Sepsis in infants and children occurs as a consequence of a serious infection inside your body. It can affect anyone and is most commonly seen in adults and very young babies. We must pay attention to this disease, as It is very common in very young children due to their great vulnerability.
It is vitally important to catch up with any symptoms or small presence of infection. Any type of manifestation must be given with great interest and go to a doctor as quickly as possible if the child does not improve with a small detection.
Neonatal sepsis
The child develops this condition a few months after being born (up to 90 days after birth). If it appears a few hours or days after birth it is called early-onset sepsis and if it appears after the first week of life it will indicate that it is a neonatal sepsis late-onset.
Sepsis in older children
As children grow older they become more vulnerable by being exposed to more related infections in the areas where they are managed such as: nurseries or schools, to activities or sports. The most common infections can be in the urinary tract, skin, appendicitis, meningitis or pneumonia. If not treated quickly, they can lead to sepsis.
What Causes Sepsis?
Sepsis is the systematic response to the presence of an infection. Its state can be attributed both to the response of the infecting pathogen or to the child's own response to such a problem.
The most common pathogens are bacteria, fungi and viruses as the cause of this ailment, but these will also have a more aggressive response or not depending on some factors in their host such as age, if they have any type of associated disease or geographic location.
Signs and symptoms of sepsis
Any of these signs usually occur occasionally when a child is sick, but if they have more than one of these symptoms at the same time or the child is much sicker than usual, they may need medical attention.
- The most occasional is the appearance of fever.
- Have very cold feet and hands.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Fast heartbeat
- Confusion, dizziness, and disorientation.
- Nausea and vomiting.
- General malaise and discomfort in the extremities.
Treatment for sepsis in children
Treatment should be done as quickly as possibleSince every hour of delay can reduce the patient's chances of survival. Usually the children are admitted and cared for in intensive care (ICU).
Before imposing a treatment a study should be done to analyze the type of infection of the child. It is important to find out the type of virus or bacteria that causes it, so it will be necessary to do a blood, urine and blood test. cerebrospinal fluid.
It will be done through the administration of antibiotics and it will try to complement with other measures to treat the other ailments that have been complementing sepsis such as: some type of shock, hypothermia, hyperthermia, pain, improving nutrition ...
The duration of the treatment will vary according to the situation of each problem. Treatments generally last about 10 days, but according to various circumstances of improvement or no evolution, it can either decrease the days or increase the treatment.
How to avoid sepsis
It is important that parents or caregivers talk with pediatricians about the measures that they should take for their prevention, for this it is good that the signs and symptoms are made known.
Children must have good body hygiene, especially hand washing and always have any wound or cut disinfected. You have to follow the vaccine plan correctly to avoid these types of infections that can create sepsis.