The child loses consciousness: what to do and emergency care

It happens in life and so that the child can lose consciousness and fall. This may be a consequence of trauma, fainting and coma, it can be an allergic shock, heat and sunstroke and much more. Parents, and all adults and children, need to know the causes of loss of consciousness and how to help the affected child by providing emergency care at home.

Causes of unconsciousness

Causes of cerebral trauma, infectious diseases( meningococcal infection, viral meningoencephalitis), and diseases of the nervous system are the most common causes of unconsciousness in children. Being a manifestation of a serious illness, unconsciousness certainly frightens parents, but it does not cause bewilderment. Another thing is when the child loses consciousness, being perfectly healthy. How can I not be frightened, if only a minute ago my son talked and asked me to buy a bicycle, and now he was lying unconscious on the floor: pale and lifeless?

Syndrome

Consider the most typical situations associated with loss of consciousness in children as syncope .

. .. Early winter morning, outside the darkness, and really want to sleep, throwing the alarm clock in the far corner. However, my mother does not lag behind and tries to get out of bed: "Get up soon, and then you'll be late for school.""Well, give me a little more sleep."When there are 5 minutes left before leaving the house, the son jumps up as if scalded, somehow dresses and, fastening on the move, runs to the bus. What kind of charge is there, what kind of hot breakfast is there? !He rubbed his eyes and ran. In the bus( in the metro) it is stuffy, all the seats are occupied, you have to stand. And suddenly there was nausea, weakness, dark circles swam before my eyes, my legs became wadded, the child turned off and fell unconscious.

. .. Another example. After the lessons, the children gathered for rehearsal of the solemn construction, dedicated to a certain holiday. The event dragged on, as not all of them learned their words, could not remember who speaks for whom, so it was necessary to start all over again several times. In her quest for excellence, the teacher did not notice that the thin girl in the second row had turned pale, lost consciousness and fell.

. .. Another fairly typical case. Children from the town near Moscow came to the capital on an excursion. We got up early, did not have breakfast( who wants to eat at 6 o'clock in the morning?), Two hours of shaking in the bus and acquaintance with Moscow began with a visit to the museum. Traveling through the halls and listening to the interesting stories of the guide about historical events, biographies of great people, Nina felt dizzy, weak, the pictures swam before her eyes together with classmates and teachers, and she disconnected. What happened next does not remember. When she woke up, she found herself lying on a couch in an office, and around her worried adults worried.

All these cases combine similar circumstances of :

1. the child was in an upright position;
2. fainted on an empty stomach;
3. in confined space felt a lack of fresh air;
4. loss of consciousness occurred in the first half of the day.

The cause of the development of syncope is simple: the vasomotor center poorly controls the tone of the vessels, and blood, according to the law of universal gravitation, moves to the lower part of the body, the return of blood to the heart decreases, therefore, less blood enters the vessels of the brain. In addition, the child has not eaten for a long time, therefore, there are not enough nutrients and oxygen in the blood, so the brain tissue experiences hunger, letting know about this fainting.

In adolescent girls , the menstruating is an aggravating factor( this is an additional loss of blood).A child who has lain a few days in bed, for example due to a high fever against the background of the flu, may fall into a swoon on the way to the toilet, for the first time taking a vertical position.

Emergency treatment for syncope in a child

First aid in fainting:

1. put the child on a bench, sofa, shifted chairs, on the floor so that the legs are above the head. In this position, the flow of blood to the brain increases;
2. unfasten the tight gates, loosen the belt, belt;
3. to strengthen the influx of fresh air;
4. bring to the nose a fleece moistened with ammonia;
5. splash on your face with cold water;
6. drink hot sweet tea.

Many adolescents with vegetative-vascular dystonia are prone to fainting. Therefore, they should train their vessel about the motor center, accustoming it to keep the blood vessels in a tone. The main activities to achieve this goal: morning exercises, contrast showers, daily walks in the fresh air in any weather, full sleep. In the morning before you leave the house you need to have breakfast.

Recurring episodes of short-term loss of consciousness against a background of complete well-being dictate the need for examination in a hospital to exclude diseases of the nervous system and disturb the heart rhythm.

Coma

Unlike fainting, in which loss of consciousness is transient and does not entail a persistent health disorder, a prolonged unconscious state with a disruption of reflex activity and the function of internal organs is called as coma .

The main symptom of coma of any origin is deep inhibition of the cerebral cortex and subcortical centers that control all body functions. Therefore, with deep coma, there are no reflexes( cough, swallowing, pupillary, corneal), breathing, cardiac activity, muscle tone decreases, control of pelvic functions disappears( involuntary urination and feces withdrawal).

In childhood, the cause of development of coma is most often cerebral trauma, diseases of the nervous system( epilepsy, meningoencephalitis), endocrine diseases( diabetes, thyrotoxicosis), overheating.

Emergency care for coma in children

Regardless of the reason that caused someone, , the actions of adults who are watching a child have come down to the following:

Emergency call of an ambulance, and before her arrival:

1. give the patient a horizontal position;
2. to ensure the patency of the upper respiratory tract: clean the oral cavity of mucus and vomit, withdraw the lower jaw forward and downward to prevent tongue twisting;
3. in the absence of breathing and cardiac activity to begin carrying out resuscitation measures: mouth-to-mouth breathing and indirect heart massage;
4. with convulsions, put a rolled-up handkerchief between your teeth to avoid biting the tongue.

Diabetic Coma: Symptoms and Signs, How to Help Your Child?

Let's talk in more detail about diabetes mellitus, , which in childhood, especially in adolescents, is first manifested by coma. And not because the coma comes suddenly in full health. Diabetic coma is developing gradually over several days. And because teenagers tend to disregard their health, and parents do not notice changes in the behavior and condition of the child. A teenager will not complain to his mother about weakness, fatigue, reduced mental and physical performance. Mama herself should find mandatory symptoms during this period: thirst, frequent copious urination( but which parent monitors the number of urination in adolescents!) And weight loss.

Later, pain in the abdomen, nausea, sometimes vomiting, weakness and dizziness join. These symptoms already testify to the onset of acidosis, and the smell of old apples from the mouth will confirm the approaching complication. Violated not only carbohydrate metabolism, but also all types of metabolism, especially fat. And in the blood accumulate under-oxidized metabolic products: organic acids and acetone, so develop a violation of the acid-base balance - metabolic acidosis. Before the development of the diabetic coma, very little remains, but no one even suspects about it.

How inattentive are mothers to their grown-up children! In this state, the child continues to attend school, even to attend physical education classes, which approximates the denouement in the form of a diabetic coma.

Often loss of consciousness is accompanied by convulsions. The picture is terrible, so the events begin to develop quickly and according to the well-worked out scheme: call to the service "03" - arrival of the brigade - emergency assistance - urgent hospitalization in the endocrinology department.

From a conversation with a self-confessed teenager and his parents, it appears that the deterioration began 2-3 weeks ago, but this was not given importance( "consequences of the flu", "avitaminosis", "overworked in school", etc.).

Kids usually do not get to the coma, as moms are more attentive to them and notice changes in their state of health and mood earlier. The child became capricious, excitable, for no reason from that, he again began to urinate in panties, which, having dried up, become "starchy".The baby quickly loses weight, despite the saved appetite, the skin and mucous membranes become dry, easily vulnerable, a secondary bacterial or fungal infection quickly joins: pustules, boils, stomatitis, intertrigo in the perineum and inner thighs. For girls, itching and inflammation of the mucous membranes of the genital organs is painful.

Any mother will score an alarm: with the child something is wrong! Referring to a doctor will entail a check-up and result in a diagnosis.

Diabetic coma develops against a background of high blood glucose. If a child receives insulin injections, then another danger lies in wait for him: the development of hypoglycemic coma ( a sharp decrease in blood sugar levels) as a result of an overdose of injected insulin or non-compliance with diet.

The attack develops suddenly with a feeling of "brutal" hunger, a sharp weakness accompanied by chills, sweating, dizziness. At this point, you can interrupt the development of a coma, if you have time to take a piece of sugar in your mouth, a candy, a spoonful of honey or jam. Otherwise, there comes drowsiness, smoothly turning into a coma: the patient does not react to external stimuli, the skin is pale, increased humidity, the pupils are wide, do not react to light, the respiration is shallow, the pulse is a rare weak one.

Before arrival of the "First Aid" take care of the patency of the upper respiratory tract, protect the patient from hypothermia.

Related Videos

If the child has lost consciousness: what to do? First urgent help

I would like to talk with you about some emergency situations, from which, unfortunately, no one is immune. And if you find yourself witnessing one of these situations, the correctness and speed of your actions will determine the health, and sometimes the life of the child. So, the situation is the first. The child lost consciousness.

Source:

1. Related Videos.
2. «Pediatrics: A complete reference book for parents / L.Sh. Anikeeva ": Moscow: Publishing house" Exmo ".