What should I do if my baby has a bad cough? Take some medicine now! Don’t cough up a lung disease! However, cough is not a disease, and often the rush to take medicine is often counterproductive. So, what are the wrong ways to prevent and treat a baby’s cough? 1. “Take some medicine quickly, don’t cough up pneumonia!” Unreliable index: ★★★★★ Truth: Cough is not a disease, it is a concomitant symptom. In most cases, a baby’s cough is a good thing, indicating that his defenses are normal. There are many reasons for coughing, and coughing symptoms may occur in colds, laryngitis, pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis, bronchiectasis, etc. So, having pneumonia can cause a cough, but a cough is not likely to cough up pneumonia, so don’t get the cause and effect relationship backwards! 2. “You have to drink cough medicine, or you’ll be in trouble if you cough badly!” Unreliable index: ★★★★★ Truth: Coughing is a protective reflex mechanism of the body, through which coughing can expel pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses from the respiratory tract. Most coughs in small babies are coughs with phlegm. Because of their poor reflexes, phlegm is not easily coughed out, and if given a strong cough, it can lead to a large accumulation of phlegm in the respiratory tract, which can instead aggravate coughing symptoms and cause shortness of breath or even other complications in severe cases. When a baby has a cough with phlegm, the phlegm should be dissolved first, and the cough will naturally heal with less phlegm. 3. “Cough is inflammation, hurry up and take anti-inflammatory drugs!” Unreliable index: ★★★★☆ Truth: Most babies’ acute coughs are caused by colds and flu, with viral infections, and antibiotics are only effective for bacterial infections, but not for coughs caused by viral infections. If you give your baby antibiotics repeatedly for a long time, not only will it not stop the cough, but it will also produce drug resistance or cause allergies, which will bring more potential harm to your child’s body. In case of viral infections, let your baby drink more warm water or use phlegmolytic drugs to dilute the phlegm so that it can be easily expelled and not give bacteria a chance to multiply; if the cough is caused by allergies, you should stay away from allergens and use anti-allergy drugs so that the cough can be easily cured. 4, food therapy prescriptions: salt steamed oranges, pears boiled water, honey Unreliable index: ★★★☆☆☆☆ Truth: Food therapy prescriptions can be tried, but not completely dependent. There is no basis for whether “steamed oranges with salt” can cure cough, because salt and oranges put together without side effects, parents can try, but do not hold too much hope. Similarly, you can also give the baby who does not like to drink white water to drink some pear water (pear water is also a supplement, not added to the supplement baby can not drink), but the effect may not be as good as we think. A recent study reported that drinking 2-5ml of honey before bedtime for babies over 1 year old can effectively reduce the onset and severity of coughing at night and help with sleep (this method only applies to dry cough).