Pediatric Sinusitis Causes, Symptoms & Treatment Options

By Author: Dr Marc Kerner
Total Articles: 11
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Have you any knowledge about Pediatric Sinusitis? No worries, we’re going to enlighten you about the sinusitis treatment with causes and symptoms in detail.

Sinus infections in children look a bit different than sinusitis in adults. Children generally have a cough, bad breath, weak temperament, swelling around the eyes, thick yellow-green nasal or post-nasal drip.

You will notice that children are diagnosed with viral sinusitis and they are given treatment based on their symptoms. In critical cases of bacterial sinusitis, use of antibiotics is considered. But when medical therapy fails, surgery becomes inevitable and that too is considered a safe as well as effective method of treating sinusitis in children.

At birth time, small, ethmoid (between the eyes) and maxillary (behind the cheek) sinuses are present. You need to know that sinuses are not completely developed until late during the teen years. Like sinusitis in adults, pediatric sinusitis can be tough to diagnose as some of its symptoms are caused by other problems like ...
... an allergy or viral illness.

Causes of Pediatric Sinusitis

Young children are more vulnerable to ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) infections specifically in the first several years of their life. Sinusitis is generally caused by bacteria, viruses or allergies. When the sinus infection in a child continues for up to 10 days max, this is called acute viral sinusitis. But in the case of acute bacterial sinusitis, the condition of the child won’t improve at all within 10 days of getting sick.

Chronic sinusitis takes 12 weeks or more to recover, and is typically caused by prolonged inflammation, instead of a long infection. Infection is a part of chronic sinusitis, especially when it worsens gradually, but not necessarily the main cause.

Symptoms of Pediatric Sinusitis

Check out the following sinusitis symptoms and consider the case of your child.

. A cold lasting over 10-14 days
. Low or high temperature fever
. Thick yellow-green nasal drainage for a minimum of three consecutive days
. Post-nasal drip, sometimes with sore throat, bad breath, cough, nausea and/or vomiting
. Swelling around the eyes
. Irritability or fatigue
. Headache usually in children over six years
. Treatment Options for Pediatric Sinus Infections

When you take your child to your favorite ENT specialist, he/she will first test the infected part. Remember a thorough history and examination usually leads to the accurate diagnosis. Thus the doctor might ask you several questions to know about your child’s sinus infections. Issues like structural changes, allergies, and problems with the immune system are checked properly.

Sometimes special instruments are used to look into the nose at the time of office visit. When it comes to acute sinusitis, CT scan like imaging methods is not suggested. Radiation safety measures might limit imaging scans, especially in children younger than six-years-old.

Acute sinusitis - If this is bacterial sinusitis, most of the infected children respond well to antibiotic treatment. Doctors also prescribe nasal saline drops or nasal steroid sprays for short-term relief from stuffiness. For viral upper respiratory infections, antihistamines and decongestants won’t go well. They are not given to those who are younger than two-years old.

Symptoms in your child with acute bacterial sinusitis improve within the first few days of the antibiotics therapy. If the conditions improve suddenly within the very first week of the treatment, it is recommended to continue it and complete the dose.

Chronic sinusitis - Chronic sinusitis shows its symptoms for a minimum period of about 12 weeks. If your child has two or more symptoms, you make sure that he/she is a victim of sinus infections. You must consult with an ENT specialist who can provide you the right medical or surgical treatment.

Surgery is generally recommended for a small percentage of children having severe or continued sinusitis symptoms despite medical treatment. Doctors might advise children less than 13 years to remove adenoid tissue from behind the nose as part of the sinusitis treatment.
You might be surprised why the adenoid tissue as it does not directly block the sinuses but it can cause a lot of symptoms similar to sinusitis such as cough, bad breath, stuffy nose, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and headache.

In older children, where medical therapy has been unsuccessful, adenoidectomy or other surgical options are likely recommended. Your ENT surgeon can open the natural drainage pathways of your ward’s sinuses and make the narrow passages wider. Here antibiotics can be applied specifically against the bacteria that are responsible for your child’s sinus infection.