Is it possible to play snowballs without mittens and what to do if a child sticks his tongue to an iron swing in the cold? Pediatrician, allergist-immunologist and host of the TV channel «Friday!» Alexey Bessmertny analyzes the winter entertainment of Soviet children from the point of view of modern medicine.
There is snow and icicles
Show me a child who has never tasted snow or icicles, the favorite delicacy of unspoiled Soviet children. Toddlers learn about the world around them, including through taste sensations, so licking a long transparent icicle or biting off a piece of snow is an absolutely normal childish desire.
And no — the child will not get sick, because you cannot get sick from the cold. Of course, severe hypothermia is a possible condition for the onset of a cold, as it sometimes reduces the local immune response. Possible, but not sufficient — for a child to really get sick, some pathogen (virus or bacterium) must enter his body.
In theory, if you eat a lot, a lot of snow, then a person can get a sore throat. But this only works for people with chronic diseases of the upper or lower respiratory tract. For a healthy child, such an experience is unlikely to hurt, especially if he does not eat snow on an industrial scale.
What else is fundamentally important — snow and icicles should be free of impurities. If you are walking in the country or in the forest, where the snow is quite clean, just make sure that it is not yellow, that is, that there is no animal urine on it.
The city is a different story — there are a lot of cars and people, and in winter, utility workers generously sprinkle reagents on the roads. And the snow there is, by definition, dirty. Therefore, an urban snow delicacy can even end in poisoning, you should not experiment.
Lick a swing in the cold
Who in childhood did not dream at minus fifteen, no, no, yes, and touch the iron swing with your tongue. Especially after the parents told the terrible thing — if you lick, you stick. Everyone dreamed and almost everyone stuck.
What does modern pediatrics say about helping such natural scientists? The first thing to do is to explain to the child why you should not touch the frozen metal with your lips or tongue. He must know that this will certainly lead to discomfort or even injury. Some children may be put off by such obvious information.
But where to run if the child still licked the piece of iron? Ideally, if you have a bottle or a thermos of warm water with you. Water the place of adhesion so that it warms up and the tongue peels off by itself. Just do it quickly so that the water does not have time to freeze, and the mucous does not stick even more strongly. You can also actively breathe on the sticking site so that it warms up from warm air.
Although this is more of an anecdotal situation, so that the child sticks and cannot come off. More often, the baby copes on its own and simply tears off the slightly stuck tongue from the insidious piece of iron. At most, for some time after that, he will feel a slight burning sensation, as after a burn with too hot tea. He will put the affected tongue into his mouth, press it against the sky — and in a couple of days the mucous membrane will recover.
Play snowball fights without mittens
Teenagers take off the hat and scarf carefully put on by their mother as soon as they leave the entrance, and younger children are happy to play snowball fights without gloves. How dangerous is it to walk bareheaded in winter or to make a snowman with your bare hands?
It is rare that a child will deliberately freeze his fingers because he played snowballs. It's practically impossible. If he is sane, if he has pain, then he will put on gloves or mittens when he gets cold. The same goes for a scarf, and even a hat.
It is worth focusing on how the child, in principle, tolerates the cold — that is, whether he is frozen or not. And what the weather is like outside. Because plus seven and minus thirty are two different stories. A teenager will definitely decide for himself how comfortable he is to dress. And younger children should still be prompted what clothes to choose.
In any case, this is not a question about “it blows out and you immediately get sick”, this is a question about comfort and trust in your own feelings. The maximum that you can get without wearing a scarf is myositis, inflammation of the neck muscles. And then — it takes a lot of effort. /2023/03/9822cab538553cf745819719a2e7e997.jpg» /> Alexey Bessmertny 
expert
Pediatrician, allergist-immunologist in clinics DocDeti/DocMed 
Above, we said that severe hypothermia is a possible, but not sufficient condition for the onset of a cold. Yes, it sometimes reduces local immunity, but for the baby to really get sick, a virus or bacterium must still be introduced into his body.
By the way, you won’t get sick with meningitis either if you go for a walk without a hat. Meningitis — inflammation and swelling of the lining of the brain — is caused by viruses and bacteria, and the presence or absence of a headgear does not affect the risk of infection. It is important to remember that it is not a fur hat that will protect against bacterial meningitis, but timely vaccinations.
Sledding and ice skating downhill
As children, we all had fun and scary rides down the hills on sleds, cartons and other unidentified ice floes. Even on old refrigerators and cameras from large wheels, reminiscent of modern tubing. And they didn't know that the safest thing to ride is something that handles well or has a rudder, like a snow scooter or skis.
But flying down the mountain on sleds, slippery ice rinks, and even more so on tubing is very dangerous — all these things are disgustingly managed. The child may crash into a tree or pole and be seriously injured. Such incidents happen regularly.
So last week in Korolev, near Moscow, a five-year-old girl flew off on a tubing under a train and seriously hurt her head. When hitting a hillock, the tubing simply changed direction and drove towards the railway tracks.
Try to ride in specially designated areas — without protruding stumps, trees, poles, and only on what is well controlled. And it is desirable to be at the same time in protection — a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. If the child feels that the situation is getting out of control, he needs to quickly fall sideways from the sled or tubing, so that later he can just roll on the pope.
Going to New Year's performances
This habit is also not called useful, although we were all bunny boys and snowflake girls at New Year's parties in kindergarten or school. The fact is that everyone comes to the holiday — both healthy and sick. It doesn't matter that half of the children are on sick leave, how can you miss the New Year's performance. The guys sing songs and dance under the Christmas tree, and then they all get sick together.
In addition to the coronavirus, which children catch well and sometimes are hard to endure, there are other dangerous diseases. From chickenpox to the flu. For example, this season, many children have already come down with influenza A, which was undeservedly forgotten about last year.
By the way, it's not too late to get a flu shot if you haven't already — both for yourself and your child. And adults, in addition to this, should be vaccinated against coronavirus in order to protect both themselves and the children at the New Year's party, if you still decide to go there.