The 10 essential things to know about bronchiolitis

The bronchiolitis season has started. Like every winter, but always with the same concerns. Gravity? emergency? Processing? Physiotherapist? 10 essentials to know …

Bronchiolitis is not serious.

You have to be clear. Bronchiolitis in its severe form concerns a very small number of children in France. This does not absolutely justify this annual panic … In most cases, infants heal within two days to a week. Parents fear bronchiolitis because sometimes hospitalization is necessary, but this should only be the case in an infant under two months of age and with repeated attacks.

Bronchiolitis only affects very small babies

Any healthy infant less than 3 months old, and possibly even less than 6 weeks old, is at risk of developing severe bronchiolitis from a viral infection. At this age, the cough is not very effective in evacuating these secretions, the respiratory muscles are not powerful enough and tire quickly. Bronchiolitis is an infection caused by a virus like the flu. This virus causes inflammation of the respiratory tract.

Bronchioles are tiny pipes

When we breathe, if we start from the mouth and the nose, we very quickly arrive at the trachea then at the bronchi and finally, as for an upside down tree, at the leaves which we call the bronchioles. These bronchioles, like the leaves of the tree, are the most numerous and the most fragile. When the virus attacks them, they react with inflammation. This is called bronchiolitis.

It is the inflammation that is responsible

It causes a feeling of suffocation by narrowing the diameter of the pipe. This is not serious in the big child where there is margin – and then the infection goes almost unnoticed – but which poses a whole other problem in the toddler, even the very, very small. There, the pipe is so narrow that one might think that it is almost blocked and one can therefore understand that if a large number of pipes are blocked, then there is considerable discomfort in breathing. Suffocation can then occur which legitimately worries the parents.

The signs of bronchiolitis are obvious.

Parents should suspect bronchiolitis as soon as baby’s breathing becomes rapid and wheezy, his exhalation noisy, and he begins to cough and spit.

Bronchiolitis is rarely an emergency.

The family doctor must be able to reassure everyone without going through the hospital emergency room which theoretically can only be conceived if the child at less than one year, becomes slightly blue or suffers from recurrent bronchiolitis. But it is true that there is a very natural anxiety about a choking baby.

Do not hesitate to be reassured.

Reassuring yourself by going to the emergency room can be perfectly understood and of course is not prohibited.

Bronchiolitis is easy to treat

A little oxygen with hot, humid air as well as some medicine. You then have to insist on the fact that since it is a virus the responsible one, the antibiotics have no effect.

Physiotherapists are often called in for help.

To make the child spit, we hit him a little hard on the back! This helps to de-clutter the bronchi, which are blocked by secretions caused by the virus.

Children who are prone to bronchiolitis will have fragile bronchi.

One on two.