Teaching a 3-4 year old child to gargle

Why gargle for a sore throat?

With acute infectious sore throat, inflammation of the pharynx, palatine tonsils and the larynx itself occurs in the body. Pus that accumulates on the mucous membranes is especially dangerous, as it can cause complications. Rinses effectively help fight inflammation in the mouth. This procedure helps:

• eliminating painful sensations,
• reduction of inflammatory processes,
• removing pus, thick plaque, mucus from the surface of the affected tonsils.

With this method of therapy, it is quite possible to eliminate bacteria, and they will not spread further throughout the body. This will reduce the number of complications and cure tonsillitis faster.

Important! To achieve the best effect, gargle should be done every 2-4 hours.

Learning to gargle with your baby

All loving mothers ask the question - how to teach a child to gargle? After all, rinsing plays a rather important role in treating the throat, because the process destroys harmful microbes and bacteria from the throat area.

All you need is a little perseverance and patience, and the baby, under the guidance of his mother, will be able to quickly learn, and most importantly, how to gargle correctly. Where to start this process?

The main thing is to relax and turn this action into an exciting game, then the baby will perceive the situation completely differently. He will not be capricious, cry or be afraid. On the contrary, he will play with his mother.

Pediatricians recommend teaching children to perform this process independently from the age of three. However, if a 3-year-old child is still unable to do this, then do not worry.

You can try later, around the age of four, sometimes even around five, when the child has already grown significantly and has developed various skills.

How can you gargle for a child with a sore throat?

To remove bacteria, gargle. Many drugs are not suitable for children, so it is important to know what to gargle with when a child has a sore throat, so as not to aggravate his condition. A child can gargle with the same solutions as adults, but they should be less concentrated. All solutions used can be divided into homemade and medicinal.

When using medications, it is best to consult a doctor first. You can prepare home remedies yourself, but you must take into account the concentration of the solution. It is quite possible to use combination drugs made from home remedies and medications.

Home remedies for gargling for sore throat

For gargling, you can prepare a remedy at home using available ingredients that are found in any home. One of the simplest and most popular remedies is a soda-salt solution, to which you can add two drops of iodine per glass of liquid. Milk is very helpful in relieving painful sensations and softening tonsils. To prepare the remedy you need to take:

• 0.5 tbsp. milk,
• 1 tsp. salt,
• 1 tsp. soda,
• 3 tbsp. l. mineral water,
• 2 drops of iodine.

The milk should be warm, add all other ingredients to it. Fruit juices, decoctions and infusions of medicinal herbs, and strong tea have a very good effect.

The preparation for rinsing must be selected in accordance with the form and stage of tonsillitis. For the procedure, decoctions prepared from the flowers of calendula, chamomile, sage, linden, and mint are well suited for children.

Important! You can use medicinal herbs for gargling in a child only if there is no allergy to the chosen remedy.

You can gargle with a solution prepared based on propolis. To prepare the drug, you need to add a few drops of propolis tincture to a glass of water.

Medicinal rinses

Gargling for sore throat in children is carried out with the help of medications that help quickly eliminate inflammation and reduce pain. Before carrying out a procedure using medications, you need to rinse your throat once with just warm water, and then use the prepared solution. Solutions can be prepared using:

• potassium permanganate,
• hydrogen peroxide,
• boric acid.

All these drugs require care and precision in preparation, because the wrong dosage can cause severe burns to the mucous membrane. After gargling, you need to smear your throat with sea buckthorn oil, which helps treatment and eliminates discomfort.

Gargling with chamomile for children

Gargling with chamomile helps very well with a sore throat. This plant is very popular in herbal medicine and is a storehouse of useful substances. Compresses and baths are made from its decoction, consumed internally, and also gargled.

The main benefit of chamomile is chamazulene. This substance is contained in the oil of this plant. Chamazulene has anti-inflammatory and anesthetic effects. But, in order to take advantage of the benefits of this substance, you need to properly prepare a chamomile decoction. This valuable plant cannot be boiled. At water temperatures above 90 degrees, chamazulene is destroyed.

Chamomile infusion

• To prepare a solution for rinsing, you need to pour a tablespoon of dry chamomile with warm water. If you bought this product in filter bags, then for rinsing you need to brew one bag in a glass of hot water
• This solution should infuse for about 30 minutes. You can add honey to it (1 teaspoon). To prevent the infusion from cooling down, it is better to brew it in a thermos. For each new rinse, you need to prepare a new infusion. The optimal temperature of chamomile for rinsing is 37-39 degrees
• You need to rinse with this infusion after eating. After this procedure, you should not eat or drink for 40 minutes. This is exactly how long it takes for the active substances of chamomile to cleanse the throat mucosa of pathogenic organisms.

How to gargle for a child aged 7 years and older

Many parents wonder what is the best way to gargle a child’s throat at 7 years old, so that they can quickly remove pus, plaque and eliminate pathogens. Furacilin is considered a very good and safe drug. To prepare a suitable solution, you need to dilute 1-2 tablets with a glass of warm water. This remedy helps to quickly eliminate painful sensations and remove purulent plaque from the tonsils.

You can also use such products as rinsing:

• Chlorhexidine,
• Iodinol,
• Miramistin.

Iodinol fights pathogens very well and this drug is completely non-toxic. To prepare the mixture, you need to dilute 20 ml of Iodinol with 200 ml of warm water.

Probiotics are considered quite good, because they contain beneficial lactobacilli that help establish the balance of microflora in the oral cavity. They help boost immunity, which helps reduce pathogens.

Which is correct?

Let the baby first learn to roll the water in his mouth on his own, and only then move on to the neck. Be sure to do this with him so that your baby repeats after you.

1. Bend the child over the bathtub and irrigate his neck with a syringe or enema. Let ordinary warm water serve as the solution. This way you can quickly get used to the rinsing procedure.
2. Use a game form, play doctor and patient, so that the little member of your family relaxes and is not afraid to treat the neck on their own. Tell us what will be more convenient when you pronounce the letter “A” out loud.
3. Just gurgle with him with ordinary water, let the whole family: dad, grandmother and other family members gurgle with you. You can even do it to music.

If you can involve your baby in your fun game, he will quickly and happily learn to gargle. It doesn’t matter what medicine you use during the training process, it could be Chlorophyllipt, Furacilin or just salted water. The main thing is that your beloved child does it with pleasure. And when he learns to skillfully gargle his own throat, then together you and he can quickly overcome any cold.

Gargling for a child from 4 years old

nofollIf a 4-year-old child suffers from a sore throat, then it is necessary to use complex treatment to eliminate the symptoms of this disease and prevent the occurrence of complications. Rinsing is considered a very good remedy, which is prescribed for children starting from two years of age during treatment.

You can use decoctions of medicinal herbs diluted with water to obtain the required concentration. In addition, lemon juice, 2 tsp, is considered a good remedy. which must be diluted in a glass of warm water. It helps to quickly eliminate existing pain and relieve inflammation of the tonsils.

You can add 1 tsp to a glass of beet juice. lemon juice. It is necessary to rinse the mouth 3-4 times a day.

Advice from pediatricians and healers

Children can gargle on their own from the age of three, the main thing is that this process is constantly reinforced, despite the healthy appearance of the baby. You can rinse with tea, juice, compote, let this process become a habit, and during illness it will become a real godsend for the baby.

It is best to gargle with weak decoctions of chamomile, sage, mint, and St. John's wort. You can give soda or saline solution. Add one spoonful of honey heated in a water bath.

This method of treatment is one of the most effective in the treatment of tonsils; parents do not have to be afraid that the child will swallow a homemade solution; nothing bad will happen to it.

Thanks to the rinsing procedure, harmful microbes are removed from the body, pus, plaque, mucus are washed away, the compositions have an anti-inflammatory and regenerating effect.

Rinsing should be done every 2-3 hours; if you don’t have prepared or purchased solutions on hand, you can use regular warm water. The liquid should be at room temperature and get into the throat as much as possible; to do this, you need to tilt your head back and stretch your tongue forward.

Rinse products for children from 3 years old

When rinsing the mouth, it is very important to take into account the age of the baby. At 2.5 - 3 years old, children often still cannot rinse their throats well, so it is necessary to use the safest means, and also teach the child to carry out this procedure in a playful way.

Not all rinses can be used by children aged 3 years. To eliminate bacteria, you need to take half a glass of dried blueberries, add two glasses of water and boil for half an hour. Then you need to let the product brew well and cool. You need to gargle every two hours.

Eucalyptus tincture, which must be dissolved in water, just a couple of drops, also helps to cope with pathogenic microorganisms.

Gargling with a sore throat in a child can bring very good results; the most important thing is to approach this issue competently and carry out this procedure in combination with other means.

Can children gargle with soda?

A child can gargle with soda from the age of 3. That is, from the moment the child learned to do it on his own.

Gargling with soda is quite safe even for a child; you just need to follow the correct proportions when preparing the solution for gargling.

• For 1 glass of warm, boiled water, you need to add 1 teaspoon of soda and mix well.

You can also use baking soda in combination with salt.

• For 1 glass of warm, boiled water, you need to add 1 teaspoon of soda and salt, and mix well.

Such rinses need to be repeated every 1.5-2 hours, then they will be effective, and you will not have a question about whether children can gargle with soda.

Can children under 3 years old gargle with baking soda? Rinsing with soda can be used to irrigate a sore throat in a baby who has not even learned how to do it himself. However, despite all the safety of soda, make sure that your baby does not swallow this solution during the procedure. If swallowed, of course, nothing bad will happen, but if a large amount of soda solution gets into the stomach, it can negatively affect the baby’s digestion.