The winter is accompanied by its cohort of infections whoever well benign put in us flat: cold, laryngitis, cough. Where from the importance to act from the appearance of the first symptoms to avoid on one hand that these small troubles deteriorate and, on the other hand, to pollute others.

Cold snap: when the nose is taken

Viral affection sees frequently in winter, the cold manifests itself by sneezes, a blocked nose or which casts accompanied with prickle, with headaches, sometimes a light fever. There is no active cure against the viruses which launch the cold which, in general, recovers spontaneously in four or five days.

However, you can take a medicine which decongests in the nose and allows to breathe freely. You can also moisturise the nasal mucous membrane with the physiological serum either to make inhalation in the steam of water or in the extracts of plants (eucalyptus, pine).

Scrapings of throat and husky cough, would it be a laryngitis?

Laryngitis is also caused most often by a virus, and is translated by a painful husky cough, a difficulty in swallowing and a high fever.

Fatty cough or cough dries?

Indeed, the treatment is not the same.

The fatty cough, which happens most often during a viral or bacterial infection of respiratory tract (laryngitis, nasopharyngitis, bronchitis), should not be checked by cough medicines because, by abolishing the reflex of cough, they would prevent the draining of respiratory tract.
Secretions would since then risk piling up in bronchuses and drawing away a bacterial secondary infection.
Pectoral herbal tea based on plants as the thyme or the liquorice can also favour the elimination of secretions.

On the other hand, a dry cough (not productive) must be treated by cough medicines (syrup, pastilles to be sucked) and hot and emollient drinks.

The cold corresponds to group of benign symptoms. He has feature, common in most viral affections, to recover spontaneously in some days after theory, practice : how to bobtail a cold as naturally as possible?

Natural cures against the cold

Since a cold recovers spontaneously, avoid running to the chemist’s shop fill up with medicaments: constricted, sachets, syrup, pastilles… They are useless, or even dangerous. Against sneezes, nose which runs, coughs, sore throat, tiredness, light fever, muscular and wrong pain of head, scoop out from natural cures.
Hygiene is obvious: wash your hands as often as possible and being blown to you (in a disposable handkerchief) in the lukewarm water and in the soap. You will avoid at the same time transmitting your microbes in your circle (family, colleagues). Avoid touching your nose and your eyes.
Drink heavily. Some water of course, but also herbal tea and fruit juices. Purpose is to hydrate to thin phlegm from your nose and your throat, and so to help them to evacuate. Of course, drink even more if you have fever. To drink warm (tea, bouillon) also has advantage to relieve sore throat and to decongest in your nose.
Hydrate your nasal mucous membrane by pulverising the physiological serum or the seawater.
Do not smoke. To sniff the smoke of others also aggravates the symptoms of the cold
No alcohol.
Prove that your accommodation, your room especially, and your workplace, introduce a sufficient rate of humidity. If necessary, put a container of water on radiators.

When is the consultation of the doctor obvious ?

A cold seldom imposes to consult a doctor, unless you suffer from following signs:
- Your cold lasts more than 10 days.
- You feel pain in the ear or note a flow of an ear.
- You feel a strict pain with the face or with the forehead.
- Your fever is superior in 39°C.
- Your cough persists.
- You are very affected and your daily activities are reduced by it.
- Your symptoms resemble those of an influenza.

Fever, headaches and tiredness, how to know if it is an influenza or a cold? You cannot make a mistake. In the vast majority cases, influenza is accompanied by such symptoms as you cannot merge it with a cold or another winter infection.

Influenza is much more aggressive than cold

In case of cold, the nose runs, they feel weak and tired. Sometimes muscular pain happens, but they are not very intense. Also a person got cold can have a little of fever and headaches, but these symptoms are not much marked.

In the comparing, influenza is much more aggressive. Symptoms are very intense and of violent appearance (high fever, make tired important, big weakness, muscular pain, aches) with a feeling of intense general feeling of faintness (they feel ‘poor ‘). These symptoms nail generally in the bed in some hours and for several days.

It is therefore not so much the nature of the symptoms that differentiates an influenza of a cold, that their intensity and their suddenness.

What is interest to be able to differentiate a cold of an influenza?

It is primordial. Because if there is no treatment against the cold, benign viral illness which recovers spontaneously in some days, on the other hand, we have an antiviral medicament against influenza (Tamiflu ®). This treatment allows to cure an influenza in one-two days or to attenuate symptoms strongly, instead of imposing on you the bed for at least a week.

To cure or to attenuate symptoms? Difference is fond of the speed with which the treatment after the beginning of symptoms is taken.

Indeed, to be efficient, Tamiflu ® must be taken as early as possible, that is to say in 24 hours according to the beginning of symptoms (at the latest in 48 hours). It is therefore primordial to consult his doctor very fast so that he prescribes you this treatment.

At the adult, he comes in the form of capsules: a capsule twice a day during 5 days. At the child of more than a year, it is about a potable solution, to adapt according to its weight, also twice a day during 5 days.

Finally, Tamiflu ® is also pointed out in prevention at the persons who were in contact with a person infected by the virus: a tablet one time a day during ten days.

In winter period, cough is a very frequent benign symptom. She testifies a viral attack most often. How to relieve a child who coughs?

Medicament or cure home?

Some parents go to the chemist’s shop to buy a syrup against cough to relieve their child who coughs. Others have recourse to a hot drink sweetened in the honey, or even directly in a spoonful of honey. What is the best solution against cough?

Researchers leant over this question. They compared the effectiveness of three types of treatment to a hundred of children from 2 to 18 years old and suffering from an important cough due to an infection of respiratory tract.

The frequency of cough, its gravity and repercussions on sleep were followed in three groups. Information was gathered by telephone to the mother of the children.

Nothing is worth the honey!

From the following day, the cough of the children having benefited from some honey was improved: cough diminished in intensity and in frequency, with a better quality of sleep. On the other hand, improvement was much less good with the syrup or the placebo. Moreover, the syrup did not give better results than the placebo, calling into question the interest of cough mixtures.

In conclusion, the honey is the most efficient solution to treat cough. He makes much better that the medicament, which is equivalent to give nothing from the whole since it does not bring additional benefit in comparison with a placebo.

For the authors, the honey represents therefore an efficient medicament against cough for the children from 2 to 18 years old.

In practice, give a spoonful of honey in party to your child if he coughs.

On the other hand, a cough which persists more than a week requires a visit at the doctor.

Baby in the family bed? A practice more commonly-used than he is not believed.

It is from the Middle Ages that the church asked the mothers not to make any more sleep the baby in the bed of the parents. The big collective beds left the place then in individual beds which remained in fact collective. Many parents always welcomed their children in their beds, as Henry IV who loved his son, future Louis XIII. It is only at the beginning of the XIXth century when habit was developed to give a bed to every child. While in the United States, the co-sleeping car or ’shared sleep‘ reopens debate to know if it is necessary or not to let sleep his child in the conjugal bed, in Europe, number of psychologists and conjugal advisers recommends to the young parents “not ‘to merge”, ‘not to teach the child to link their presence to sleep’ and ‘to differentiate life of couple and parents’ life’. What does be made to resolve the problems of baby’s sleep? Because it is well of it about that it is. Baby falls asleep badly, has nocturnal waking, fact of nightmares, he wakes up, he has his suckling If it is unpleasant to have to put back to bed a preschooler indefinitely, it is destabilising and annoying to have to wake up roughly, to take care of a baby who cries they do not know why.

Double

The French specialists recommend solitary sleep almost unanimously. It is norm, baby is invited to sleep as far as possible of his parents. The ’specialists ‘ maintain that by sleeping with his child, damage on its development is inflicted and that it is necessary to move it away from the couple to protect the intimacy of this last. To take the child in his bed poses problems: excess of heat and possibility of mechanical accidents linked to the weight of the parents, and most adult’s beds are not ideal: too soft, too many pillows, too many down Of studies published in the United States invite strongly the parents not to sleep with their baby to avoid any risk of asphyxia, of strangulation and others dead accidental. ‘It is not possible to say that the method of solitary sleep makes its proof and the strictest seem to give way today in France in a softer method, which envisages the distribution of the room during the first weeks, sometimes first months with more sympathy’, writes Nathalie Roques. But the baby must always regain to his own room, at the latest at the end of some months, when he is supposed to spend the night alone, possibly with an elder. Many couples welcome their child besides at least punctually in their bed. With for most between them, guilt feelings.

For

‘Experience shows that during the sensitive stage of first six months, the presence of a baby in a conjugal room is not problematic. If the mother nurses, this solution gives even indisputable practical advantages and allows to the father to get involved straightaway’, explains Martin Sutter de la Commission MSN (cot death) of the Swiss Society of paediatrics. ‘A voice opposes for several years to the French uniform speech, written Nathalie Roques, Helen Stork* dares to introduce shared sleep in France as completely normal and advantageous for the child by leaning on anthropological observations and reflexion of psychological order. In fact, modern Occident where the practice of solitary sleep became otherwise habitual, anyway recommended by the persons identified as specialists, is outright an exception, and to make solitary sleep norm is simply an error. To let cry a baby is never a deliberately adopted solution, because the tears of the baby are considered first of all as the expression of a malaise which must be fought. ‘Shared sleep brings many benefits for the security of the baby: stimulation of the baby and therefore reduction of the periods of deep sleep, favoured feeding, easy surveillance of the parents, daily life made easier and weak tiredness and, after a serious analysis of all available data, and by inviting the parents to take some precautions, it appears that to make sleep a baby against a responsible adult is not more dangerous than any action of daily life. Some researchers think even that the shared bed is a factor of prevention for the cot death. In fact, every family should be able to find the solution which admits for it, without credit to suffer no of ideological pressure and without guilt! According to Nathalie Roques: ‘To find the gestures of a real nearness with our babies, it is enough in fact to trust in our hereditary heritage, in our instinct and especially, to our children.’

The milk of the mother is the best by nature of milk for the new-born baby. But infantile milk became necessary alternately or further to to the breast-feeding. About 150 references is. Baby skyline tower to avoid errors.

Feeding and/or infantile milk?

The most important is to encourage feeding, and to make it easier (60 % mothers nurse at the exit of motherhood, they are no more than 12 % at the end of one and a half month). At the same time, you should not make feel guilty the mothers who wish, cannot nurse or leave.

The choice of the infantile milk is generally offered by the pediatrician or in motherhood, according to the needs of the new-born baby. In the vast majority cases, the babies are born without particular problem and can accept a classical milk of first age.

The multitude of infantile milk

The infantile lacteal food is subjected to a very strict regulation on quantitative and qualitative plan. There are however variations between marks. They are mainly different according to their content of proteins, to the report soluble casein / proteins, from nature and from quantity of carbohydrates (anti-constipation, anti-regurgitations), of their enrichment in some (premature) fatty acids and the addition of meadow or probiotic, elements favourable to the flora intestinal (diarrheas,aropic, dermatitis, allergy).

What milk to choose?

• In the absence of any particular problem, a normal standard infantile milk is obvious (whatever is mark, they all introduce the same caloric density).
• If a baby does not support his milk, it is possible to change it. But attention, if a baby does not go well, you should not systematically accuse the milk. Change in very go of milk type am not either recommended.
• In case of regurgitations, they recommend an infantile said milk anti-regurgitation or AR.
• In case of constipation, they a special milk is chosen chill.
• In case of intolerance or of allergy in the proteins of cow’s milk, they turn to a milk based on hydrolysates pushed of proteins. This milk contains proteins having suffered an extensive hydrolysis, what diminishes their allergenic. In exceptional cases, this pushed hydrolysates draws away nevertheless an allergic reaction. They use substitutes of the milk then based on free amino acids, completely devoid to be able allergenic.

Before the age of 6 months, never of milk of soya in case of allergy in the cow’s milk!

Attention, before the age of 6 months, preparations based on soya are officially strongly disadvised because of possible risks (disturbances of endocrinal development) caused by to the presence of the soya isoflavones. Therefore never of milk of soya before the age of 6 months, even in case of allergy in the cow’s milk.
Besides, these substitutes based on vegetables (soya, almond, chestnut, rice), are incorrectly called ‘milk ‘. It is juices, that moreover, do not comply with the regulation of infantile feeding and that display to main deficiencies.
To note that all milk of other mammals than the cow .

Feeding is essential for the development of the new-born baby, but she also plays a role in the appearance of some diseases at the child and of the adult. And the ideal nutrition is the exclusive breast-feeding until 6 months, from which the only 15 % newborn babies benefit. The Academy of medicine issued impellent recommendations in the feeding, of which a lengthening of postnatal leave for the women who choose to nurse.

An inimitable milk

The Academy of medicine recommends the breast-feeding in first intention at the newborn baby then the new-born baby. This feeding must be exclusive for 6 months, otherwise at the very least for 4 months.

To encourage the women to make this choice, the Academy goes to the point of offering in the authorities to lengthen leave post motherhood in 4 or 6 months for the women who make the choice to put their child in the breast.

It is necessary to say that the feeding in France is little spread. Currently in France, only 15 % new-born babies are exclusively nursed until 6 months, against for example 80 % in Nordic countries.

Why is the exclusive feeding during 6 months recommended?

The beneficial effects of the breast-feeding are very broad and meet at the child’s, at the future adult and also at the mother.

Besides development and besides growth, feeding confers a protection against the digestive and respiratory infections. An exclusive feeding for at least 4 months would also have a preventive effect on allergies. The maternal milk also contributes to tell future obesity, diabetes of type 1 at the child and cardiovascular diseases at the adult.

At the mother, feeding makes easier the return of layers, weight loss, diminishes the risk of breast cancer and of ovary and favours the harmony of relation mother-child, what helps to tell the maltreatment.

When feeding is impossible or refused

Recommendations were also formulated in case of impossibility of feeding.

- Use only expressions for new-born baby based on cow’s milk norms of which are governed by French and European regulations. These must be given until the age of 1 year.

- The whole cow’s milk (UHT) or half deprived of fat must never be used before the age of 1 year (it is too rich in proteins, iron and in essential fatty acids).

- Milk hypoallergenic or expressions of soya ‘does not have their place in the feeding of the normal new-born baby’ definite the Academy. The first do not bring nutritional advantage in comparison with classical expressions for new-born baby, while seconds do not give protective effect in relation to allergy in the proteins of the cow’s milk or of infections.

- Finally, food diversification must start only after the age of 5 past months.

Get tired, small depression, apathy: symptoms which appear regularly right in the centre of the winter. But why do we feel devoid of energy at some instants of the year? French Gérard Pons, Président de l’ Association of luminothérapie, brings the truth about these seasonal depressions.

In winter, a tiredness or a some lassitude are often felt. Why?

The deficit of the sun draws some apathy away. It comes from a rather simple scientific mechanism. The sunlight passes in the eye, then in the brain, where is the hypothalamus.

When natural light is important, the hypothalamus secretes a hormone which is aimed at holding on the alert. On the contrary, when light drops, he produces some melaniline, a soporific substance.

In winter, when the day lasts less for a long time, the brain is therefore going to produce more melaniline, putting us in a state of drowsiness and of tiredness, famous ’seasonal depression’.

How long lasts this ’season ‘?

In France, this ’season ‘ lasts from November till April: days are shorter and it is often dark due to bad time. That being the case, the persons the most sensitive to these seasonal depressions, that is to say, in more scientific terms, organism of which secretes most melaniline, can be subject there at other instants of the year. This phenomenon was besides determined in Florida, in full summer, simply because there had been big storms during several days!

How to tell the temporary depression?

To tell the winter depression, the most important is to become clearer well, what is not always simple when they work eight hours a day in an office lighted in artificial light.
For it, it is possible to go to the doctor who has specific lamps, and to make sessions of exhibition. Unlike UV, light broadcast in medical practices is not damaging for the skin.
The basics are to become clearer well, naturally or with subterfuges when it is not possible in another way.

Depression is a known illness. It is defined by very strict criteria. However, our psyche is not so simple and does not come back always easily into huts. Also, there are concealed depressions, that is to say hidden behind signs completely different from classical signs of depression.

Concealed depression: when the body expresses moral suffering …

Nathalie stays in the bed for 3 weeks. She extremely has backache and feels so much exhausted that her doctor prescribed him a stoppage. Willy-nilly, she has no morale and her position in front of a computer to the office does not encourage her to go back fast to work. She must make physiotherapy and crawls along hardly in the sessions which her doctor prescribed him. In reality, Nathalie saw an episode of concealed depression.

When a person is depressed, her mood is attained. But sometimes, as for Nathalie, it manifests itself in an unusual, concealed way. In that case, the body speaks in first. It is it who expresses the present moral suffering. Then Nathalie suffers from physical disturbances which do not make think, at the beginning, of a more psychical illness.

What physical disturbances is it possible to notice in a concealed depression?

He can involves headaches, backache, pain in the chest, digestive disorders (troubles of belly), of various pain in all body, of vertigo …

Of course, more classical disturbances of depression can also be present, such as sleep troubles or disturbances of appetite, tiredness, mood sinks, the difficulty of concentration, misses him interest for habitually nice stains, a reduction of sexual desire …

How to tell difference between a physical illness and a concealed depression?

In the case of a depression, when pain is present, they are often rather vague, not very focalized on a definite point. Difficulties of sleep are often rather characteristic. These are often waking very early the morning with a difficulty in going back to sleep.

Why does the depression hide?

It is because often, there is a shame to confess that they are depressed. They do not dare to confess it in its circle, but often, they do not confess him either to oneself. It makes that the job of screening of a depression by the doctor is not always easy! And a depression, even concealed, is a true depression. She must treat herself in the same way with a psychotherapy linked to a treatment antidepressant.

What are objective criteria of a concealed depression or not?

(According to DSM4 or textbook of diagnosis of mental diseases).

Two criteria at least have to exist among 5 following (specific criteria):

- Depressive mood,

- Loss of interest or of pleasure for activities,

- Feeling of decrease in value or of excessive or inappropriate guilt,

- Recurrent suicidal ideas.

And 5 criteria are necessary in all among precedents (specific criteria) and following (specific criteria):

- Sleep troubles

- Agitation or psychomotor slowing down,

- Confusion of appetite (increased or weak with loss or weighty benefit),

- Difficulty of concentration,

- Tiredness or loss of energy.

‘ Every year in France, 6000 persons are victims of an intoxication due to the carbon monoxide (CO) and 300 die of it’ declares the General management of Health (DGS). How to protect itself against this noxious gas?

All apparatus of incomplete combustion generate the carbon monoxide (CO)

This very toxic suffocating gas results from an incomplete combustion (wood, butane, coal, petrol, fuel oil, natural gas, oil, propane). That’s how cases of intoxications augment every year at the beginning of winter, with delivery under way of the heating or the hot water. Certainly, the fitters and stockists of equipment of heating play CO an important role in the prevention of intoxications (revision, regulatings and compliance of apparatus) but the individuals also have to to be very vigilant.

What are the signs of an intoxication to CO?

The sharp form of intoxication imposes a catch in load immediately. She manifests itself by vertigo, a loss of knowledge, a kind of muscular paralysis, or even a coma and decease. Symptoms are spectacular and often touch several members of the same family or of a group.

On the other hand, (progressive) chronic intoxication draws away headaches, nausea, mental confusion, but also sometimes disturbances of vision, smell or taste, sleep troubles, memory, attention, thoracic, abdominal, muscular pain, etc.

These not being specific signs, intoxication is more difficult to discern. In the long, are possible appear of heart disorders or respiratory. Such intoxication is currently suspected of unsettling the cerebral development of the children and notably their intellectual functioning.

But in case of distrust, it is enough to analyse the composition of the air exhaled with a  carboxymètre , a specific detector of the carbon monoxide.

The taking care consists in putting the person poisoned under oxygenation to speed up the elimination of CO. In serious cases, the person is put in coffer hyperbaric (for 90 minutes). Then, a medical monitoring is obvious during one year to discern and to treat as possible neurological chronic or cloudy splitting headaches (disturbances of motivity, paralyses)