Pneumonia
Pneumoni (Latin name)By Bjarne Lühr Hansen PhD, MD and Philipp Skafte-Holm MD, Mentor Institute
Pneumonia especially occurs during the winter. Coughing, fever and troubled breathing are typical symptoms of pneumonia. All children – except for infants less than 6 months old – have a fever if they have pneumonia. You can soothe the coughing and better the child’s condition. Cough medicine is seldom, if ever, necessary. Call the doctor immediately if the child has trouble breathing or if an infant is uneasy, pale and has bluish lips.
Pneumonia especially occurs during the winter half-year. It can be epidemic, meaning that many children contract the illness at the same time.
The illness is caused by an infection with virus or bacteria. With children the cause is more often virus than bacteria. Only pneumonia caused by bacteria is treatable with antibiotics.
Coughing, fever and troubled breathing are typical symptoms of pneumonia. The illness appears in two forms, a ‘slow’ and a ‘quick’ form.
The slow pneumonia begins as a common cold. Which means that the child is snotty, coughs and has a light fever. After a few days the temperature rises, the child becomes uneasy and the breathing becomes rapid, jarred and troubled. The slow pneumonia is especially seen with the smallest children.
The quick pneumonia starts more of a sudden. From the beginning, the child has a high fever, coughs and has trouble breathing. If the child has trouble breathing, the colour of its lips changes from pink to bluish. Sometimes the child has chills.
With infants – up to 6 months old – it can be difficult to determine whether the child has pneumonia. Infants with pneumonia become uneasy, pale, has bluish lips and rapid breathing. Fever and even cough may not occur in the beginning.
All children – except for infants less than 6 months old – has a fever if they have pneumonia. This rule also applies to atypical pneumonia.