Cough is a common syndrome seen in children. Mostly, cough does not mean any casualty; instead, it indicates a rather healthy process, where it can protect the airways in the throat and chest. However, there are times when you need to be warranted, that we shall check now.
Before we analyze the cough in detail, let's just get familiar with the fact that cough is basically a result of virus attack. This understanding helps us to realize that antibiotics wouldn't come into rescue to treat it. Since it's a virus attack, it needs to run its course, normally two weeks time. Unless otherwise a casualty signals, doctors let it run its course with mild treatments.
In case of a physician, they usually decide on the type of cough by hearing the sound accompanying it. The same would be helpful for you also to inspect how severe your child's problem is. When we think of classifying the types, we may distinguish eight different kinds of cough types. We'll just see an over view to understand the subject matter.
Let's take the case of barky cough: as the name indicates, it produces huge sound (almost musical) while breathing, and may also result in breathing difficulty. The next, whooping cough, which would produce a whooping sound after back to back coughing without intervals to breath. This could be a severe condition for infants, who didn't get the pertussis vaccine, and this type is highly contagious.
Cough with wheezing (whistling) sound, which possibly suggests the presence of asthma or bronchiolitis, nonetheless this would also happen due to a block in lower airway. Next, night time cough, as the name suggests, it gets more sensitive at the night time, this one wouldn't be a trouble as long your kid's sleep doesn't get affected. Likewise, day time cough, which could be triggered off either by cold air or due to allergic conditions at home, like pets, cigarette smoke etc.
Now let's analyze the last three kinds, cough with fever, where fever with 102 degree Fahrenheit (39 degree Celsius) or higher accompanied with cough could alert a casualty of pneumonia, call your doctor immediately. Next, cough with vomiting, this is not dangerous unless it doesn't stop after a while or your child cough up blood, in such cases, you don't hesitate to ask your physician's help right away. The last case, persistent cough, caused by cold, last for a while, time to be warranted if it persists for more than 3 weeks.
Also, cough medicines help your child to get a sudden relief from the cough, but it doesn't treat the root cause of the problem. Usually, these medicines are not recommended for children less than 4 years. Side effects and a possible overdose threat could be the reason behind that.
Let's see few home remedies as well; exposure to steam is one of the natural and oldest methods to deal with cough, a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room would be largely appreciated. Juice would be good for them, but refrain from soda or orange juice. As long as the symptoms are mild, you can try these simple methods without calling your physician.
