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

  1. #1
    melinasma is offline Registered User
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    my baby is sick and i can't find the right medicine in hk!?? :(

    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!


  2. #2
    charade is offline Registered User
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    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.


  3. #3
    carang's Avatar
    carang is offline Registered User
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    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)

    missprincepessa and recurring like this.

  4. #4
    charade is offline Registered User
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    Quote Originally Posted by carang View Post
    but 5 months is likely too young for any of that.

    (phlegm, not slime)
    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.

  5. #5
    elle is offline Registered User
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    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/com...ents-and-drugs

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


    http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread1...ml#post1137669

    recurring likes this.

  6. #6
    carang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by charade View Post
    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.
    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.

  7. #7
    charade is offline Registered User
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    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.


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    lesliefu is offline Registered User
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    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!


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