Patient: Description of condition (time of onset, main symptoms, hospital visited, etc.): Hello, Dr. Sheng! My child started coughing and having a yellowish-white runny nose in mid-November. At first I thought it was caused by a cold, he has allergic rhinitis, and he took Huifenesin and Azithromycin without any significant improvement. My child has had itchy skin since he was a child and I only see him scratch it when he goes to sleep. The pediatrician said it was an allergic cough. In addition, the child sweats easily. Especially recently, he has not been feeling well, and when he walks outside for a while, his back gets sweaty. My son started sneezing continuously after waking up and having a clear nose in May 2010. In July, I took him to the pediatrician’s office, where he was examined for allergic rhinitis and woke up sneeze-free after 3 days of taking Keratan. I then stopped taking it. However, on the third day after stopping it, my son inexplicably started coughing, and the more he coughed, the worse it got, causing him to be unable to sleep properly at night. He went to the Red Cross Hospital and was advised to continue taking Capretan, plus Aesop (Johnson & Johnson’s cold medicine). At the end of October, he started to have a yellow nose and took some cold and cough medicine, but it didn’t work; one night at the beginning of November, he suddenly started to wheeze, and the next day he went to the Red Cross for nebulization twice, but he still had a runny cough. I went to see the pediatrician, and was prescribed Archie, Shunyerin, and later, I also started to take full of Diani (108 pieces of 10 capsules, imported from Japan) and nasal drops containing hormones. I feel more and more that Western doctors are so terrible, so small, so powerful Western medicine is also prescribed. I didn’t give it to my child, I had a skin test at the Red Cross and was prescribed amoxicillin and oral cough and asthma solution. On November 27th, I went to see a TCM practitioner who prescribed seven days of Chinese herbal medicine, which I have been taking for four days, but the effect is not very obvious. Basically, she doesn’t cough at night, but she still coughs occasionally during the day, and she still has clear snot. The child sweats a little at noon and at night when he first falls asleep, and the sweating subsides within an hour or so. In addition, the child always says that his arms and legs are itchy. This itchy symptom has always been there, but the child only says it when he is going to sleep, but not at other times. Allergens have been checked and the child is allergic to milk and lamb. The child has been drinking formula since he was a child, but now he has stopped drinking milk for two weeks. The Chinese herbal ingredients that she is currently taking are basically herbs to clear heat and detoxify the body, to remove phlegm and stop coughing, and to moisten the lungs. I think back to this summer, I have eaten a lot of cool foods, including mung beans, watermelon, cucumber and so on. Is it possible that the child’s constitution should be too cold? The pediatrician has also prescribed Chinese medicine for coughing and wheezing with lung heat, to no avail. Is it appropriate to take medicine to clear heat again? Sheng Lixian, Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Hello, thank you for your trust. According to your description, the child has been seen more often and taken more medications, whether it is appropriate to take medicine for clearing heat, we need to see the child before we can give a comprehensive answer. Patient: Thank you, Dr. Sheng. I found that my child can stabilize his condition by taking penicillin with Xanthemin. My child doesn’t cough at night, but he still coughs during the day. Last week, I started to take Chinese medicine and stopped all the western medicine. After taking seven patches, except for a slight relief of rhinitis, the cough has become strong again in the past two days and there is a lot of coughing at night. I had to put the western medicine back on. I would like to ask you if I should wait until the cough is completely gone before I use herbal medicine to regulate it, or is it okay once the symptoms are relieved? I am trying not to let my son take western medicine again. Sheng Lixian, Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Chinese medicine can be used in all aspects of cough treatment, and specific Chinese doctors will treat the child according to his or her condition. Therefore, it is necessary to consciously improve the child’s resistance to disease, and try not to use medicine for a slightly mild cold and cough, so that the child’s own immune system can be mobilized to defeat the disease, and the diet should be lighter and less than usual when sick.