1. What is allergic cough? Allergic cough belongs to the category of chronic, recurrent cough in children. Broadly speaking, allergic cough can also include cough variant asthma and is the most common cause of cough in children. Allergic cough is not a diagnostic name for the disease and may be diagnosed in medical diagnostic terms as: upper airway cough syndrome, respiratory tract infection (including bronchitis, bronchial, etc.), or peribronchitis. In addition, allergic cough may be associated with other related diseases or symptoms, such as allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, adenoid hypertrophy, postnasal drip syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux, etc. 2. How does allergic cough occur? Allergic cough may appear to be a symptom of a respiratory specialty, but its causes are related to systemic physical and psychological factors, including various infections (especially respiratory hyperreactivity), air or dietary allergens, and allergic constitution. Persistent cough is also often causally linked to the child’s living environment and psychological factors. 3. Can allergic cough be cured? Can the root cause be “removed”? Most children diagnosed with allergic cough in the outpatient clinic can be completely cured. However, children with a genetic predisposition or significant allergies can develop asthma or cough variant asthma. Even in children with asthma, experience has shown that more than 2/3 of children with asthma can be cured. However, a cure does not mean that the cough is “cured” or that the cough will not occur again, just as it does after a cold has been cured. This is because there are many factors and triggers that can cause a cough in everyday life. 4. What are the symptoms and characteristics of allergic cough? How do I describe my condition to the doctor during the consultation? The performance and severity of allergic cough may vary greatly from child to child, but it is often a “cough that stops when you say it does”; it is more common in the morning, at bedtime, or after activity, and may be accompanied by runny nose, sneezing, no fever, and ineffective antibiotic treatment. Parents should take the initiative to provide information about the nature, time, season, and environment of their child’s cough when they bring him/her to the clinic. For example, the frequency of coughing since entering kindergarten; the type and number of days of antibiotics applied and the efficacy of various treatments; the environment in the home (including various indoor appliances, pets, flowers and birds, etc.), as well as the child’s emotions, diet and living habits. It is also important to provide recent changes in the condition and possible triggers for this visit. 5. What are the current misconceptions in the treatment of cough? Rely only on laboratory tests. For example, antibiotics are given on the basis of high or low white blood cells, whether the allergen is positive or not, or on the basis of a coarse X-ray lung texture with little shadowing, and one-sided requirements for complete anti-inflammation. Failure to systematically adhere to treatment (allergic cough usually requires 1 month to 3 months of systematic treatment). The perception that treatment stops as soon as the cough is gone and that parents are afraid of side effects from long-term medication is another tendency misconception. Parents are overly anxious about their children’s coughs and are overly worried about “developing asthma for life”, which in turn causes excessive psychological stress. In short, it’s as simple as that! Most children with allergic coughs can be cured as long as parents have the right attitude and insist on treatment. Instead of looking for a specific medication, think about how to use less medication and avoid over-visiting and over-medicating.