
Naphthyzin;
Otrivin;
Reno Stop;
Rinofluimicil;
Sinupret.

To eliminate redness in the throat, sprays, solutions, wiping with a cotton swab or gauze are used.

For rubdowns:

Miramistin;
Chlorophyllipt;
Furacilin.

For treatment:

Oracept;
Ingalipt;
Neo-Angin;
Bioparox;
Hexoral;
Lizobakt;
Lugol.

Folk methods:

For babies, rubbing from chamomile, mint, sage is used. A decoction is made in 500 ml of water, one of the medicinal herbs is chosen - 1 tbsp. l. and boil for 5-10 minutes. A warm decoction is taken into a glass and rubbed on the throat 3-4 times a day.
Effectively wiping the gums and throat with a soda solution.
For children from 1 year old, rinse the mouth with a solution of propolis and honey, decoctions of mint, sage, lavender, St. John's wort, valerian.
The use of tea with lime blossom and honey, raspberry jam, currants - will have an antipyretic effect.

Video from Dr. Komarovsky about the first teeth:

The main thing for parents during this period is to be patient and not get annoyed by another tantrum or crying. Everything will pass with time, this is a natural process.

Teething is a difficult test for a child's body and this condition is accompanied by various side effects; the nasopharynx often acts as an indicator of the disease process. It is important to be able to distinguish between teething or infection. Regardless of the underlying cause of the discomfort, especially if the child has a red throat when teething, specialist help is needed.

Timing and order of appearance of teeth

The time of the appearance of the first teeth in children occurs in the period from six months to one and a half years. And by the age of three, a child has about 20 of them. So, the first, at 6-10 months, the lower central incisors appear, followed by the upper central incisors. Next, the upper and lower lateral incisors erupt. Thus, by the age of one and a half years, there are already 8 incisors. After that, the first molars begin to grow, then the canines and the last - the second molars. The teeth of the crumbs should appear only in turn, but sometimes they appear at the same time.

The first signs of eruption

The first common signs of teething in babies may also indicate a cold or infection, as well as a change in environmental conditions. These include: anxiety, sleep disturbance, general malaise, weakness, impaired appetite, fever. Local symptoms include: profuse salivation, swelling and redness of the gums, a slightly red root of the tongue, refusal of the breast, the child takes fingers, fists, toys into his mouth, less often there is a slight nasal congestion, red throat.

Teeth and problems during eruption

Since teething is not an easy process for a small organism, immunity can significantly decrease against its background. As a result, the child may have an increase in body temperature, impaired stool, increased anxiety, tearfulness, capriciousness, and unpleasant diseases such as thrush, stomatitis, and caries may appear. The symptoms that appear can indicate both inflammation and an infectious disease.

Colds or teeth

How to figure out if a child has a cold or teeth? It is not easy to determine what is the source of the baby's discomfort during teething. But there are some signs of the disease:

loose, frothy, foul-smelling stools;
copious snot, accompanied by lacrimation, and acute sore throat;
severe fever or fever that lasts more than two days

In all these cases, you should immediately consult a doctor.

In cases where the temperature lasts no more than two days, the stool changes, the snot is insignificant, even with some nasal congestion, the throat is red, and all this is accompanied by profuse salivation - most likely, the reason is teething. In this case, antibiotics will not help, but will only aggravate the situation.

Colds and hypothermia

Colds occur as a result of a decrease in immunity. It manifests itself as inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, and often passes under the influence of a chronic bacterial infection on the body; but also common cause colds is hypothermia.

Inflammation of the tonsils, adenoids

The throat is reddened - can it be an infectious inflammation, and how to delimit these conditions? Tonsillitis, or inflammation of the tonsils, manifests itself in two forms - acute and chronic, it often occurs in conjunction with chronic adenoiditis, inflammation of the adenoids. Symptoms of both conditions are easy to distinguish from the state of teething: fever, bad breath, whitish plaque on the tonsils, pain and redness in the throat, difficulty swallowing and breathing, against the background of the growth of lymphoid tissue and narrowing of the respiratory lumen.

Allergy

Cytokine surge, or allergic rashes during teething of milk teeth. Teething - stress for the child, his nervous system experiences increased stress, against this background, immunity is weakened, and the body responds either with the development of infectious conditions, or with a decrease in resistance to chemicals and hygiene products.

For allergic rashes, air baths, daily hygiene of problem areas and care using special antihistamines are shown.

infections

The main rule for delimiting an infectious disease from teething is to monitor the timing of fever and related conditions (diarrhea, irritability, snot, redness of the throat, etc.). If the temperature lasts for more than two days, a white coating or vesicles appear on the tongue, gums, lymphoid tissue - it's time to see a doctor to avoid possible complications and to exclude symptoms of a disease not associated with teething.

Treatment

Special care for teething is not required. It is important to spend more time with the child, distracting him from the constant aching pain. In exceptional cases, symptomatic treatment is used, for example, the use of antimicrobial, immunomodulatory drugs.

rinses

Rinses of the mouth and throat are used both for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, and for the relief of pain during teething. For this, it is recommended to use decoctions of sage, chamomile, saline solutions. It is advisable to rinse thirty minutes before or thirty minutes after eating.

Throat smearing

Lubrication of the throat is used to relieve inflammation in infectious diseases and relieve pain during teething. For lubrication use: Chlorophyllipt solution, Miramistin (also used in the form of a spray), sea buckthorn oil, propolis oil. Lubrication is carried out either thirty minutes before or thirty minutes after a meal, using a stick with a cotton swab at the end.

Traditional medicine to protect the crumbs

Traditional medicine offers its own ways to alleviate the condition of the child during teething:

a decoction of chamomile flowers or honey (if there is no allergy to bee products) will help relieve pain during teething. If you raise the head of the bed, the rush of blood during laying will decrease and the pain will subside a little;
you can relieve inflammation with anti-inflammatory drugs - a decoction of sage or valerian root;
to facilitate teething, especially if the gums are very swollen, it is recommended to massage with rubber rings or vegetables (fresh carrots, cucumber) and fruits (apple, pear).

It should be borne in mind that when using one or more ways to help your child, it is important to exclude possible contraindications.

How to remove a red throat and runny nose in babies Komarovsky

Dr. Komarovsky is not a supporter drug treatment, for this reason he advises against taking special measures in the fight against the inflammation associated with teething. The cause of a runny nose in infants during teething may be the increased work of the glands in the nasal passages. In the presence of discomfort, nasal congestion, Komarovsky advises the use of vasoconstrictor drops, saline solutions, an aspirator to remove mucus. For sore throat in infants, if the gums are swollen, the doctor recommends gargling with herbal decoctions and warm drinking.

What are milk teeth for?

How are teeth cut in a child?

Eruption and change of teeth

Why you need to treat and protect milk teeth

My daughter's temperature jumps to 38.4 for the second day. Tellingly, I anoint with gel - it drops to 37.4, then rises again with time. Yesterday, as soon as I got up for the first time, we immediately went to the clinic. The doctor looked, said - "teeth, but the throat is red" and sent home. They gave my daughter Ibuprofen in the evening, she slept all night without a temperature. And it wasn't until noon. Then the doctor came, looked again and said again that the throat was red and prescribed us an antibiotic. Like, if the temperature rises again, then start giving. And now I’m at a loss: I really don’t want to give an antibiotic, since the beginning of the year I have already drunk it three times. The temperature keeps jumping 38.0 - 37.4. But the daughter is alive, she eats everything, even plays, all the symptoms of teething: saliva, and gnaws everything, and is naughty. What to do? Is it worth watching for another day or not? Has anyone else had a red throat while teething?

Can there be a cough during teething in children (Komarovsky)

Teething is hard time which parents have to face sooner or later. This period passes differently for everyone, in some children they climb out painlessly and unexpectedly, in other children incisors climb with pain, tantrums and poor health.

Can there be a cough during teething

As a rule, when teeth are climbing, the immunity of children is weakened, therefore, along with their appearance, such signs of the disease may appear:

runny nose;
cough;
expectoration of sputum;
red throat;
hoarse voice;
wheezing in the throat;
temperature;
poor appetite;
sleep disturbance.

Many parents are interested in the question of whether there can be a cough during teething. Reply #8212; positive. This symptom often manifests itself, but you should not think that it is mandatory, there are many children in whom the processes climb out painlessly.

Teething cough in children occurs for the following reasons:

nasal congestion;
salivation that accumulates in the larynx;
a hidden disease that has nothing to do with the appearance of incisors;
prolonged cold.

Also, all the signs mentioned above can appear when the root processes erupt. Most often, the teeth hurt during sleep and the symptoms of the disease appear at night.

What is the cough in children during teething

Many are concerned about the question of what kind of cough is possible when teeth are being cut. In fact, it can be anything: dry, wet or wet (with phlegm). None of these types needs treatment, because medicines can only progress the disease.

Wet occurs due to sputum and saliva accumulated in the throat - for these reasons, hoarseness appears. Even in children, accumulated sputum may be expectorated several times during the day.

As a rule, this nature of the symptom lasts no more than 3 days. If it becomes strong, in addition, shortness of breath and wheezing appear, the help of a doctor is necessary, as these are signs of a complication of a cold.

Dry #8212; in infants, it occurs after prolonged crying, due to the fact that there is dryness in the throat, the baby begins to cough. Such phenomena last no more than two days. If the crumbs have a hoarse voice, do not panic ahead of time - this is within the normal range.

If your attention is interested in why a baby hiccups in the womb, simply click here. after all, the causes of intrauterine hiccuping of a baby can be quite different for various reasons.

How to remove a red throat and runny nose in infants (Komarovsky)

Of course, many parents begin to worry that their baby will not get sick and are wondering how to treat it. A special approach is not required, you just need to spend as much time with him as possible and constantly distract him from the aching pain.

Snot during eruption occurs for various reasons, one of the most common is the increased work of the glands in the nasal passages. Usually the child does not have a runny nose, but the so-called mucus, which secretes up to 4 days. If it causes discomfort, then you should use vasoconstrictor drops. You can also use an aspirator to remove baby's mucus or snot.

If you don’t know if nasal congestion can appear from teeth, you can watch the video at the end of the publication, in which Dr. Komarovsky talks about how these phenomena are connected. To relieve a sore throat in a baby, you need to rinse it with herbal decoctions and drink warm teas. You can read recipes on the forum, ask the doctor or use your own experience.

In order to get rid of the accumulated mucus in the nose, it is recommended to apply AquaMaris in the form of drops or spray. It is recommended to use such a drug 3-4 times a day, especially since sea water is completely safe.

Read helpful articles:

Alena*Tashkentskaya. In my opinion, such problems are best addressed as they become available. Now the child is not worried about anything significant - it is worth doing with minimal effort - cool, moist air, plenty of fluids, minimal food, possibly multivitamins.
Now I’m much more calm about the situation when a child has a runny nose - the maximum that I can do is rub my feet at night with a warming ointment, or warm them up in a bath with coniferous extract (plus the regimen described above). It’s just that a couple of times I’ve had my own observations - I’m not zealous with treatment, especially for the future - everything goes by itself, I start to fuss - I get the full program: nasopharyngitis, fever, seriously and for a long time. And it's hard to check - would it be like this if I left her alone, to fight on my own?

assistant moderator Messages: 9061 Registered: Fri Jul 27, 2007 04:02 PM Where: Sillamäe, Estonia Thanked (a): 22 times Thanked: 19 times Contact Information:

The child is a year and 7 months old, today they went to the kindergarten and they took him out with a red throat. like

Messages: 1234 Registered: Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:03 Where: Kaliningrad Thanked: 1 time Contact Information:

latiffa. Is there anything besides the red neck? Last week, we also brought out of the garden with snot and a red neck, but there was still a tem-ra. The doctor prescribed an inhalipt for the throat. It is better to stay at home - recover until complete recovery.

Messages: 99 Registered: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:58 Where: Ivanovo, Russia

Hello. and we have such a problem. Yesterday afternoon I fed the babies (9 months) with kefir + cottage cheese + fruit, from the refrigerator. After dinner ( vegetable puree) the boy began to vomit after half an hour, then he pooped liquidly. The girl is OK. An hour after the last feeding (mixture), the boy vomited again. And at night the temperature rose to 39 and again pooped liquidly. I gave an antipyretic (Efferalgan), the temperature dropped, the boy slept almost peacefully until morning. In the morning the temperature rose again to 38.1, drank some water and pooped again. I called the doctor. The doctor said that the baby has a very red throat and swollen gums (teeth climb). And that vomiting and loose stools are the precursors, and then the result of high temperature. And she prescribed an antibiotic - amoxicillin in suspension. I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to treat the baby with antibiotics

Can babies have a runny nose when teething

The development of teeth in a child begins at a time when he is still in the womb, where the development of the rudiments of teeth in the gums of babies occurs. It is a very common belief that a baby's teeth should appear only in a strictly defined sequence and only at a certain age. In fact, there is no strict order, no strict distinction by age. For all babies, this happens strictly individually and depends on many factors. That is, the appearance of teeth in babies is as individual as weight gain, growth, and development.
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Terms and order of eruption

Naturally, there are certain general trends in teething, so in most babies, the first teeth appear approximately at 4-7 months. Deviations up or down should in no case worry parents. Basically, the lower and upper incisors appear first, then the second incisors, the first molars (large) teeth, canines, then the second molars. The order of appearance of teeth in each baby may also be different. By about the age of three, each baby becomes the owner of a row of milk teeth in the amount of 20 pieces, which are preserved (with proper care) he has up to 6-7 years, after which they begin to change to permanent teeth.
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The first signs of eruption

The symptoms that accompany the process of teething in infants are as specific as the timing and age of teething. So some children endure teething absolutely easily and painlessly, their happy parents discover teeth quite by accident. In other children, teething is painful and is accompanied by various conditions that cause discomfort to the baby. Soreness and swelling of the gums, increased salivation are the symptoms that appear in children a month or two before teething (this period may be shorter). Children begin to be disturbed by these factors, as a result of which anxiety, irritability appear, sleep and appetite are disturbed. The gums begin to itch, in response, the baby begins to drag everything into his mouth. Closer to the moment when the tooth appears, a small whitish spot, a whitish line or a thin white protrusion appears on the gum.

Frequently ill child - what to do? First, understand that this is not a diagnosis at all. This is a monitoring group. It includes children who often suffer from respiratory infections, and this is not associated with obvious congenital and hereditary pathologies. Formally, the group of "frequently ill" is defined as follows:

if a child is aged 3 to 4 years - gets sick more often 6 times a year;

if a child aged 4 to 5 years - gets sick more often 5 times a year; - if the child is older than 5 years - gets sick more often 4 times a year.

When this happens, parents often blame "bad doctors" and start torturing their children with more and more new drugs on their own - which can only exacerbate the problem. If a child is often sick, this means that he is constantly faced with sources of infection. They can be inside the body itself or in the external environment - for example, with a large number of contacts with people. It is no coincidence that many parents associate the surge in diseases with the beginning of the child's visit to kindergarten. But the reasons can be at home, in the family.

External factors

lack of sanitary culture in the family, defects in care, for example, poor nutrition, they don’t walk with the child, they don’t do physical education;

material distress, poor sanitary and living conditions, and in quite prosperous families, on the contrary, hyperprotection of the child;

uncontrolled use of antibiotics, antipyretics that disrupt the protective factors of the child's body;

the presence of chronic diseases of the ENT organs in parents and other family members who live with the child; use of common utensils, etc.;

vaccinations before the visit children's institution. Many parents often postpone vaccination until the kindergarten arrives, and vaccines weaken the immune system - as a result, the child falls ill a few days after the start of adaptation to the conditions of the children's institution;

parents did not take preventive measures before starting to visit the kindergarten, as a result, the child's body cannot cope with overwork and overexcitation of the nervous system;

the beginning of the child's visit to kindergarten (especially under the age of 3 years). At this age, children are very susceptible to respiratory diseases.

a large number of contacts in places with a mass stay of people: transport, supermarkets, etc.

The ENT doctor of my two children, Svetlana Danilova, usually categorically declares to parents whose children suffer from sinusitis, otitis, adenoiditis - they urgently need to take their children home from the institution for at least a couple of months. “If it were my will, I would close all kindergartens,” Svetlana Vladimirovna categorically declares.

But parents often do not have the opportunity to leave the child at home: either there is no one with them, or the financial situation does not allow only dad or mom to work.

Internal factors frequent morbidity of the child:

Pre- and postnatal adverse scenarios for the development of the child, for example, malnutrition, rickets, anemia, prematurity, hypoxia in childbirth, encephalopathy;

early artificial feeding affects the maturation of the immune system;

allergies, especially those that are inherited;

the presence in the child of foci of chronic infection in the oropharynx and nasopharynx;

on the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx of the child may be viruses and pathogenic flora;

“local” immunity of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract does not work well;

the child has impaired thermoregulation and thermoadaptation processes;

violation of the composition of the intestinal microflora.

comments Ivan Leskov, otolaryngologist:

“The real problem begins when the child has to be sent to Kindergarten where there are 20-25 people in a group. Of these, three or four are always in the prodromal period of infection, or come to kindergarten after sick leave - not treated. And although a 3-4-year-old child can already develop antibodies to infection, the main link of immunity - the T-system - does not work yet (it is formed by the age of 5-6). And this means that from 3 to 6 years old there is a danger of the child developing chronic bacterial foci of infection (tonsillitis, adenoiditis), or persistent (lat. “permanently residing”) chronic viruses, which, in particular, include the Epstein-Barr virus, adenovirus and cytomegalovirus. If a child is often sick, simply stimulating his immunity will not give the desired results.

What to do?

Three competent steps will allow you to break the vicious circle:
1. Identify and sanitize chronic foci of infection;

Get tested for antibodies to viruses;

After completing the first two points - to begin the rehabilitation of the child's immune system

It is necessary to show the child not only to the pediatrician, but also to the otolaryngologist. It is the ENT doctor who can assess the condition of the tonsils, adenoids, accessory cavities of the nose and eardrum. It is the diseases of the ENT organs that are the cause of frequent illnesses in children.

An ENT doctor should give a direction for analysis - sowing from the mucous membrane of the pharynx and nose to assess the microbial state. In the nasopharyngeal mucosa of frequently ill children, fungi of the genus Candida, staphylococci, Haemophilus influenzae often “live” peacefully (by the way, since last year children at risk have been vaccinated against Haemophilus influenzae infection for free), enterobacteria. They are the source of the inflammatory process.

As a result of the evaluation of the analyzes, adequate treatment is prescribed. And only after the child has fully recovered, you can begin to rehabilitate the immune system.

How to rehabilitate the child's immune system?

Today, very often pediatricians use in their practice herbal preparations and homeopathic remedies. Most of us are familiar with adaptagen plants. To stimulate the immune system, eleutherococcus, echinacea, zamaniha, levkoy, Chinese magnolia vine, Rhodiola rosea, Manchurian aralia are used. Pharmacies sell extracts and tinctures of these plants. In practice, the following dosage is usually used: 1 drop of tincture for 1 year of life. During the epidemic period, immunomodulators are given to the child for a week - excluding weekends - for a month.

Connoisseurs bee products argue that immunity can be raised with royal jelly, royal jelly, propolis.

If a child is constantly suffering from runny nose, otitis, he needs to stimulate local immunity. It is necessary to use drugs (on the recommendation of an ENT doctor and after passing tests), which normalize immunity in the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract. These medicines contain bacterial lysates. They help prevent infections in the nasopharynx. Known ribosomal immunomodulators, bacterial lysates and membrane fractions and their synthetic analogues. I don’t specifically name the drugs themselves, they should be prescribed only by a doctor, preferably good immunologist.

comments Fedor Lapiy, immunologist-infectious disease specialist:

“Before prescribing a drug, it is necessary to assess the health of the child. To begin with, a general blood test looks to see if the content of lymphocyte cells is normal. Their number indicates whether the child has a gross violation of the immune system (the norm for children over the age of 4 years is 6.1 - 11.4x109 / l). It turns out whether the child had pneumonia, purulent otitis media, meningitis and other serious illnesses. After that, other studies may be required - immunograms. They are different. Sometimes, in order to correctly assess what is happening with the child and prescribe an adequate, effective treatment, an immunologist may prescribe a very narrowly focused test. In this case, the immunogram itself will show the norm. But that doesn't mean the problem is over."

good to spend interferon prophylaxis. Even for newborns, pediatricians prescribe native leukocyte alpha-interferon (in ampoules) during the period of seasonal morbidity. There are recombinant types of interferon - influenzaferon and viferon (candles), anaferon and aflubin. Arbidol is an inducer of interferon; in addition, it is also an antiviral drug. Do not forget oxolinic ointment. In the morning and evening, after having cleared the child’s nose of mucus and just from crusts, gently lubricate the mucous cotton swab with ointment applied to it.

There are also physiotherapeutic options for restoring immunity. Many pulmonology departments and children's health centers have so-called halachambers, they model the main parameters of salt caves. Highly recommended for children with bronchopulmonary diseases, allergies, and simply often sick children. Being in a halochamber activates T-cells, increases the synthesis of endogenous interferon and the level of immunoglobulins. Usually there are two courses per year. For example, in autumn and spring.

aromatherapy– physiotherapeutic procedure with the use of volatile biologically active substances. Depending on usage essential oil a certain plant - there will be a corresponding effect. The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties of pine needles, lavender, laurel, fennel and basil oils are widely known. Aromatherapy requires a strictly individual selection of essential oils.

A little forgotten UFO - ultraviolet irradiation. Physiotherapy rooms in children's clinics are usually equipped with these devices. As a result of exposure to ultraviolet rays, not only the bactericidal activity of the blood increases, but phagocytic activity also increases, and antimicrobial antibodies grow.

At the same time, we must not forget to perform other “non-drug” health improvement measures. Everyone knows about them or at least heard about them, but the implementation of these absolutely competent instructions requires pedantic constancy from adults. Rules should become the norm.

Properly organize child's day routine. He must take a walk, and play, and go to bed on time.

Avoid stress. Put out all conflict situations in the family. As psychologists rightly point out: very often a child falls ill in those families where there are unresolved situations between parents. The kid thus attracts the attention of the warring parties to himself. In another option, the child's immunity falls due to constant stress due to the situation in the family.

Make it a rule several times a day rinse your nose saline solution (0.9%) or saline (costs a penny). Many parents buy sprays, for example, Aqua-Maris. To save money - after the solution in the purchased preparation runs out, you can carefully remove the cap with pliers and pour saline into the bottle. Cheap and cheerful. Other spray systems do not allow reuse.

- Apply adaptogens. They will help the child to restore immunity.

- Provide access to clean air. Ventilate more often, at least before going to bed, do a wet cleaning of the floor in the child’s room. If possible, remove carpet dust collectors. Or clean them often and very thoroughly.

A very good tradition - at least once a year take the child to the sea, preferably for two weeks (at least). If this is not possible, go to the village, open now also the fashionable summer season. The child should be given the opportunity to clean the bronchi from city air, apartment allergens. Summer is the best time to start hardening procedures. What could be better - pouring cold water on the grass on the baby's feet or running along the river bank with him, and then swimming with sunny splashes ...

- Make a schedule of visits to specialists. For a frequently ill child, such pedantry is very important. The main ones are a pediatrician, an otolaryngologist, a dentist, a physiotherapist. According to additional indications: exercise therapy doctor, allergist, immunologist, neuropathologist.

Deputy Director of the Scientific and Practical Center for Child Psychoneurology of the Moscow Health Department, pediatric neurologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences

Why does a child have a headache? How much is alarm signal– and what health problems can it indicate? How can I help my child relieve pain? What tests are you most likely to be ordered to understand the cause of your headaches?

- Children's neurologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Deputy Director of the Scientific and Practical Center for Child Psychoneurology of the Moscow Health Department.

At what age can a child start to feel a headache?

A headache can appear in a child at any age - the question is whether he can formulate this sensation into a specific complaint. Sometimes the child feels discomfort, but cannot clearly explain exactly where it hurts.

Usually, by the age of six or seven, a child can understand that he has a headache, and complain about a headache.

Why does the head start to hurt?

The basis of the phenomenon is always a violation of the blood supply to the brain. But why this happens - this question can have a lot of answers, for example:

Imperfection of the vegetative system of the body,

Incipient respiratory illness (prodrome)

The presence of any serious disease: kidney disease, endocrine disorder, anemia, rheumatism and others;

Toothache, which provokes a headache;

Consequences of a head injury;

Excessive nervous tension associated with stress, long hours of work, conflict, serious experience, etc.

Influence of the external environment: prolonged stay in a stuffy room, increased solar radiation, prolonged exposure to the sun, etc.

The head can hurt in different ways. Is it possible to understand, depending on the complaints, what is the cause of the pain?

Pain in the back of the head. If a child, complaining of a headache, points to the crown and back of the head - most often, we are dealing with a tension headache. Usually it occurs in the afternoon, associated with posture, when the child is already quite tired: in spent a lot of time sitting during the day. Approximately one third of visits to the doctor with a complaint of a headache account for this type of pain.

Tension headache is often associated with overload of the neck muscles. Invite the child to stretch his neck and shoulders, do a calm exercise, lie down on the floor to relieve tension from his back and neck.

Pain in the temples. Pain in the temporal region often indicates a vegetative disorder. Here it is worth looking for an individual method, but most often either resting in a well-ventilated room or a short walk helps.

Sore forehead and crown. This is usually pain in the first half of the day, and it may be caused by increased intracranial pressure. If such pain is repeated systematically, you should consult a pediatrician, ENT doctor and undergo additional examinations.

Half head hurts. It seems to be a manifestation of migraine: unfortunately, it can start at an early age. This is a sharp pain that occurs suddenly, at any time of the night, and intensifies within 10-15 minutes from mild to almost unbearable. In this case, the most important thing is to stop the attack as soon as possible. If your child has had migraines in the past, it's best to give him a pain reliever as soon as he starts complaining about the growing pain.

Situations when you need to be especially careful

The most alarming symptoms of a headache are nausea, vomiting, photophobia, hyperocusia (when sounds are annoying), irritability or lethargy. All these are signs of serious disorders, in which you need to show the child to a neurologist and undergo a series of examinations.

Do I need to call an ambulance at the time of an attack, urgently go to the hospital?

First of all, you need to try to relieve the pain: calm the child, put him to bed, give him painkillers, dim the lights and create silence. An ambulance should be called if the attack is very strong and you cannot cope with it - but there is no need to hospitalize the child right at the time of the attack for no special reason.

How often can a healthy child have a headache?

From time to time, everyone can have a headache, including a child. Approximately 12% of schoolchildren miss 1 school day per month due to a headache. A moderate headache 1-2 times a week in the afternoon is not too much of a cause for concern. In puberty, this is even partly the norm. If your child complains of a headache more than three times a week or every day, you should take a closer look at his condition.

Keep a headache diary. Whenever a child complains of a headache, note the date and time of the complaint so you can track the frequency of the complaint. Also, ask your child to rate the headache on a scale of one to ten. If the child is still too young, use a visual scale.

Having observed a headache for several weeks, you will get enough complete picture. Take the diary to the doctor's appointment: this will greatly facilitate the process of making a diagnosis.

Download headache diary with instructions for filling out

Which doctor should I contact if I have a headache?

To the pediatrician- if the headache is accompanied by fever or other symptoms (difficulty urinating, rash, respiratory symptoms).

To the otolaryngologist- to exclude chronic pathologies and inflammatory diseases of the sinuses (sinuses). Sometimes it happens that, for example, due to a deviated nasal septum or allergic rhinitis, the child constantly has difficulty breathing and the brain does not receive enough oxygen.

To the neurologist who will look at the big picture and decide which studies to order.

To the optometrist- in the direction of a neurologist, if the child is suspected of increased intracranial pressure. The optometrist will conduct an examination of the fundus of the child.

What studies are prescribed to the child to reveal the nature of the headache?

Ultrasound of cerebral vessels- to detect asymmetry or other abnormalities in the development of cerebral vessels.

X-ray of the cervical spine- to diagnose pathologies of the cervical vertebrae, which can also provoke a headache.

MRI, CT of the brain– if there is a suspicion of injury, swelling or something serious.

Can I wait until the headache goes away on its own? Is it necessary to take pills?

With a one-time headache, you can simply put the child to bed and let him rest. But if a headache significantly affects the quality of life, if it is systematic, you need to think about drug treatment.

If you have not been prescribed any special drugs, choose a drug with one of three active ingredients (indicate INN): ibuprofen, nimesulide, paracetamol (arranged in descending order of effectiveness). None of these drugs are habit-forming and have no serious side effects when taken correctly. Calculate the dosage of the medicine according to the age and weight of the child.

Please do not give your child other drugs that you may be using yourself. This can seriously harm his health.

If a child has a headache, is he tired?

It's possible, but not necessary. Try to limit the child's psycho-emotional stress and look at the reaction: if the frequency of headaches decreases, then your fears were justified. But a headache may not be associated with overwork, but with emotional overstrain: the child may not get tired, but he worries a lot and it exhausts him. This happens in children who have just started school. In this case, the task of the parent is, if possible, to remove the significance of school success, to provide the child with psychological support. If we are dealing with a psychosomatic headache, then it is very important to make the child understand that his life and happiness do not depend entirely on how well he copes with new tasks.

Is it true that the head can hurt from hunger? Is it right to relieve a headache with sweet tea or coffee?

Most often, hunger is not the cause of the headache, but the feeling of hunger itself is an emotion that affects the general well-being of the child and causes him discomfort. As for a sweet warm drink as a remedy for a headache, this is quite an adequate measure, however, it must be understood that tea or candy in this case play the role of nothing more than distraction therapy. We simply direct the attention of the child from the headache to the meal. It can help here and now, but if the headache has a specific cause, then it is better to identify it and begin to treat it, rather than distract it.

One more nuance. If the headache is easily relieved by eating or drinking sugary drinks, then I would advise, just in case, to monitor the level of glucose in the blood. Perhaps your headaches are related to a metabolic disorder.

“I’ll get sick and die,” the boy (or maybe the girl) decided. I’ll die, and then they will all know how bad it will be for them without me.”

Probably, every person at least once in his life had such a fantasy about his illness and death. This is when it seems that no one needs you anymore, everyone has forgotten about you and luck has turned away from you. And I want all the faces dear to you to turn to you with love and concern. In a word, such fantasies do not arise from a good life. Well, perhaps in the midst of a fun game or on your birthday, when you were given the very thing that you dreamed about the most, do such gloomy thoughts come? For me, for example, no. And none of my friends either.

Such complex thoughts do not occur to very young children, those who are not yet in school. They don't know much about death. It seems to them that they have always lived, they do not want to understand that they once did not exist, and even more so that they will never be. Such babies do not think about the disease, as a rule, they do not consider themselves sick and are not going to interrupt their interesting activities because of some angina. But how great it is when your mother also stays at home with you, does not go to her work and feels your forehead all day, reads fairy tales and offers something tasty. And then (if you are a girl), worried about your high temperature, the folder, having come home from work, rashly promises to give you gold earrings, the most beautiful ones. And then he brings them running from some secluded place. And if you are a cunning boy, then near your sad bed, mom and dad can reconcile forever, who have not yet managed to get a divorce, but have almost gathered. And when you are already recovering, they will buy you all sorts of goodies that you, healthy, could not even think about.

So think about whether it is worth staying healthy for a long time when no one remembers about you all day. Everyone is busy with their important things, for example, work, with which parents often come angry, wicked, and just know for yourself they find fault with your unwashed ears, then with broken knees, as if they themselves washed them and didn’t beat them in childhood. That is, if they notice your existence at all. And then one hid from everyone under the newspaper, “mother is such a lady” (from a replica of a little girl cited by K. I. Chukovsky in the book “From Two to Five”) went to the bathroom to wash, and you have no one to show your diary with fives.

No, when you're sick, life definitely has its good sides. Any smart child can twist ropes from their parents. Or laces. Maybe that's why, in teenage slang, parents are sometimes called so - shoelaces? I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing.

That is, the child is sick, of course, not on purpose. He does not utter terrible spells, does not perform magical passes, but the internal program of the benefit of the disease from time to time self-starts when it is not possible to achieve recognition among their relatives in another way.

The mechanism of this process is simple. What is beneficial for the body and personality in some way is realized automatically. Moreover, in children, and in almost all adults, it is not realized. In psychotherapy, this is called an annuity (that is, a benefit-giving) symptom.

One of my colleagues once described a clinical case with a young woman who fell ill with bronchial asthma. It happened in the following way. Her husband left her and went to another. Olga (as we will call her) was very attached to her husband and fell into despair. Then she caught a cold, and for the first time in her life she had an asthmatic attack, so severe that the frightened unfaithful husband returned to her. Since then, he had made such attempts from time to time, but he could not decide to leave his sick wife, whose attacks were getting worse. So they live side by side - she, swollen from hormones, and he - downcast and crushed.

If the husband had the courage (in another context it would be called meanness) not to return, not to establish a vicious and strong connection between the disease and the possibility of possessing an object of affection, they could succeed, like another family in a similar situation. He left her sick high temperature, with children in their arms. He left and did not return. She, having come to her senses and faced with the cruel need to live on, at first almost lost her mind, and then brightened her mind. She even discovered abilities that she had not known about before - drawing, poetry. The husband then returned to her, to the one that is not afraid to leave, and therefore does not want to leave, with which it is interesting and reliable next to her. Which does not load you on the way, but helps you go.

So how do we treat husbands in this situation? I think it's not so much the husbands, but the different positions that the women have taken. One of them took the path of involuntary and unconscious emotional blackmail, the other used the difficulty that arose as a chance to become herself, real. With her life, she realized the basic law of defectology: any defect, shortcoming, is an incentive for the development of the individual, compensation for the defect.

And, returning to the sick child, we will see that in fact, he may need an illness in order to want to become healthy, it should not bring him privileges and a better attitude than to a healthy one. And drugs should not be sweet, but nasty. Both in the sanatorium and in the hospital should not be better than at home. And mom should be happy healthy child, and not make him dream of illness as a way to her heart.

And if a child has no other way to find out about the love of his parents, except for illness, this is his great misfortune, and adults need to think about it well. Are they able to accept with love a living, active, naughty child, or will he stuff his stress hormones into the cherished organ to please them and will be ready to once again play the role of a victim in the hope that the executioner will again repent and pity him?

In many families, a special cult of the disease is formed. Good man, he takes everything to heart, his heart (or head) hurts from everything. This is like a sign of a good, decent person. But the bad one, he is indifferent, everything is like peas against the wall, you can’t get him through anything. And nothing hurts him. Then around they say with condemnation:

And your head never hurts!

How can one grow up healthy and healthy in such a family? happy child if it is somehow not accepted? If with understanding and sympathy they treat only those who are covered with well-deserved wounds and ulcers from a hard life, who patiently and dignifiedly drags his heavy cross? Now osteochondrosis is very popular, which almost breaks its owners to paralysis, and more often - the owners. And the whole family runs around, finally appreciating wonderful person next to you.

The theme of diseases would not be sufficiently disclosed without talking about the psychological meaning of diseases as a kind of negative situation. Once Heinrich Mann wrote: "Illness is a brilliant path to knowledge, man, love." This statement immediately knocks the ground out from under the usual idea of the unambiguous negativity of illness and any other misfortune. And indeed, from the point of view of a psychologist, the disease has at least three functions.

Signal. It not only reports that the physical capabilities of a person have been let down, but also that his intimate intrapersonal processes, his own ecology, which is not a purely physical, and not even a psychophysical phenomenon, have been violated, but a manifestation of the trinity spirit - soul - body. A symptom that has appeared in an adult is a good reason to ask yourself the question: what am I doing wrong in my life, what, with what behavior do I step on my throat, or on my head, or on the bronchi, or on the stomach?

If a child has become unwell, parents need to honestly ask themselves what and how they contribute to the illness of a loved one. Even in domestic dogs, there are any number of disorders on the basis of nerves. I know an experienced veterinarian who takes care of his furry patients by doing mandatory "family" therapy with their owners. What about children then to speak. It is not always possible for us to live ecologically, in harmony with our inner personal space. Often we have to sacrifice the health of ourselves and our children to necessity (as we see it). It's just that it's good to remember that our share of participation is present here too. Then, perhaps, it will be possible to seize an opportune moment to turn the situation in the right direction, when there will be no urgent need to grab onto a log floating into a whirlpool.

Separating. The separator separates the cream from the whey, and the disease - "flies" from "cutlets". When misfortune occurs, everything superfluous and unreliable from life quickly disappears. Only those who really love and cherish us remain nearby, only those thoughts and worries remain with a person, without which he cannot do. This is a very cruel way of placing accents and growing up, but it’s not for nothing that people have always said that for one beaten they give two unbeaten.

Stimulating development. Man is a stubborn creature, and if life drives him into a corner, he begins to get out of it, suddenly discovering in himself still unknown abilities. Bedridden for some time as a child, Astrid Lingren came up with her Carlson. And let her write about him many years later, but then, in childhood, he had already helped her endure the need for bed confinement. A well-known psychologist, the great American grandmother Eda LeChamp, describes an episode from her childhood, when forced stagnation in bed prompted her to publish her first wall newspaper. Even knowing that you don't have long to live can encourage you to live the rest of your life with high quality and bring happiness to someone like a shooting star. It instantly traces the sky with a luminous trace and leaves a feeling of a miracle.

Growing pains and short pants

A child's body, like a small growing tree, is very vulnerable. All its protective and adaptive systems are still being formed, gradually adapting to the conditions of the same changing environment. Only the body of an adult, mature person is a fully functioning system of human adaptation to the environment. Therefore, the child's body gives frequent failures and needs external support. Question - in what?

One of my colleagues, a psychologist whose son suffered from neurodermatitis, once told me that she understands everything about the causes of the disease, about the role of the child’s relationship with her mother, but gives him medicines, because it is much easier than rebuilding your relationship with the world and a child, and all people see that she is treating him. Although she herself understands that she does not heal, but heals the child. And many other mothers do not even imagine the nature of most childhood diseases.

Traditional medicine talks about insidious microbes that nest in secluded corners of the body, and bad ecology, lack of important food components and offers us dozens and hundreds of new potent and increasingly effective drugs. Nice to look at and even delicious. So the disease turns into pure pleasure, and there is no need to think about anything. Drip once a day. Swallow - and until tomorrow like a cucumber. And so how much? Yes, for the rest of your life. We'll make medicine! Even better than before! Moreover, people have the idea that external factors in relation to him, the soulless elements, turn out to be stronger than him, and he simply cannot exist without all kinds of crutches and props.

In fact, this is a veterinary approach to a person and his relationship with the environment through the problems of the body. I must say that drugs are often more dangerous than the disease itself with their side effects. The stick is always double-edged. I am a supporter of alternative medicine, which does not shoot sparrows from cannons, but preserves and nurtures its own defenses. This is therapeutic massage, homeopathy, herbal medicine, osteopathy, psychotherapy.

My specialty is psychotherapy. More than twenty years of medical and maternal experience, the experience of coping with my own numerous chronic diseases, led to several conclusions:

1. Most childhood illnesses (of course, not of a congenital nature) are functional, adaptive in nature, and a person gradually grows out of them, like out of short pants, if he has other, more constructive ways of relating to the world. For example, with the help of an illness, he does not need to attract the attention of his mother, his mother already learned to notice him healthy and rejoice in him like that. Or you don’t need to reconcile your parents with your illness. I worked as an adolescent doctor for five years, and I was struck by one fact - the discrepancy between the content of the outpatient cards that we received from children's clinics and the objective health status of adolescents, which was regularly monitored for two to three years. The cards included gastritis, cholecystitis, all kinds of dyskinesia and dystonia, ulcers and neurodermatitis, umbilical hernia, and so on. Somehow, at a physical examination, one boy did not have an umbilical hernia described in the map. He said that his mother was offered an operation, but she still could not decide, and in the meantime he began to play sports (well, do not waste time, in fact). Gradually the hernia disappeared somewhere. Where did their gastritis and other ailments go, cheerful teenagers also did not know. So it turns out - outgrown.

Thus, the conditions for recovery, the outgrowth of the disease, become, on the one hand, the parents' awareness of the adaptive nature of any disease, sometimes its psychological benefit for themselves or the child, and on the other hand, the creation (primarily in themselves) of the attitude to the disease as short pants from which children gradually grow. Rituals can help you: removing an old children's thing from use, you think and tell the child that his childhood illnesses and problems go away with this thing. When giving a thing to other small children, it is enough to wash it well and give it away with good feelings - it will not “transmit” any negative information to another child. These elements of domestic magic are close to the psyche of children and women, which operates mainly with specific images, pictures, sensual representations.

2. The wedge is knocked out with a wedge. There are diseases that acquire a chronic, monotonous character (if the parents at one time did not understand its psychological background and had ideas about diseases as something unchanged). They drag on for years without significantly changing their course. A persistent vicious circle is formed with a powerful dominant in the cerebral cortex. This is a kind of record in the brain's memory about how to live with the disease, this is the body's habit of living like this. And until another, stronger dominant appears in the cerebral cortex, which can "outweigh" and absorb the activity of the first, the disease does not want to recede. That is, the victory over the disease becomes a matter of the emergence of a kind of shake-up, shock, stress. Stress can be of two types - physiological and psycho-emotional.

Quite recently, a good friend of mine told a story about one of his friends. The young man fell ill with rheumatism, in a word, all his joints were gradually fettered by the disease, he moved worse and worse. Treatment in the clinic and hospital proved to be ineffective. Meanwhile, the wife found out about some "strong" grandmother from the countryside, persuaded her husband to try. Together with her son, she put him behind the wheel, and they drove to the village. Grandmother performed her mysterious ritual by candlelight, the man got out of there in a state of slight stupefaction and, sitting behind the wheel again, crashed into someone's brand new fence. With curses, he paid for the damage, wondering where to get the money to repair the car, and vowed never to go to his grandparents again in his life. Returning home, he sat on sick leave in a state of gloomy indifference. Having nothing to do, I tried treatment according to a new recipe - baths with herbs. Once, while taking a bath once again, I heard the phone ring, and began to get out of the bath. Slipped, fell on his back, and even hit his head on washing machine. When he came to his senses, he jumped to his feet with a selective swearing (I’ve been saving all my life for such a case), dodging, examined the damage in the mirror ... and only then I realized that he didn’t crawl out, as usual, but jumped out that he could see his back earlier could only with the help of another mirror, but without turning around. To celebrate, I ran (!) To the store for a bottle of vodka. His wife and son returned home to find him merrily celebrating his farewell to illness.

Severe stress shook up all his temporary nerve connections, created a powerful focus of prolonged excitation in the cerebral cortex, which absorbed the focus associated with his illness. The emotion of anger turned out to be healing this time, as it materialized at the level of awareness into an emotional outburst. Stress hormones for the first time in a long time went not to self-destruction, inward, but outward. The old path has been catastrophically destroyed, the new path has been beaten.

Since childhood, Nadya has been ill with glomerulonephritis, its sluggish but persistent variant. Becoming an adult and getting married, like any normal woman wanted to have a baby. Doctors (and not just any, but from the country's leading institute) warned her that the risk of leaving the child an orphan very soon was too great. In any case, there were no encouraging cases in their practice. Nadia suffered for a long time, but in the end she became pregnant and left the child. Come what may - decided. After delivery, urine tests were normal for the first time. And thirteen years have passed since then. Both mother and son are alive and well.

The second case illustrates the mechanism of physiological stress associated with hormonal changes. It is most characteristic of the female body, in which very intense transformations take place sequentially - first the formation of the monthly cycle, then pregnancy, childbirth and lactation. All these periods contain the germs of great changes. If a woman's internal attitude is towards development and health, she gets better. For this, in illness, she should not spare and stroke herself, look for privileges, indulgences, guardianship. In no case should illness provide a discount in the manifestation of social activity, the fulfillment of duties. Only if the illness is difficult to the point of despair, will the shake-up break it.

You have now read the description of two cases from real life. Nearby I could place a great many more of them. You don’t have to go far - I managed to overcome my own diseases (chronic bronchitis, vasomotor rhinitis and neurodermatitis) using the mechanism of physiological stress (in one case it turned out to be pregnancy and childbirth, in the other two it was the contrast of a sauna and a cold pool, and swimming to exhaustion, until the opening of the second breath). Physiological stress, therefore, is not only hormonal, but also artificial, created by the effect of contrast or excessive physical stress.

Is the effect of stress always and unambiguous? Is it possible to expect always guaranteed success? Certainly not. In youth, in the presence of flexible, elastic vessels, stress is more positive in terms of results and less fraught with vascular catastrophes than in old age. Stress, shake-up is always a risk, it is a way of the courageous or desperate, there is no place for doubts and hesitation in it. This is an all-in game. To apply or not to apply the method of stress is up to you to decide. Does this require medical advice? Of course, there are diseases in which the first stress can be the last. At the same time, the doctor must take into account the totality of circumstances, build a prognosis possible risk and consider alternative possible outcomes, but he has no moral right to make that decision for the patient or his parents.

One of the typical variants of stress in children's practice is the natural hormonal crisis of puberty. A healthy attitude of a teenager and his parents to shake up this age is needed, and it will become healing in many cases. It is necessary to make a reservation again that in this context one should not think about congenital developmental anomalies, genetic diseases, I will not talk about diabetes- here is the hope for the science of the future. The puberty of girls is especially favorable. Their sex hormones are wonderful adaptogens.

Another option for physiological stress for children is all types of hardening, dousing, including according to Ivanov. It is only important that this is not torture for the child, but an overcoming, to which he agrees voluntarily and feels satisfaction from his courage.

Emotional stress for children is practiced positively, associated with the joy of overcoming difficulties, carried out as a long (several hours) period of intense physical and emotional stress. In child psychotherapy, this is realized in the programs of game marathons lasting 3-5 hours, preferably together with parents. Very interesting and effective is the program of the Moscow professor Yu. S. Shevchenko, a child psychiatrist and psychotherapist, which is called INTEX - therapy (intensive emotional-expressive therapy). Emotional upsurge and a sense of joy that children experience in the process of playing become a kind of wedge that knocks the disease out of its container.

3. The role of a new strong motivation. When a person has a very significant goal for him, he becomes able to roll mountains of disease and infirmity. The story of Valentin Dikul, our legendary circus weightlifter, hero who rose from the bed of a disabled person, struck me. After a severe spinal cord injury (compression fracture of the spine), doctors made every effort to bring him back to life. He stayed alive.

“But why?” thought Valentine, lying motionless on the bed. “Why do I need this life now - without legs? ..” The doctors tried to calm him down:
“We did our best,” they said. - You will sit. Accept your destiny as it is.

No, he didn't mean to do that. Paralyzed, weak, sentenced by doctors to eternal immobility, Dikul only thought about how to get on his feet. He did not doubt for a minute that this should happen ... (Zinoviev A.A. "Thank you, athleticism").

He did not want to put up with all reasonable arguments and invented (fortunately there was nothing else to do) his own rehabilitation system, having read many medical books. Five years later, he began to rise to his feet with the help of crutches, then sticks. Then he returned to the circus arena and opened a rehabilitation center for people who had suffered spinal injuries. The famous Arnold Schwarzenegger was inspired by the fate of the Russian athlete and created himself like him.

Other publications on the topic of this article:

“I’ll get sick and die,” the boy (or maybe the girl) decided. “I’ll die, and then they will all know how bad it will be for them without me.”

(From the secret thoughts of many boys and girls, as well as non-adult uncles and aunts)

Probably, every person at least once in his life had such a fantasy about his illness and death. This is when it seems that no one needs you anymore, everyone has forgotten about you and luck has turned away from you. And I want all the faces dear to you to turn to you with love and concern. In a word, such fantasies do not arise from a good life. Well, perhaps among fun game or on your birthday, when you were given the very thing that you dreamed about the most, do such gloomy thoughts come then? For me, for example, no. And none of my friends either.

Such complex thoughts do not occur to very young children, those who are not yet in school. They don't know much about death. It seems to them that they have always lived, they do not want to understand that they once did not exist, and even more so that they will never be. Such kids do not think about the disease, as a rule, they do not consider themselves sick and are not going to interrupt their interesting activities due to some kind of sore throat. But how great it is when your mother also stays at home with you, does not go to her work and feels your forehead all day, reads fairy tales and offers something tasty. And then (if you are a girl), worried about your high temperature, the folder, having come home from work, rashly promises to give you gold earrings, the most beautiful ones. And then he brings them running from some secluded place. And if you are a cunning boy, then near your sad bed, mom and dad can reconcile forever, who have not yet managed to get a divorce, but have almost gathered. And when you are already recovering, they will buy you all sorts of goodies that you, healthy, could not even think about.

That is, the child is sick, of course, not on purpose. He does not utter terrible spells, does not perform magical passes, but the internal program of the benefit of the disease from time to time self-starts when it is not possible to achieve recognition among their relatives in another way.

If the husband had the courage (in another context it would be called meanness) not to return, not to establish a vicious and strong connection between the disease and the possibility of possessing an object of affection, they could succeed, like another family in a similar situation. He left her sick, with a high fever, with children in her arms. He left and did not return. She, having come to her senses and faced with the cruel need to live on, at first almost lost her mind, and then brightened her mind. She even discovered abilities that she had not known about before - drawing, poetry. The husband then returned to her, to the one that is not afraid to leave, and therefore does not want to leave, with which it is interesting and reliable next to her. Which does not load you on the way, but helps you go.

And, returning to the sick child, we will see that in fact, he may need an illness in order to want to become healthy, it should not bring him privileges and a better attitude than to a healthy one. And drugs should not be sweet, but nasty. Both in the sanatorium and in the hospital should not be better than at home. And mom needs to rejoice at a healthy child, and not make him dream of illness as a way to her heart.

In many families, a special cult of the disease is formed. A good person, he takes everything to heart, his heart (or head) hurts from everything. This is like a sign of a good, decent person. But the bad one, he is indifferent, everything is like peas against the wall, you can’t get him through anything. And nothing hurts him. Then around they say with condemnation:

And your head never hurts!

How can a healthy and happy child grow up in such a family, if this is somehow not accepted? If with understanding and sympathy they treat only those who are covered with well-deserved wounds and ulcers from a hard life, who patiently and dignifiedly drags his heavy cross? Now osteochondrosis is very popular, which almost breaks its owners to paralysis, and more often - the owners. And the whole family runs around, finally appreciating the wonderful person next to them.

My specialty is psychotherapy. More than twenty years of medical and maternal experience, the experience of coping with my own numerous chronic diseases led to the conclusion:

Most childhood illnesses (of course, not of a congenital nature) are functional, adaptive in nature, and a person gradually grows out of them, like out of short pants, if he has other, more constructive ways of relating to the world. For example, with the help of an illness, he does not need to attract the attention of his mother, his mother already learned to notice him healthy and rejoice in him like that. Or you don’t need to reconcile your parents with your illness. I worked as an adolescent doctor for five years, and I was struck by one fact - the discrepancy between the content of the outpatient cards that we received from children's clinics and the objective health status of adolescents, which was regularly monitored for two to three years. The cards included gastritis, cholecystitis, all kinds of dyskinesia and dystonia, ulcers and neurodermatitis, umbilical hernia, and so on. Somehow, at a physical examination, one boy did not have an umbilical hernia described in the map. He said that his mother was offered an operation, but she still could not decide, and in the meantime he began to play sports (well, do not waste time, in fact). Gradually the hernia disappeared somewhere. Where did their gastritis and other ailments go, cheerful teenagers also did not know. So it turns out - outgrown.