Any cough for a child is a big problem and a reason to be seriously worried. When a child coughs for more than a month, nothing helps, the examinations do not bring results, and the next package of pills and medicines only strengthens the symptoms, the parents’s head is spinning.
What is a cough?
Cough is a kind of protective reaction of the body. It is necessary for every person who does not breathe in the cleanest urban air in order to cleanse his lungs of accumulated “dirt”.
When a person becomes ill, sputum forms in the nasopharynx, bronchi and even in the upper parts of the lungs. It is necessary in order to neutralize bacteria and viruses. The body needs to remove this mucus, for this there is a cough.
Types of cough
By duration, doctors share these types of cough:
- Acute. This type of dry cough usually stops after a few days. Instead, it appears moist, productive, with the discharge of sputum.
- A lingering cough lasts from two weeks to three months.
- Chronic is a type of cough that does not go away for more than three months.
As you might guess, this is not so uncommon when a child coughs for more than a month. Nothing helps - the situation is not out of the ordinary either. We will understand what can cause a protracted and chronic cough and how to treat it.
Why the cough does not go away for a long time
Very often, parents cannot understand why the child coughs for so long. What can not be done and what are the main mistakes in treatment that can cause unpleasant symptoms of the disease to persist for a long time:
- The use of expectorants for the treatment of wet cough (very often on the advice of a pharmacist in a pharmacy or girlfriend). Such a mistake in the choice of the drug causes excessive sputum formation in the lungs, which the body does not have time to get rid of, and the child coughs without stopping. By the way, there is no evidence of greater effectiveness of such products compared with heavy drinking and washing the nose.
- Too dry and warm air in the room. This seemingly trifle can serve poorly in the treatment of any infection.
- The use of cough suppressants without acute indications. It is especially dangerous to take such drugs with a wet cough, because the body needs to get rid of the formed sputum.
- Warming up, hot inhalation, grinding (especially during the acute period of the disease) should not be done. First, no doctor will advise overheating a child who already has a fever. Secondly, even if the temperature has long passed, the effectiveness of this method of treatment raises many doubts. Instead of such procedures, doctors recommend using a nebulizer.
The child coughs for a month. Komarovsky is responsible
The doctor claims that the main treatment for cough with ARVI should be a plentiful drink at room temperature, airing, humidification and walking.
If a child coughs for a month without fever, this is most likely the fault of the parents, who began, for example, to give mucolytics. Komarovsky always pays special attention to the fact that drugs are not more effective than a normal climate and frequent drinking. For children under two or three years old, according to Oleg Evgenievich, giving such funds is simply dangerous.
The doctor considers this kind of cough to be “normal”: a dry, sharp cough, turning over in a couple of days into a wet cough with sputum, which gradually disappears (in a maximum of three weeks). If after a viral infection the child coughs without stopping, and against this background the temperature rises again, urgent medical advice is necessary. Komarovsky recalls that such symptoms may be characteristic of a bacterial complication of ARVI.
Whooping cough
Whooping cough is a dangerous infectious disease, which in unvaccinated children in the early stages is manifested as follows:
- Increased to 37-37.5 degrees temperature.
- Dry, infrequent cough.
- Weakness.
- Mucous discharge from the nose.
After about the second week of the disease, spasmodic attacks intensify, the child coughs at night during sleep and during the day. Attacks can be of such force that they will be accompanied by vomiting. Cough during whooping cough can last up to three months. Treatment should take place in a hospital with the mandatory use of antibiotics.
In vaccinated children, pertussis most often passes in a very mild or worn-out form. A cough can only be distinguished by the fact that most of all the child coughs at night, which prevents him from sleeping. By the end of the second week, the cough intensifies, and then gradually disappears in about a month without treatment.
Allergic cough
If a child coughs for more than a month, nothing helps, and does not get better, it is worth considering whether an allergic reaction causes an attack. Typical signs of coughing with allergies:
- It starts abruptly and has a paroxysmal character.
- An allergic cough is always dry and often accompanied by rhinitis (runny nose).
- The attack can last a very long time - up to several hours.
- Coughing does not bring relief.
- Sputum, if it is secreted, is transparent, without impurities of green or red color.
- Itching or sneezing may be present.
If your child is coughing, you should find out the reasons as soon as possible. An allergic cough without timely treatment can cause asthma or bronchitis. And this is already fraught with serious consequences.
Bronchitis
Bronchitis is an inflammation of the mucous membranes of the bronchi. This is a fairly serious disease, which today with timely and proper treatment is quite successfully and without consequences can be cured.
Cough with bronchitis in a child has a number of differences:
- Strong wet cough with sputum.
- A sharp rise in temperature.
- Weakness.
- Wheezing wheezing.
- The presence of wet wheezing in the lungs with a characteristic gurgle, which can often be heard without a phonendoscope.
- Hard breathing.
The maximum duration of cough with bronchitis is two weeks. In other cases, we can talk about complications or that the bronchi did not recover after the disease, and physiotherapy is required.
Neurological cough
Very often, pediatricians forget about such a common cause of coughing as neurological problems. Sometimes mothers complain that the baby coughs for more than a month, nothing helps. All medicines have already been tried, tests have been taken not once, doctors began to go around in the third round, but there is no result. The cause of the cough may not be a physiological, but a psychological reason.
Here is a list of symptoms of neurotic cough:
- Intrusive dry cough.
- The absence of signs of SARS.
- The baby coughs only during the day.
- Attacks intensify in the evening (from accumulated fatigue).
- No deterioration or improvement over time.
- Medications do not help.
- There may be a lack of air during coughing.
- It always appears at the time of stress.
- It is often loud, as if special.
During the diagnosis of such a psychogenic disease, a full examination by a pulmonologist, otolaryngologist, allergist, neuropathologist and psychotherapist is necessary. It is important to exclude all possible common causes of cough (including bronchial asthma and tuberculosis), since psychogenic cough lasting more than three months is detected only in ten percent of all cases.
The child coughs. What to do?
So, the child has the classic symptoms of SARS:
- the temperature has risen;
- weakness appeared;
- tormented by a runny nose;
- tickle in the throat;
- dry cough worries.
It makes sense to call a doctor and be treated for several days at home without pills: drink more water for the child, feed less, ventilate and moisten the room. In 90% of cases, a dry cough will pass in a day or two, and it will appear moist, with sputum. The temperature will begin to decline, and all symptoms of SARS will gradually disappear. By the way, do not rush to immediately take the child to kindergarten or school, give the body an opportunity to recover properly.
If you observe unusual symptoms in your baby, this is a sign of urgent medical attention:
- cough without fever;
- lack of a cold;
- pain behind the sternum;
- an admixture in sputum (blood, pus);
- worsening after a clear improvement in SARS;
- the temperature does not get off (neither "Paracetamol" nor "Ibuprofen");
- pale skin color;
- dyspnea;
- sharp barking cough without stopping;
- suspicion of a foreign object in the airways;
- night attacks of coughing;
- inability to take a deep breath;
- wheezing
- cough lasts more than three weeks.
A pediatrician examination is necessary for any illness of the child. But if you have found at least one of the above symptoms in your baby, you should contact your doctor as soon as possible (depending on your condition, you may even need to call an ambulance).
A doctor for the accurate diagnosis of the disease may recommend taking one or more tests:
- Clinical analysis of blood and urine to identify the nature of the disease (bacterium or virus).
- A sputum examination is prescribed by an ENT doctor, if necessary (microbiological examination).
- X-ray of the chest - in the presence of wheezing.
- An allergic test or analysis of the level of immunoglobulins in the blood (determines the presence of an allergic cause of cough).
- A blood test for whooping cough (bacterial culture or antibody detection).
There can be only one conclusion: cough cannot be treated without a doctor. Self-medication is dangerous and can lead to chronic diseases.