Runny nose fever: Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) (for Parents)

09.09.202304.07.2023 by alexxlab

Содержание

Sore Throat, Cough, and More

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

The Start of a Cold
Is It Allergies Instead of a Cold?
Is It the Flu?
When to Call the Doctor About Cold Symptoms

Your nose is running, you’ve got a cough, and your throat is raw. Is it a cold, allergies, or the flu?

There are similarities to all three, but a few telltale signs can help you tell them apart.

It usually begins with a sore throat, and before you know it, you’ve also got these symptoms:

Runny nose (clear and watery)
Sneezing
Fatigue
Cough

You usually don’t get a fever with a cold. If you do, it may be a sign you’ve got the flu or an infection with a bacteria.

For the first few days that you’re sick, your runny nose will be watery, but it turns thicker and darker after that. You may also get a mild cough that can last into the second week of your cold.

Since a cold can trigger an asthma attack, people with asthma should check with your doctor to see if you need to change your regular treatment plan.

If you cough up thick or dark mucus or you get a fever, you may have an infection with a bacteria. See your doctor to find out how to treat it. Also see them if your cough doesn’t get better after a few weeks.

Your symptoms usually start between 1 and 3 days after you get infected with a cold virus. They typically last for about 3 to 7 days. By then the worst is over, but you may feel stuffed up for a week or more.

You’re most contagious during the first 3 days that you’re sick, but it’s still possible to spread it during the first week.

Sometimes you might mistake cold symptoms for hay fever. If they begin quickly and are over in 1 to 2 weeks, chances are it’s not an allergy.

Allergies are caused by an overactive immune system, your defense against germs. Your body overreacts to things like dust or pollen. It then releases chemicals like histamine. This causes the passageways in your nose to swell, leading to a runny nose, coughing, and sneezing.

Hay fever isn’t contagious, but some people may inherit a tendency to get it.

For in-depth information, see WebMD’s “Common Cold or Allergies?”

Take your temperature. A mild case of the flu often has symptoms like a cold, but a cold rarely raises your temperature above 101 degrees F.

Besides a fever, the flu often gives you muscle aches and a headache.

For in-depth information, see WebMD’s “Flu or Cold Symptoms?”

Except in newborns, colds aren’t dangerous. The symptoms usually go away without any special treatment. But when you’re sick it can wear down your body’s resistance, making you more open to an infection by a bacteria.

See your doctor if your cold symptoms are severe and you aren’t getting better. They’ll likely check your throat and ears, and listen to your lungs. They may take a throat culture by brushing your throat with a long cotton-tipped swab. This will show whether you have an infection that needs treatment with antibiotics.

Call your doctor if you have:

An earache
Pain around the nose and eyes (sinuses) for more than a week
Fever above 102 degrees F. If your child is younger than 3 months and has a temperature of 100.4 degrees F or higher, call your doctor right away.
Fever that lasts more than a day in a child under 2, or more than 3 days in a child age 2 or older
Cough up mucus for more than a week
Shortness of breath
Worsening symptoms
Symptoms that last longer than 2 weeks
Trouble swallowing.
A bad sore throat with fever (may indicate strep infection)
Pain or pressure in the chest or belly
A stiff neck or sensitivity to bright lights

Also see your doctor if:

You are pregnant or breastfeeding and get a cold
Your newborn or infant gets symptoms
Your cold worsens after the third day

Top Picks

When to Keep Your Child Home From Child Care

When kids spend time close together, germs can spread between them. This is especially true for infants and toddlers, who often share toys that have been in their hands or mouths.

Knowing when to keep your little one home sick from child care and school helps protect other children from illness. It can also give your child a chance to get extra rest they may need to recover.

When choosing a child care setting for your family, consider this important factor: What is the policy for sick children?

To reduce the risk of illness, child care providers and all the children being cared for need to receive all recommended immunizations. This includes the flu vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine for everyone age 6 months and up. This critically important step puts the health and safety of everyone in the child care setting first.

Common illnesses in child care

The viruses responsible for colds or the flu cause the most common sicknesses in child care settings. Even though your child has had immunizations, they can get still get sick with colds, sore throats, coughs, vomiting and diarrhea.

Children of any age will experience a lot of infection in their first year of group child care. For kids whose first year of child care is during infancy, bouts of illness may be even more frequent. In fact, they may have as many as 8 to 12 more colds than a child cared for at home without exposure to siblings or other children.

The good news: during the second year of attending child care, the number of respiratory illnesses begins to fall. This is because exposure to so many germs causes rapid development of the immune system.

The typical child will also get diarrhea once or twice a year.

Why keep your child home?

The main reasons to keep your child home are that an illness can:

prevent the child from participating comfortably in activities
make them need more care than staff members can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children
pose a risk of spread of harmful disease to others (see list of these conditions below)

AAP child care exclusion recommendations

Any child with respiratory illness symptoms (cough, runny nose, or sore throat) and a fever should not attend their child care program. They can return once their fever associated with these symptoms has been gone for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine.

Your child should also stay home sick from child care if they have these symptoms:

Signs of severe illness such as being unresponsive, irritable, crying more than usual, is having difficulty breathing, or has a quickly spreading rash.
Fever (temperature above 101°F [38.3°C] by any method) and a change in behavior or other signs and symptoms (such as a sore throat, rash, vomiting or diarrhea).
Note: For infants less than 2 months old, an unexplained fever should be evaluated by a health professional. For these young infants, get urgent medical advice for temperature above 100.4°F (38.0°C), whether or not they have other symptoms.
Diarrhea, defined as having more frequent and loose stool (poop) than usual that’s not caused by a change in diet. Children should stay home if their stool is not contained in the diaper, or if they are toilet-trained but having “accidents” from the diarrhea. Other reasons for child care exclusion: having more than 2 stools above their normal per 24-hours, or stools that contain more than a drop of blood or mucus.
Vomiting 2 or more times in the previous 24 hours. The exception is if the vomiting is found to be caused by a non-infectious condition, and the child is not in danger of dehydration.
Abdominal pain that continues for more than 2 hours, or abdominal pain that comes and goes, along with fever or other concerning symptoms.
Mouth sores with drooling that the child cannot control, unless their doctor or local health department authority states that the child is noninfectious.
Rash with fever or behavioral changes, until a primary care provider determines that the illness is not a communicable disease. If your child has a new, rapidly spreading rash that resembles bruising or small red or purple “blood spots,” call 911.
Skin sores that are weeping fluid located on an exposed part of the body that cannot be covered with a waterproof bandage.

Other conditions that are reasons to stay home

If your child is diagnosed with these conditions, they should not attend child care:

Streptococcal pharyngitis (such as strep throat or other streptococcal infection), until at least the first 12 hours after antibiotic treatment has started.
Head lice, scabies and ringworm until after the first treatment. Child care exclusion is not necessary before the end of the program day. When treatment starts between the end of the program day and beginning of the next day, no exclusion is needed.
Chickenpox (varicella) until all lesions have dried or crusted (usually 6 days after onset of rash) and no new lesions have showed for at least 24 hours.
Hepatitis A virus infection, until 1 week after onset of illness or jaundice or as directed by the health department

When it’s OK to stay at child care

Children with the conditions below do not necessarily need to stay home from child care, as long as they feel well
enough to participate in regular activities. However, it also depends on whether staff members determine they can care for the child without compromising their ability to care for the health and safety of other children.

Coughs or colds without fever or other signs of illness
Runny noses (regardless of color or consistency of nasal discharge)
Yellow, green, white, or watery eye discharge without fever, even if the whites of the eyes are red (pinkeye)
Ear infection, unless the child has a change in behavior or cannot participate as usual
Fever in children older than 4 months above 101ºF (38. 3ºC) taken from any site (axillary, oral or rectal) without any signs or symptoms of illness or behavior changes. Note: the child may be excluded if they have not completed the recommended vaccine series until it is clear that they do not have a vaccine-preventable illness.
Rash without fever and without behavioral changes. The exception would be a child with a new, rapidly spreading rash that resembles bruising or small red or purple ‘blood spots.’ In that case Emergency Medical Services (911) should be called.
Thrush
Fifth disease
All staphylococcal infections. This includes Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriers or children with colonization of MRSA but without an illness that would otherwise require exclusion
Molluscum contagiosum (wart)
Hand-Foot-and-Mouth disease. No exclusion is needed unless the child has mouth sores with constant drooling or has other symptoms like fever. In some cases, the local health department may require children with hand-foot-mouth disease to stay home to control an outbreak.
Children who have no symptoms but are known to have a germ in their stools that causes disease. The exception is when they have an infection with a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Shigella or Salmonella serotype Typhi. In these types of bowel infections, follow health department guidelines for return to child care.

Make sure you are reachable at all times

Many child care programs, as well as public and private schools, may contact you right away if your child shows signs of even a mild illness, like a cold. In others, children are allowed to continue the regular program as long as they can take part in most activities and do not have a condition that requires exclusion. Either way, be certain that the school or caregiver has a way to reach you at all times.

Remember

Be sure to talk with your child’s pediatrician if you have any questions about their symptoms and whether they should attend child care.

More information

Take Simple Steps to Avoid Dreaded Spread of Flu in Daycare
Staying Safe in School During COVID-19
Preventing the Flu: Resources for Parents & Child Care Providers
RSV: When It’s More Than Just a Cold
COVID-19 and Other Respiratory Illnesses: How Are They Different?

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

How to distinguish an allergic rhinitis from a cold – an article on the site Aptechestvo, Nizhny Novgorod

A runny nose is the result of inflammation of the nasal mucosa. The process of inflammation is initiated by an allergy or the ingress of pathogens on the mucous membrane.

The combination of symptoms can only be a manifestation of severe acute respiratory infections, which requires a different approach to treatment and prevention. In order to be able to take the necessary measures for treatment, it is important to understand how the allergic rhinitis differs from the common cold.

Symptoms of allergic rhinitis

Sensitive reactions to stimuli may occur intermittently, as they are often associated with flowering seasons.

How to distinguish allergic rhinitis from a cold? To answer, take into account a number of symptoms for allergies:

Locality: allergic symptoms are clearly manifested either at a certain period of time, or in a particular place (for example, where there are many flowering plants).
Allergic rhinitis is not accompanied by fever and fever.
In addition to a runny nose, allergies cause itching in the eyes, burning, and constant sneezing.

Causes

Seasonal rhinitis is caused by flowering plants. But in more rare cases, allergies do not depend on the time of year.

Year-round inflammation of the nasal mucosa is caused by the ingestion of a number of particles:

Perfumery.
Food products.
Tobacco smoke.
Animal fur.
Medicines.

Allergy is a reaction of the immune system. It can be caused by completely different substances called allergens, which are not normally considered pathogenic.

Acute rhinitis symptoms

Catarrhal rhinitis is a reaction to a viral infection that leads to inflammation of the mucous membranes. Viral infection is spread by airborne droplets, and the likelihood of the disease increases in conditions of weakened immunity.

The answer to the question of how to distinguish an allergic rhinitis from a cold can be found by examining the symptoms of catarrhal rhinitis:

Increased body temperature, weakness, drowsiness, headache.
Swelling of the mucous tissues of the nose.
The snot acquires a thick consistency and a yellow-green hue.

Risk factors

In the normal course of the disease, the symptoms of infectious rhinitis disappear in 1-2 weeks. If the disease continues to progress, then without medical treatment, inflammation leads to complications.

The risk of developing the disease increases under the following conditions:

Stress.
Air pollution.
Bad heredity.
Wrong nutrition.
Influence of chemical irritants.

Improper treatment can lead to a complication of the disease. In such cases, the runny nose lasts more than 6 weeks and becomes chronic.

Diagnosis of the type of inflammation

You can also recognize the difference between an allergic rhinitis and catarrhal rhinitis at home, after which you should contact the appropriate specialist (therapist or allergist). Diagnosis of rhinitis by a specialist is carried out to determine the cause of inflammation in order to prescribe the appropriate treatment. In the case of an allergy, the substance that causes it is identified.

Diagnostic procedure:

Studying the medical history of the patient and his parents.
External inspection.
Conducting laboratory tests. Usually a blood test is taken. When diagnosing allergies, the reaction of the skin to direct contact with different groups of allergens is checked.

Distinguishing allergies from colds

Distinguishing features of allergic rhinitis:

An allergic reaction usually does not cause a fever.
Cleansing the mucous from pollen leads to frequent sneezing.
Allergies cause irritation not only of the nose, but also of the eyes, ears and throat.
Allergy symptoms are worse in dry, windy weather and lessened in rainy weather.
The reaction often occurs seasonally or upon contact with the allergen.

Infectious rhinitis differences:

Infectious inflammation goes away or weakens with the use of medications.
As the illness progresses, the nasal discharge becomes thicker and more colourful.
Sneezing with a cold is often less intense.
Infections in humans are accompanied by general weakness and a decrease in appetite.

British scientists announced a change in the main symptoms of coronavirus – RBC

adv.rbc.ru

Hide banners

What is your location ?

YesChoose other