Decoding your baby's cough: Causes, symptoms and treatments

The baby's cough, such as a dry cough, cough with sputum, a cough with a runny nose and a lot of vomiting, coughing for many days, and coughing at night, is always what makes mothers so worried. In order to 'decode' the cause of a baby's cough and complete treatment, the doctor at Vinmec shared the following information.

1. The cause of your baby's cough

Coughs are often a sign of a child's body responding to external environmental factors, limiting the penetration of foreign bodies or participating in the excretion of secretions. Common causes of coughing include:

Causes from the baby's upper respiratory tract

Common medical conditions: Colds, rhinitis, sore throat, sinusitis, tonsillitis are often dry cough, or coughing can be caused by a discharge from the sinuses or posterior nose.

Causes from the baby's lower respiratory tract

Possible causes: Laryngitis with hoarseness, resounding cough, rash, bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, asthma often coughing up.

Other causes

Other common causes such as cough due to gastroesophageal reflux disease, cough due to allergy, cough due to physical and chemical agents such as passive smoking .

There are many causes for children to cough.

2. Differentiate common coughs from babies

He has a dry cough, cough with sputum, cough at night. The baby has a cough depending on the case and the causes and ways of treatment will be different. The following are the most common types of cough in children.

Coughing coughs

The cause of a child's dry cough is caused by infections of the upper respiratory tract (the nose and throat area) such as colds and flu. In addition, dry cough can also be an early sign of lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Other causes include: Regular exposure to cigarette smoke from adults.

Coughing up phlegm

This type of cough is caused by your baby's lower respiratory tract mucus. Common causes of cough with phlegm are bronchitis, bronchiolitis and asthma. Thereby, the cough will remove fluid (phlegm) through the lower respiratory tract.

Children with pertussis

The symptoms of pertussis are similar to colds, but the coughs get worse and worse, especially at night. When the baby coughs, the sound sounds like hissing sounds. Whooping coughs cause shortness of breath and the baby's face becomes purple because of lack of oxygen.

3. How to treat your child's cough properly?

Should parents buy their own cough medicine?

When your child has a cough, parents should consult their doctor before giving any medicine to their baby. In fact, most doctors do not encourage parents to arbitrarily give their children medicine. Especially now, the situation of antibiotic resistance is increasing rapidly. As recommended by the American Society of Pediatrics (AAP), parents should not arbitrarily use the drug for children under 4 years of age, even for children aged 4 to 6 years should also use the drug as directed by the doctor.

When the baby is 6 years old, parents can go to the pharmacy to buy cough medicine for the baby, however, it should be used according to the instructions of the pharmacist standing at the counter, noting the appropriate dose of the drug for the child's age. Children should not use more than 2 drugs at the same time, because in each drug there are often many different active ingredients and it is likely that you will accidentally give your child an active ingredient over dosage, easily leads to unwanted effects.

In what circumstances should a child be taken to a doctor immediately?

It is not always necessary to have a special medical examination by a doctor. Most symptoms will go away on their own.

It is not always necessary to have a special medical examination by a doctor.

Your baby's cough when you need to see a doctor? However, you need to call an ambulance or take your child to a doctor immediately for a cough with one of the following signs:

1. The baby has pale lips and lips.
2. Baby breathing tired, exhausted breathing.
3. Baby stopped breathing.

For the following symptoms, the child should be taken to the doctor as soon as possible:

1. Feeling uncomfortable when breathing or talking
2. Cough with vomiting.
3. Purple face or skin when coughing
4. Drooling or difficulty swallowing
5. Looks very weak or tired
6. The baby itself or the parents feel that the object is stuck in the throat
7. Chest pain when breathing deeply
8. Ho and wheezing
9. Children under 4 months of age have rectal temperatures above 39 ° C (Do not give antipyretics to children)
10. Baby has a high fever of 40 ° C, does not improve within two hours after using fever-reducing medicine.
11. Babies breastfeed or suckle.

What to do when your baby coughs?

So, what should parents do about their baby's cough? Parents can take care of the baby as follows:

1. Let your baby have more rest time. Enhance your baby's resistance to breast milk or formula. In addition, need more water and electrolytes;
2. Sauna can help relieve coughing for babies. Parents should sit with the baby in the bathroom, using warm or hot steam. Warm air and heat from the water will help relax your baby's airways. Care should be taken to avoid burns;
3. If your baby is more than 1 year old, you can make your baby a glass of warm water with honey and lemon. Note that this should not apply to children under 1 year of age, because incomplete systems may increase the risk of honey food poisoning.

4. What should be noted about your baby's cough?

1. Lozenges and some medicines can reduce sore throat by coughing. Note that you should not arbitrarily take medicine for children under 4 years old.
2. Some cough and non-prescription cold medicines may not be suitable for babies and young children under 6 years of age because of the risk of adverse reactions.
3. Cough medication should be used as directed by your doctor.
4. The diet of children needs to limit the following foods: chocolate, peppermint, fatty and spicy fatty foods, stimulants and carbonated drinks.
5. Break up your meal and feed your child at least two hours before bedtime. If your baby's cough continues to be relieved, you need to take your baby to the doctor for accurate diagnosis and timely treatment.

Your baby's cough is a common symptom in children. However, once you find out the reasons for your baby's cough, specific symptoms of cough, it will be easier for parents to determine the direction, to be able to see a specialist and thing. The most appropriate treatment for your child.