Kids Sore Throat Remedies

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Sore Throat Remedy: Echinacea Throat Spray 

Sore throat ranks right up there with earache as one of the most common reasons parents take their children to the doctor. Parents make the trip for two main reasons: to seek a way to ease their child’s pain and to find out if the cause is strep. If the sore throat ­arrived with other symptoms of a cold or the flu, that usually means it’s viral. The discomfort typically will last three or four days and go away without any medical treatment—and antibiotics won’t do a lick of good. But if strep (or one of the rarer bacteria) has caused the illness, your child probably needs antibiotics.

Sore throats of both kinds are quite contagious. The incubation period (the time between exposure and onset of symptoms) takes two to five days, so kids who seem healthy can spread infection.

Types of sore throats

Viral sore throats are often part of the package of a viral respiratory infection. With a cold, a child sniffles, sneezes, coughs, and may complain of a scratchy throat. Hoarseness or laryngitis develops when the voice box, or larynx, becomes inflamed. The sore throat your child may suffer when he has the flu goes along with other hallmarks of that syndrome: muscle aches, cough, headache, fever, and chills. Adenovirus causes flu-like symptoms with sore throat and pinkeye. Infectious mononucleosis—the “mono” that mainly ­afflicts teens and young adults—causes sore throats with fever, extreme malaise, fatigue, poor appetite, and enlarged lymph nodes.

So how do you tell—or at least hazard a guess—whether the cause of a sore throat is viral or bacterial? Runny nose and cough along with a sore throat usually indicate a viral respiratory tract infection. Strep throat, however, is rarely accompanied by these symptoms.

About strep throat

Strep throat, or infection with the Streptococcus pyogenes bacterium, accounts for about 15 percent of all sore throats. During some times of the year, however, up to half of kids’ sore throats may be due to strep. The prime symptoms are sore throat pain that worsens with chewing or swallowing and a fever above 101.3°F. Your child may also complain of headache and stomachache, sometimes with vomiting. An infected throat looks fiery red, and often—but not always—has a whitish crud resembling cottage cheese on the tonsils and back of the throat. The lymph nodes in the sides of the neck are enlarged and tender.

Some strep bacteria occasionally produce toxins that cause other diseases. For instance, scarlet fever or scarlatina can develop after a day or two of fever and sore throat. The tongue at first looks white and furry, then very red. Tiny red dots appear in the throat, usually on the soft part above the uvula (the waggly part that hangs down). Small bumps that feel like sandpaper appear on the base of the neck, face, and upper trunk, then spread. The rash is most noticeable in the skin folds, but may affect the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Later, the skin peels. This illness usually afflicts children between four and eight years old; by the age of ten, most kids have developed lifelong antibodies against this strep toxin, but not future strep infections.

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