Cough is one of the most common health problems in children. Long-term cough of babies will not only affect eating and sleeping, but also affect the growth and development of babies, making parents feel distressed and anxious.
Why does the baby have chronic cough? How to nurse the baby at ordinary times to make it more comfortable?
Today, Ding Ma and her parents will learn how to deal with chronic cough.
Is what a chronic cough?
In 2013, < Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Cough in Chinese Children > > defined chronic cough as follows: cough is the only clinical manifestation, cough lasts for more than 4 weeks, and no obvious abnormality is found on chest X-ray.
Parents should not only understand the above standards, but also pay attention to the sputum situation of their children.
Cough is generally divided into [dry cough] without phlegm and [wet cough] with phlegm. It is often difficult for younger children to observe the sputum coughed up, but it is not that the baby cannot coughed up phlegm, but that they swallow the sputum coughed up.
Usually there is no need to worry about sputum being swallowed. Most sputum is some discarded tissues and a small amount of bacteria. Most bacteria are also destroyed by gastric acid when passing through the stomach.
Although there is no need to worry about swallowing sputum, parents still need to carefully observe whether the baby swallows after coughing, so as to provide more clues to the doctor when seeing a doctor.
Which diseases may cause chronic cough?
Chronic cough is mainly related to allergic constitution, infection and anatomical abnormalities.
Among the diseases that lead to chronic cough, four are the most common:
1. Variant asthma:
- Cough lasts for more than 4 weeks and is usually dry, often occurring at night or in the morning. Cough will worsen after exercise or cold air. Have a history of allergic diseases.
2. Upper airway cough syndrome:
- Cough for more than 4 weeks, accompanied by white foam sputum or yellow-green purulent sputum; Cough is more obvious when getting up in the morning or changing body position (e.g. From lying flat to sitting), as well as nasal obstruction, runny nose, dry throat, foreign body sensation and repeated pharynx clearing.
3. Cough after respiratory tract infection:
- Recently, there is a definite history of respiratory tract infection. Cough for more than 4 weeks, irritant dry cough or accompanied by white viscous sputum; The cough may get better by itself.
4. Gastroesophageal reflux cough:
- Paroxysmal cough usually occurs at night. Cough may worsen after eating.
What symptoms should parents pay attention to?
In order to help doctors diagnose diseases quickly, as parents, they should also pay attention to these manifestations of their children in daily life:
- Pay attention to the time when cough occurs, such as more in the morning or more at night. Pay attention to cough when body position changes, for example, is it especially easy to cough before and after lying down to standing up? Does cough worsen after exercise or cold air? Do you often have a cough that clears your throat? Has the number of coughs changed after eating liquid food? Has the cough changed when the child is focused? Have both parents had any allergy to food, drugs or pollen?
However, parents need not worry too much about not remembering these manifestations. When seeing a doctor, the doctor will ask questions and only need to answer truthfully.
How should parents deal with a child’s cough?
When the baby is ill, many parents may behave helplessly and may complain about others, hoping that all the diseases of the baby will be suffered by themselves. However, these will not bring any benefits to the baby’s recovery.
So, what can parents do about what?
First, the most reliable method is that when the child coughs and the situation does not improve or even worsen, he should go to the Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine instead of waiting until 4 weeks later.
Second, take the initiative to learn popular science knowledge of children’s cough.
Many parents’ fear and anxiety are due to lack of relevant knowledge. Parents should learn to find reliable sources of information, such as using Clove Doctor APP. In particular, some parents find it more convenient to search for encyclopedia questions and answers on the Internet, but the sources of such information are not necessarily reliable, and parents should not blindly believe it.
Third, parents should realize that every time a doctor is changed, doctors should start to understand the diagnosis and treatment history of cough again.
In the process of dealing with cough for a long time, parents tend to show distrust of the first doctor. Often, if the cough problem cannot be solved for one week, several doctors have been replaced.
Frequent change of receiving doctors or hospitals means that many examinations need to be repeated and doctors’ diagnosis and treatment thinking needs to be reestablished, which is not good for babies or parents.
How to Care for Chronic Cough at Home?
Although cough is a symptom, there are dozens of diseases that can cause this symptom. There are different ways to deal with different diseases.
In addition to seeing a doctor in time, parents at home can take care of them in this way:
1. Improve baby’s immunity
Washing hands is the simplest way to improve children’s immunity. Both parents and children should wash their hands frequently.
It is also a reliable method to bring your own tableware and hand-washing-free disinfectant when you go out. Avoid going to places where people are concentrated and wear masks and other self-protection measures are reliable methods.
Step 2 Identify allergens
For children with allergic constitution, it is the most important thing to define allergens and avoid contact with allergens. Open windows and ventilate in the home room every day, remove mites in the bedroom, dry sheets frequently, and disinfect ultraviolet rays in the home air can reduce dust, mites, bacteria and viruses in the indoor air.
If parents or other family members smoke, it is necessary to ban smoking indoors. If they can quit smoking, it is better for their children and themselves. Children with allergic constitution can keep some antiallergic drugs at home, such as loratadine.
Step 3 Use a home nasal washer
For children suffering from sinusitis and postnasal drip syndrome, family nasal washing devices can be used to master the correct nasal washing methods and frequently clean the nasal cavity, which can relieve cough symptoms to a great extent.
4. Home atomization is important
For children with cough variant asthma, home atomizer is also a good home care method. Especially for children with occasional dry cough and irritant dry cough, normal saline atomization is often used to humidify the airway.
Through atomization, drugs and water can be atomized into small molecules. In addition to convenience and ease of operation, it has the following advantages:
- Directly acting on respiratory tract, taking effect quickly, drugs do not enter blood, and do not increase the burden of liver and kidney drug metabolism; Water mist can dilute sputum and help children cough up sputum. Can reduce the dose of oral drugs at the same time.
Chronic cough is not terrible. We should listen to doctors’ opinions and do a good job in family care so that every baby can get rid of the suffering of diseases and grow up healthily.
Responsible Editor: Jing Liu
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