A child's cough is not a separate disease, but a symptom accompanying a pathological state of the body, or a negative reaction to a certain stimulus. You can get rid of it only by choosing the right treatment. To do this, it is necessary to establish a reliable reason that served as a provoking factor, and use the help of a doctor.
A child can cough for various reasons, and in order to successfully get rid of it, it is necessary to reliably establish the factor that provokes the cough. Symptomatic elimination of a negative phenomenon does not bring recovery, but only hides it for a short time. To remove a cough completely means to identify and eliminate the cause that can cause it. Otherwise, the cough will periodically return, and in the end it can turn into a serious complication.
Types of cough
Cough is a peculiar reaction of the body to irritation of nerve receptors, which can manifest itself when the cough center in the brain is irritated. The reason that caused this phenomenon can be partially diagnosed if you focus on the duration and nature of the release of air from the respiratory tract. This is a visual symptom, often indicative of a specific medical condition.
Experts distinguish the following types of cough:
- coughing - a reaction to short episodes of exposure to an irritating factor;
- dry (unproductive), in which sputum is not separated;
- wet (wet). accompanied by abundant secretion:
- laryngeal (barking), sometimes almost silent, characteristic of diseases of the larynx;
- spastic (obsessive unproductive), which increases with deep breathing;
- paroxysmal, when the baby undergoes an attack, from which it turns red, turns blue, and experiences gagging;
- whooping cough - strong, similar to paroxysmal, but without inhalation in the middle of an attack;
- psychogenic, manifested during anxiety, can begin as an attempt to attract the attention of adults;
- bitonal, with a high low sound, which can give both bronchitis and a foreign body.
By carefully listening to the child's cough, you can partially determine the problem that has arisen and decide what to do. In this case, the productivity of the separation of the secret is of great importance, how often it happens, what accompanying troubles are manifested in the process of the disease. Before going to the doctor, it is advisable to write down such information to make it easier to diagnose and prescribe treatment.
Possible causes of coughing
If the symptom of the disease has become permanent, treatment should be started immediately. Normally, a baby can cough if there are strong odors, with a temperature drop, in a stuffy and stale room. But such phenomena are spontaneous and explainable, and disappear as soon as the stimulus is eliminated, or habituation to it begins. If the cough is frequent, accompanied by snot and profuse phlegm, especially when it is accompanied by a fever, this is a serious cause for concern and it is time to treat it professionally. Although all other types can be no less dangerous:
- coughing - a result that gives a wet secret accumulated in the larynx with pharyngitis and bronchitis in the mild stage;
- dry stage - with a foreign body in the respiratory tract, early pneumonia, laryngitis and at the beginning of bronchitis;
- wet - the result of accumulated sputum in acute bronchitis, pneumonia, it can be provoked by abundant snot in ARVI, a severe cold, turning into another disease in a dangerous course;
- laryngeal appears when the larynx is affected, laryngitis and diphtheria are the most characteristic diseases, the treatment of which not only requires tremendous efforts, but also has an urgent need;
- bitonal causes foreign body or bronchitis;
- paroxysmal, especially appearing at night, most often indicates whooping cough;
- whooping cough is a characteristic sign of cystic fibrosis, but this is not the whole range of causes, it can also manifest itself with abundant viscous sputum entering the throat;
- spastic - a sign of obstructive diseases (obstructive bronchitis or bronchial asthma), and will increase with deep breathing in an attempt to breathe clean air;
- psychogenic requires other preventive measures and there are no medicines against it.
But even with such knowledge, especially if the baby is susceptible to coughing, one should not engage in diagnosing and prescribing therapeutic measures if the baby has been coughing for a long time (half a month, a month, or even more). Here, only a doctor can prescribe treatment.
Diagnostics of the provoking disease
A visit to a pediatrician is the only sure way to diagnose a disease. Only he will determine the true reason, using all the necessary tools and his knowledge for this. Putting together the nature of the attack, the behavior of the disease at night, the manifestation of signs in the morning, listening, if necessary, to the lung, taking anamnesis and analyzing previous illnesses, the doctor will be able to correctly determine the causes of the cough. Often, parents attribute any cough to a cold, trying to cure it with grandmother's tinctures or warming up. But if the cause of the disease lies elsewhere, you can only aggravate the situation or start the disease.
A pediatric general practitioner will tell you which doctor to contact if the child is already at the stage when a specialized specialist is required. After all, a cough can manifest itself as a result of allergies, worms or active inflammation. It is possible to unsuccessfully treat a cold, especially if a runny nose is present, and the real reason turns out to be completely different, and this can only be established after laboratory tests.
Treatment of cough taking into account the diagnosis
Treatment of a cough, which has acquired a protracted nature, is carried out in a complex method. Depending on the disease, any, night, day, or manifested in the morning, is treated with medication:
- antitussive drugs;
- antihistamines;
- immunostimulants;
- enveloping medicines;
- expectorant;
- mucolytic:
- drugs of general (combined or indirect) action.
If the cause is not a cold etiology, the baby or baby will take antiparasitic pills or antiallergens, no matter how old they are, whether they are a year old or older, they do not sleep at night or cough all day. In this case, one has to choose between unwillingness to give the child medicine and his health.
Preventive and preventive measures
As soon as the child has the first snot, which has begun to accompany a still very weak and light cough, it is necessary to start preventive methods of therapy. Use inhalations and herbs, folk methods, such as raspberries and milk with honey, you can even apply a compress or heating. If preventive measures have not worked, you should not feed the baby with improvised medicines, hoping to cope exclusively with folk methods. Treatment should be started from the very first day of the onset of the disease, but be guided by medical recommendations.
A mild cough, a symptom of a simple disease, can be cured quite simply. The more the process is started, the less natural forces there are to fight the disease in the child's body, and the more terrible and irreversible the consequences of parental inattention, negligence, or arrogance can be. Started on time, cough treatment will relieve many of the problems that will appear if you do not pay enough attention to it.
