my baby is sick and i can't find the right medicine in hk!?? :(

M

melinasma

Registered User
hello.

i am worried about my little daughter. she is 5months old and one week ago she caught a cold because of the air con in the shopping malls.

even though i always put her a jacket on...but we just arrived from germany and she's not used to it.
my husband brought her to the doc and he said that there is no medicine for that young babies.
only anti fever medicine in case the temperature of her body rises.

i am shocked...because in germany there are so many medicine even for little babies.

she is coughing all day long and i can hear that there is a lot of slime in her throat.
she is very tired and cries a lot too.

isn't there really any medicine against a cold for a five month old baby?

thanks a lot for your advice in advance!
 
I think the position on this differs from country to country. In the US, my sisters pediatrician refuses to give medication for colds. In Hong Kong, there are doctors that don't and doctors that will. Many Chinese doctors will give something to stop a stuffy nose. Mine does.
 
you don't catch a cold from air conditioning. you catch a cold from a virus. granted, if your body is cold, you may become more susceptible.

as charade said, some doctors will give meds to help with the symptoms... but 5 months is likely too young for any of that.

(phlegm, not slime)
 
carang said:
but 5 months is likely too young for any of that.

(phlegm, not slime)
Click to expand...

Do you mean that you believe five months is too young for those meds or that doctors here will not prescribe those medicines at 5 months? If the latter, there many doctors in Hong Kong who will (including mine, who did). It appears that is the case in Germany too, unless I misunderstood the poster. It is up to the parent, then, to decide if they want to give them. I would recommend getting the medicines from a doctor when the baby is that young, and not over-the-counter, because the doctors prescribe very mild formulations.
 
Giving medication for a common viral cold in infants is generally not done in many countries. There are some doctors who will medicate such young children, but both the safety (even very small overdoses can have dangerous side effects in babies) and effectiveness of these drugs has been questioned in recent medical studies. Most pediatricians (and all that I have run across) recommend non-medical treatment for viral colds including warm baths, saline only nasal sprays made especailly for babies and nasal suctioning, as well as offering as much fluid (milk or formula) as your child will drink (unless your child has a fever, then a fever reducer/ pain reliever is often used). I have found that nasal sprays help the most, although babies hate them when they are administered, the few minutes of screaming is worth it.

If your child has a lot of mucus in her lungs and it doesn't clear up in 5 days or so, a second trip to the doctor may be worth it to make sure she doesn't have a secondary bacterial infection. If you need a good pediatrician recommendation in the Central area, please feel free to send me a PM. Our pediatrician, while not big on prescribing medication for everything, has always explained why he doesn't prescribe if he doesn't and is very thorough in explaining what to expect with the illness and when to come in for a follow up if things don't get better.

Hope your little one feels better soon, and also remember that colds a totally normal thing for children - I think that beween 5 and 12 for the first year, with varying degrees of discomfort and symptoms, is considered normal and just part of growing up.

There are some good and reliable resources online discussing babies and colds:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/common-cold-in-babies/DS01106/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

http://www.babycenter.com/0_colds_78.bc


http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread160757.html#post1137669
 
charade said:
Do you mean that you believe five months is too young for those meds or that doctors here will not prescribe those medicines at 5 months? If the latter, there many doctors in Hong Kong who will (including mine, who did). It appears that is the case in Germany too, unless I misunderstood the poster. It is up to the parent, then, to decide if they want to give them. I would recommend getting the medicines from a doctor when the baby is that young, and not over-the-counter, because the doctors prescribe very mild formulations.
Click to expand...

i mean, i can't remember my kids being prescribed such meds when they were so young....i do know that by about a year they had them. i'm not sure if it was because the drs didn't want to prescribe them or if it was because 5 months is too young.
 
Cara, my daughter was prescribed cold medicines much younger than 5 months. I generally try to hold off on giving it but if my kids are getting too uncomfortable I give it.

To the original poster, I'm curious - do pediatricians in Germany prescribe cold medication for babies of 5 months and below? A lot of the information we read seems to come out of the US and I'm curious about the practice in other countries.
 
Guess medicine is a very personal thing.,,in the meantime I woud just give your baby warm baths and use a suction to suck out the phlegm. That will make your baby feel much better. Perhaps let your baby sleep at an angle if there is a runny nose involved. I remember my doc didn't prescribe medication, but we had a nebulizer with some medication I'm sure that was being used. Perhaps you can see a pedi to see if your baby needs that. Hard to use on a young infant but great foe them!
 
I don't understand. What sort of medicine to you give a 5 month old for a cold!??! Other than paracetemol for a fever, I can only imagine you are talking about antibiotics? Or are you referring to a cough suppressant or something to 'dry up' the phlegm? There's no 'magic cure' medicine for a cold. Perhaps if you were more clear about the type of medicine you have given in the past, people can offer better suggestions.
 
strange...i already answered..but i can't see it yet.

first of all thank's a lot for your advices.

i think i will try to buy her a nasal spray first.
today morning i did a massage with warm olive oil after the warm bath...and she really enjoyed it!:)
she also sleeps a lot today.

i forgot to say that i usually give her herbal based medicine.
only in case of fever a chemical one.
but i think if she would feel too uncomfortable...i would also give something else.

the doc said that she became sick because of the heat outside...and then the cold in the shopping malls.


thank's again!
 
yes andytay...i think tomorrow i will do so.

i already bought the nasal spray today...because it became worth.
now she seems already to feel a little bit better.
 
charade said:
A lot of the information we read seems to come out of the US and I'm curious about the practice in other countries.
Click to expand...

In the Netherlands my doctor prescribed my then 4 mo son nasal spray for his cold. When after 3 weeks he still had phlegm in his airways, he prescribed an inhaler as well. He mentioned that no other medicines will be given. He wasn't allowed a rub, like Vaporub either.
I think this is quite common in general, isn't it?
 
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