Maintenance of effective nasal breathing in children: hygienic aspects

Abstract

Nasal congestion in children has many causes. In each case, the doctor has to find factors that cause chronic or intermittent nasal congestion. As a rule, the causes of impaired nasal airflow differ between different age groups. Mild nasal congestion from the first days of life, which can be defined as “stertorous breathing," may be a normal variant in healthy children or a manifestation of stridor congenitus. Eating habits of infants often lead to regurgitation, which can contribute to the irritation of nasopharyngeal mucosa with stomach contents and provoke an inflammatory response that leads to prolonged nasal breathing problems. This problem is solved by the joint efforts of a paediatrician and an ENT doctor. Acute inflammation of the paranasal sinuses - sinusitis, ethmoiditis, frontal sinusitis, sphenoiditis - most often develops as a complication after acute respiratory viral infections, especially when children attend a kindergarten, which promotes close contact and exchange of infectious agents between children. Hypertrophy of the lymphoid tissue of the pharyngeal ring (adenoiditis, hypertrophy of the tonsils) is a natural reaction to the invasion of the upper respiratory tract by pathogenic microbes, which leads to impaired nasal breathing. Allergic rhinitis is a common cause of nasal breathing problems in children. The combination of lymphoid tissue hypertrophy, sinusitis and allergic pathology creates a complicated cause-and-effect complex with constant nasal breathing problems. The above-mentioned circumstances necessitate a multidisciplinary approach to the problem, which will make it possible to formulate the correct diagnosis and determine the effective therapeutic approach. Saline nasal irrigation is one of the leading measures to prevent nasal breathing disorders and treat rhinitis, adenoiditis, sinusitis of various etiologies. In newborns and young children, the use of nasal aspirators is a convenient and useful method to clean the nasal cavity from secretion after nasal irrigation. The article explains how to use the aspirator and demonstrates the need for irrigation procedures. The use of these methods will effectively prevent nasal breathing problems.

Keywords

• nasal breathing
• children
• hygienic aspects of care for the nasal mucosa
• elimination-irrigation therapy