Treating a Child's Chronic Runny Nose - Dr. catherine palmier - Uhc tv

My next reader is writing about her child’s runny nose and she states that she’s had, experienced her child having a runny nose for close to a year and although she doesn’t specify the age of the child, I’m thinking the child is two and a half years old or so and I’ll just answer the question generally. It’s pretty unusual for a child to have a runny nose continuously for a year. And some of that causes could be you know, colds after cold, after cold and sometimes when they’re getting over one cold they get another cold. Also allergies could be a factor although nasal allergies in a two and a half year old, that’s just when allergies start to actually be possible in a child. One thing you do need to keep an eye out for is if you have a child who has a runny nose on only one side of his nose or has a foul smell from that area, say one side is running but the other side seems stopped up, kids do have a tendency to put all kinds of things in their ears and their noses, beads and kidney beans and popcorn kernels and I’ve seen it all when it comes to extracting foreign bodies from children so it’s best to bring your child if you’ve got concerns about a steadily running nose to the pediatrician just so the pediatrician can take a quick look to make sure there’s no little surprises in the nose, nostrils of a child. But, in general, typically the reason a child has a runny nose is really because of you know several colds during the year that they’re getting over and it’s important to remember, the child is normally much less bothered by it than we are as parents and my other thing that I just want to mention is that you know when a child is growing up it seems that there seems to be a certain number, a magical number of illnesses they have in their first few years of life in order to develop a good immune system and children are magnets for various viruses but if they get those colds and things around their second birthday to their third birthday they’re generally a much healthier kindergartner and first grader than children who didn’t have the colds when they were two to three years old and they have a much more difficult time staying healthy and not getting being sick in kindergarten, first or second grade. So I kind of look at it as a child is going to have a certain amount of colds, sore throats, types of illnesses as they’re growing up and depending on the situation with which they’re cared for, they may get them at two years old, four years old or seven years old. It just depends on what kind of daycare situation you may have them in, what kind of school situation, whether they have brothers or sisters or not, lots of things matter. But again, we as parents tend to get a lot more upset about something like a runny nose than the child ultimately is. It usually doesn’t bother them, they just wipe it on their sleeve, right, and go about their business. So, I hope that’s helpful to you and best of luck in your conquest to help your child not have a runny nose. So thank you.