Dr. Komarovsky about nebulizers
In many Russian families, fashionable appliances, nebulizers, have recently appeared.
Caring parents find such a purchase incredibly useful for a growing child and use the device every time a baby begins to cough or has a runny nose. And if SARS happened, then all hope is on the nebulizer.
In the device pour saline and mineral water, decoction of chamomile and plantain extract with fir oil. Yevgeny Komarovsky, a well-known pediatrician, tells us whether such treatment is effective and how to properly use a nebulizer.
What it is?
The nebulizer got its name from the Latin word nebula, which means “cloud”.
This is not an ordinary inhaler, but a device that turns a substance into a fine dispersed suspension, resembling a cloud or mist in structure.
Inhalation of this therapeutic mist is prescribed. patients with asthma, cystic fibrosis, some forms of pulmonary tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases.
Nebulizers are complex and multifunctional, with the regulation of the size of microparticles, which is important for the treatment of certain diseases. Such devices are in hospitals, clinics, physiotherapy. For home use are available more simple and less expensive devices.
By the principle of action, the devices are divided into compression and ultrasound. In addition, there are several types of nebulizers:
- Inkjet.
- Convection.
- Venturi nebulizers (breath activated).
- Dosimetric.
Opinion of Dr. Komarovsky
To select and buy a device, special knowledge of medicine is not required. According to the established practice, parents do not seek advice from doctors and about inhalation“But this is a big parental mistake,” said Komarovsky. If Mom, before pouring mineral water into the nebulizer, asked the doctor how to use this equipment, she would know for sure that you should not pour the mineral water and chamomile decoction into the nebulizer, the device is intended for another.
When the mother really wants to make the child inhale at the first sign of ARVI or coughing, there will be no particular harm, provided that a regular steam inhaler is used, the task of which is to moisten the nasopharyngeal mucous membranes. Inhalation of vapors does not heal, but moisturizes, and this is the most important thing.
However, there is also a large list of restrictions on the use, and diseases in which inhalation can be done, much less than diseases in which such procedures are categorically contraindicated. So, inhalation may pose a serious danger to children with otitis, for children of preschool age, for children with fever.
Additional moisturizing of the mucous membranes in case of illness can be achieved in completely different, more reasonable and safer ways - by humidifying the air in the room, observing the abundant drinking regimen, dripping saline into the nose.
Komarovsky informs happy owners of nebulizers: these devices are not intended for inhalation by folk remedies for diseases of the upper respiratory tract. They can and should be used for the point of "delivery" of medicines in the lower respiratory organs. A cloud of healing substance in a nebulizer is created not by steam, as in a steam inhaler, but by a vibrating membrane or ultrasound.
In the aerosols created by the nebulizer, there are not just particles of water, as in a steam inhaler, but particles of serious pharmacological preparations that the doctor prescribes for a child with very serious diagnoses, such as bronchitis, obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, etc. The child needs these medicines, and the procedure is not a whim of the parents, but a prescription of the attending physician.
Tips
If parents have a choice of what to buy - an inhaler or nebulizer, then you should discard all doubts and buy humidifier. It is cheaper than a nebulizer and more beneficial for the baby, emphasizes Dr. Komarovsky.
If there is already a nebulizer at home, hide it away and use it only when one of the above situations occurs (if it does). A doctor's appointment is a must!
Parent reviews
Reviews of parents on the use of nebulizers from different manufacturers are quite positive. Moms say that even mineral water treatments with this device (which Komarovsky does not recommend) give excellent results, and the cough for children goes faster.
Many parents complain that they have forked up the purchase, and the child refuses to accept the procedure. Komarovsky in this situation advises not to insist and not to force the child.
When choosing a device, parents in numerous forums advise taking universal models so that the whole family (both children and adults) can use them.
About 30% of moms and dads do not note positive dynamics in the state of the child when using a nebulizer.
For details, see below in the transfer of Dr. Komarovsky.
