(Radio Iowa) – Emergency rooms and critical care clinics are getting busier as Iowans who had colds initially find the bug has evolved into something more serious. Many parents may worry their kids’ case of the sniffles with coughing and sneezing has become the flu, R-S-V or worse. Dr. Lindsey Query, a pediatric emergency medicine physician with Gundersen Health System, says you probably don’t need to bring your child in to be seen if it’s just a cold.

“It is normal for their child, when they’re sick, for them to be more tired, for them to want to rest, and for their appetite to be decreased, but they need to drink enough to pee at least three times a day or at least once every eight hours,” Query says. “If your child is not doing that, then it would be a good time to be seen.” If the symptoms are more severe, especially if your child’s having trouble breathing, she says that’s when a visit to the doctor may be needed.

“If you see that your child is breathing faster than 60 times a minute, or once per second, in a sustained manner,” she says, “especially if you’re seeing that they are working harder, they have head bobbing, or you can see their ribs sucking in, their belly popping out, then that would be a time to come in.” Query says most kids with viruses won’t need to have an antibiotic, unless there’s another problem, like an ear infection or pneumonia. If a child’s nose is plugged up to the extent they’re having trouble breathing, parents may need to help them clear that crud out.

“There are a number of different products on the market that can help you do that, and what those products allow you to do is manually remove secretions from the nose and the mouth,” Query says, “and they work most effectively when used with a nasal spray.” For kids under seven, Query says she does -not- recommend giving them any of the over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.

“What I do recommend is natural honey,” she says. “Natural honey is only safe in children over the age of one, but in randomized controlled trials, natural honey has been shown to be more effective in reducing cough symptoms in children under the age of seven and over the age of one than over-the-counter medicines.”

The Gundersen Health System includes a hospital in West Union, and clinics in Fayette, Decorah, Waukon, Lansing, Postville and Calmar.