Western medicine does not consider coughing to be a disease, but a symptom that can occur in many diseases. A baby’s cough is an organismic defense reflex to expel respiratory secretions or foreign bodies. In other words, coughing is a protective physiological phenomenon in babies. However, if the cough is too violent and interferes with eating, sleeping and resting, it loses its protective significance. Therefore, it is important to identify the cause of the cough and then treat it symptomatically. You should never assume that a cough is a cold or pneumonia and make a blind treatment as soon as you hear it.
1. Cough caused by the common cold
Characteristics: It is mostly an irritating cough, as if the throat is itchy, without phlegm; it does not distinguish between day and night and is not accompanied by shortness of breath or shortness of breath.
Symptoms: baby is drowsy, runny nose, sometimes can be accompanied by fever, body temperature does not exceed 38℃; poor spirit, loss of appetite, after sweating to reduce fever, symptoms disappear, cough still lasts 3 to 5 days.
Causes: It is prevalent in all seasons and is common when there is a big change in temperature. It is usually experienced with cold, such as sleeping with a blanket at night, wearing too little clothes, and getting cold in the bath.
Doctor’s advice: generally no special treatment is needed, feed your baby more warm boiled water, ginger water or onion water. Use cold medicine as little as possible. When the baby is irritable and feverish, give a little pediatric Xin orally; do not use adult antipyretics, do not feed cough syrup, cough tablets and other cough medicines, and do not abuse antibiotics.
2. Cold air irritating cough
Characteristics: The cough is initially an irritating dry cough.
Symptoms: Light sputum, no fever, no shortness of breath and other accompanying symptoms.
Causes: Cold air is a purely physical factor that stimulates the respiratory mucosa causing an irritating cough. It occurs in babies with little outdoor activity. When babies suddenly go out and inhale cold air, the delicate respiratory mucosa becomes congested, edematous, exudative, and other inflammation-like reactions, thus inducing a cough reflex. Initially, there is no microbial infection, but when it persists for a long time, a viral bacterial infection can develop secondary to it.
Advice: Let your baby be exercised from an early age with temperature changes. Take your baby outdoors often, even during the cold season, and insist that only an exercised respiratory tract is able to withstand cold air stimulation.
3. Flu-induced cough
Characteristics: A slightly hoarse cough emitted from the throat, with a tendency to get progressively worse and sputum ranging from little to a lot.
Symptoms: accompanied by obvious click symptoms (tears, snot, increased respiratory secretions), often accompanied by high fever above 38℃, generally not easy to reduce the fever, the time lasts for a week; cough with shortness of breath during high fever, the baby is poor in spirit.
Causes: caused by viral infection, mostly in winter and spring flu epidemic season, often with clusters.
Opinions: Suspected of influenza, should immediately seek medical attention, clear diagnosis and treatment under the guidance of a doctor.
4. Cough caused by pharyngitis
Characteristics: Coughing with a “hollow, hollow” sound.
Symptoms: hoarse voice, pus phlegm, little coughing up, mostly swallowed. Larger babies will complain of sore throat; babies who cannot express themselves often show irritability and refusal to feed.
Cause: Cough is mostly stimulated by inflammatory secretions and often caused by cold.
Suggestions: Seek medical attention promptly and treat the symptoms after a clear diagnosis.
5. Allergic cough
Characteristics: Persistent or repeated episodes of severe coughing, mostly in paroxysmal episodes, aggravated by the baby’s activity or crying, and more severe at night than during the day.
Symptoms: thin sputum and shortness of breath.
Causes: Caused by antigenic or non-antigenic stimuli, more often during pollen season.
Advice: For babies with a family history of asthma and other allergic diseases, coughing should be given extra attention, early medical consultation, clear diagnosis and active treatment to stop the development of asthma.
6. Tracheomalacia cough
Characteristics: Mild dry cough in the early stage, later turns into wet cough with phlegm sound or coughing up yellow pus sputum.
Symptoms: Early symptoms of cold, such as fever, sneezing, runny nose and throat discomfort.
Causes: It is mostly seen in older babies and is mainly caused by respiratory tract infections.
Opinion: cold medicine is available when the symptoms of cold are obvious at the beginning, fever can be used as antipyretic, expectorant, and cough medicine is not suitable. Sputum or purulent sputum indicates secondary bacterial infection and should be treated with appropriate antibiotics according to the doctor’s opinion. If not effectively controlled, it may develop into pneumonia.
7. Fine bronchitis cough
Characteristics: An irritating dry cough that can cough up more sputum.
Symptoms: Cough with fever, shortness of breath and wheezing.
Causes: Inflammation caused by viruses invading the mucous membrane of the fine bronchi, most common in babies within 6 months of age.
Advice: If your baby has difficulty breathing or is unable to eat or drink, you should seek medical attention. If the symptoms are mild (just shortness of breath without symptoms such as dyspnea), you can put a humidifier in your baby’s room to help get rid of the mucus in the lungs and give your baby enough water to drink.
Coughs caused by other diseases :.
8. Whooping cough
Coughing characteristics: coughing is light day and heavy night, and you can’t breathe after coughing for a dozen times, with an inspiratory chicken sound at the end of the cough
Accompanying symptoms: sneezing, low fever, coughing up large amounts of sticky sputum
9.Reflux esophagitis
Cough characteristics: wheezing and persistent hoarse cough after eating
Accompanying symptoms: burning sensation when swallowing food, or vomiting or jet vomiting symptoms
10. Foreign body aspiration
Coughing characteristics: sudden choking and coughing while playing or eating
Accompanying symptoms: difficulty inhaling, blue lips and mouth
11.Pneumonia
Cough characteristics: irritating dry cough with sputum
Accompanying symptoms: fever, shortness of breath, nasal flapping
12.Pulmonary tuberculosis
Cough characteristics: repeated dry cough
Accompanying symptoms: wasting, night sweats, low fever in the afternoon
13. Righteous membranous laryngitis
Cough characteristics: strong dry cough, similar to a seal’s roar
Accompanying symptoms: light day and heavy night, with low-grade fever
Home relief program: 1.
1. Elevate baby’s head at night
If your baby keeps coughing while sleeping, elevate his or her head and the coughing symptoms will be relieved. Elevating the head is helpful for most coughs caused by infections, because when lying down, nasal secretions can easily flow down the baby’s throat, causing a scratchy throat and making the cough worse at night. It is also necessary to change the sleeping position frequently, preferably to sleep on the left and right side in rotation, which is conducive to the discharge of respiratory secretions.
Do not lie down to sleep immediately after feeding a coughing baby to prevent coughing from causing spitting up and mis-aspiration. In case of choking by accidental inhalation, immediately take the head-low-foot-high position, pat the back and encourage the baby to cough up the inhalation through coughing.
2.Water steam method to stop coughing
Coughing babies will be relieved in an environment where the room temperature is about 20°C and the humidity is about 60-65%. If your baby has a severe cough, let your baby inhale the steam; or hold your baby in a bathroom full of steam for 5 minutes, the moist air will help your baby clear the mucus from the lungs and calm the cough.
3.Hot water bag on the back to stop coughing
Hot water bag filled with about 40 ℃ hot water, wrapped with a thin towel outside, and then put on the baby’s back near the location of the lungs, which can accelerate the cold, can quickly stop the cough. This method is especially effective for cough symptoms that appear early in the cold and flu.
Put on a few pieces of underwear for your baby and then apply it, and don’t burn your baby.
4. Hot drinks to stop coughing method
Drinking more warm drinks can make the baby’s mucous phlegm become thin, relieve the tension in the respiratory mucosa and promote coughing up phlegm. It is best to let the baby drink warm water or warm milk, rice soup, etc., can also give the baby to drink fresh fruit juice, juice should choose less irritating apple juice and pear juice, etc., should not drink orange juice, grapefruit juice and other citrus juice.