CHILDREN’S HEALTH: SINUSITIS
Symptoms: Yellow or milky discharge from the nose; fever; pain; stuffy nose; cough; red, swollen eyelids; headache.
Home care:
- Protect the child against sinusitis by giving decongestant cold remedies for a cold and having the child use nose drops, or by treating an allergy with antihistamines.
- Give aspirin or paracetamol for pain. Warmth applied to the face also helps relieve pain.
- A child with symptoms of sinusitis plus high fever should see a doctor.
- See a doctor if the child has a pus-like discharge or other symptoms of sinusitis on one side of the nose only.
Sinusitis is inflammation or infection of the sinuses, the air-filled cavities in the face that connect with the nasal passages. Around the nose are four pairs of sinuses (the maxillary, frontal, sphenoid, and ethmoid sinuses). The maxillary sinuses, which lie below the eyes, and the ethmoid sinuses, which lie between the eyes, are present in infancy. The sphenoid sinuses, located behind the roof of the nose, become fully developed between the ages of three and five years, and the frontal sinuses, situated above the eyes, between six and ten years.
Because the sinuses are continuations of the nasal cavity, they are affected by any viral infection of the nose or any allergic reaction that occurs in the nose. Sometimes, a virus or an allergy attacks the openings to the sinuses and causes a bacterial infection within the sinuses. Bacterial infection of the sinuses can also follow a bacterial infection of the nose. A bacterial infection of the sinuses is true sinusitis.
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