Summer flu in babies and children: symptoms and treatment
Runny nose, cough, fever in the warm season? It sounds like your child is suffering from summer flu. Find helpful tips on how to treat your child’s summer flu and alleviate the side effects.
What is summer flu?
Summer flu is a summertime cold. Even if the flu season is actually over in summer, many people contract flu-like infections and suffer from the typical cold and flu symptoms such as coughing , runny nose or sore throat . However, it is not, as the name incorrectly suggests, a real flu caused by the so-called influenza virus. Summer flu is just a common cold.
How does summer flu happen?
These cold viruses have an easy time penetrating the organism, especially in summer, since air conditioning, drafts, heavy sweating, low fluid intake and excessive sunbathing weaken the body and put a strain on the immune system. It is precisely these factors that dry out the mucous membranes, which the body urgently needs as a protective shield against viruses and bacteria. Without this protective shield, cold viruses can penetrate the body unhindered and weaken the immune system.
Routes of transmission of a summer flu
Infection with cold viruses that cause summer flu can occur in two ways:
- About the droplet infection: In the case of a droplet infection, droplets containing the virus are released into the air through speaking, coughing or sneezing. From there, they can infect the respiratory tract, where they multiply immediately if the immune system does not intervene.
- About the smear infection: A smear infection occurs through direct contact with living beings or contaminated objects. Viruses get onto the hands and can survive there for a full three hours. With a touch in the face, the pathogens can reach the mucous membranes via the respiratory tract, where they settle and multiply.
Summer flu symptoms
Summer flu can be associated with numerous symptoms. The most common symptoms are:
- Sniffles
- Cough
- Sore throat
- headache
- body aches
- Fever
- fatigue
- chills
- Vomit
- Diarrhea
- stomach pain
- earache
Rules of conduct in the event of a summer flu
Cough, runny nose, sore throat in the warm season? Then your child shows typical signs of summer flu. Once the nasty cold viruses have settled in your child’s body, they are unfortunately quite stubborn. But don’t worry, there are a number of things you can do to boost your child’s immune system. First of all, you should create the basic conditions that will allow your child to recover optimally:
- Keep to bed rest: If you have a summer flu, your child should take it easy and get enough sleep. This is how it can recover quickly from its summer flu. Stress and insomnia, on the other hand, only weaken your child’s immune system.
- Stay in the shade: This protects your child’s immune system.
- Drink a lot: Your child should drink at least three liters of liquid a day. Because fever, which can possibly occur, leads to a strong loss of fluids, which should definitely be compensated for by drinking a lot. In addition, your child’s mucous membranes remain moist and viruses can no longer multiply. Ideal for this are water or herbal and fruit tea, which should preferably only be moderately cold.
- Lots of fruit and vegetables: A healthy diet strengthens your child’s immune system. Oranges, kiwi, apples and peppers, for example, have a particularly high vitamin C content.
Treat summer flu with home remedies
If you want to treat summer flu, it is not always necessary to see a doctor straight away. There are also tried and tested home remedies that you can use with your child to combat summer flu and its numerous symptoms.
- Chicken soup or drinking and gargling sage tea can do wonders for a sore throat from summer flu . Both have a disinfecting, anti-inflammatory and decongestant effect. Both chicken soup and sage tea work to loosen mucus that’s stuck in your child’s throat. Neck compresses, which you can prepare either with quark or with potatoes, are also suitable for sore throats . For this you take room-temperature quark or warm, but not too hot potatoes, which you spread about half a centimeter thick on a handkerchief or a muslin cloth, fold into a packet, put around your child’s neck and fix with a towel.
- To treat summer flu, you can use a saline nasal rinse or have your child inhale a solution of saline, chamomile, sage, or thyme. These help him with a cold thanks to their expectorant effect.
- You can use neck wraps to relieve headaches from summer flu. If the headache does not go away, medication containing the active ingredients ibuprofen, paracetamol or ASA can help. However, ASA is taboo for children up to the age of six and can only be used after consultation with the doctor! In general, it is better to consult a doctor before using painkillers for your child. Learn more about medications unsuitable for children here .
- Aside from drinking enough fluids, home remedies such as cool calf wraps are particularly helpful against a summer flu fever. However, if there is no improvement, although you have taken measures against your child’s fever, you should definitely consult a doctor .
- Chest wraps made from room-temperature quark or warm potatoes are effective against coughs from summer flu. But inhaling a salt, chamomile, sage or thyme solution also clears mucus from the airways when you cough . Find more home remedies for cough here .
- Onion bags are suitable for earache in summer flu, for which you dice an onion, place it in a cloth, tie it into a packet, heat it and hold it to the affected ear. Earaches quickly subside due to the sulphur-containing ingredients in the onion.
When to see a doctor for summer flu?
If there is no improvement after a few days and your child still feels bad despite medication and bed rest, you should see a doctor. In the case of a high fever, ear or tonsil pain, in particular, a doctor must be consulted to rule out tonsillitis or other complications such as bacterial infections . Pregnant women, infants and small children should definitely see a doctor if they have severe symptoms. The sooner summer flu is treated properly, the sooner it will improve and you can enjoy the summer to the fullest.