When Child get Sinusitis
The bones of the skull contain air-filled chambers (sinuses). Normally, sinus secretions drain freely. Sinus congestion occurs when the sinus openings are blocked. When your child has sinus congestion, he will have a sensation of fullness, pressure, or pain on the face in an area overlying a sinus.
When your child has a cold or allergies and the nasal passages become swollen and make more mucus, so do the sinus tissues. The drainage system for the sinuses can get blocked, and mucus can become trapped in the sinuses. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi can grow there and lead to sinusitis.
Sinusitis is often overdiagnosed in children. Many parents (and doctors) think that a child has a sinus infection at the first sign of a green or yellow runny nose. Instead, these children often just have a viral upper respiratory tract infection (URI), like the common cold, and do not require treatment. In fact, URIs are reported to be 20-200 times more common than a true bacterial sinus infection.
The AAP recommends that the diagnosis of sinusitis be made when children have a runny nose, postnasal drip, and/or a daytime cough, which may worsen at night, and that these symptoms have lasted for more than 10 to 14 days. Children with a shorter duration of symptoms might still have a sinus infection if the symptoms are severe, including 3-4 days of fever (over 102 degrees F) in a child that appears ill.
It is important to keep in mind that having persistent symptoms, which are lasting 10-14 days, doesn’t necessarily always mean a sinus infections though. If the symptoms are slowly improving, then even if they are lasting more than 2 weeks, it is probably still just a viral URI.
Doctors may prescribe oral antibiotics to treat cases of sinusitis that are believed to be caused by bacteria. Some doctors may recommend decongestants and antihistamines to help reduce the symptoms.
Cases of sinusitis that are caused by viruses usually go away on their own without medical treatment. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and/or warm compresses may help reduce any pain your child may be experiencing. But over-the-counter cold preparations have not been found to be effective in reducing symptoms in kids and may cause unwanted side effects.
Call the doctor whenever your child has:
• a cold that lasts for more than 10 days without improvement
• a cold that seems to be getting worse after 7 days of symptoms
• symptoms of allergies that don’t clear with the usual allergy medication