If your child cough lasts more than three weeks, then this cough is called chronic. This is not a specific disease, but a signal that there have been any violations. The problem of chronic coughing is common. The most common causes of chronic cough are sinusitis, asthma, bronchitis. Chronic cough can cause other diseases. For example, such as tuberculosis, lung or bronchial diseases, pleurisy, side effects of drugs, heart failure. Sometimes it happens that in small children, cough is caused by foreign bodies in the lungs. Therefore, with prolonged cough, you should consult a doctor to determine the cause and purpose of treatment. It is also necessary to undergo a medical examination if there is a pain in coughing in the chest area, a high temperature (above 38.5 ° C) holds for a long time, or is released when the sputum is sputtered greenish with spotting.
To let the disease causing a cough, in any case not, it needs to be treated. And, as a rule, the treatment is aimed at identifying and eliminating the cause of cough.
First, a patient with a chronic cough gets an X-ray or a CT scan of the chest. The further actions already depend on the results. In particular, with signs of the presence of an alien body, bronchoscopy is prescribed, and with the possibility of tuberculosis, microscopy and sputum culture are prescribed. If no changes are detected on the X-ray, then an external respiration function is performed with tests with beta-2 agonists to exclude bronchial asthma. For the study of reflux disease, esophagogastroscopy and pH monitoring of the esophagus are used. If there is a possibility of postnatal perforation, then do x-ray or computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses.
Cough is "dry" and "wet". With a dry cough, there is no excretion of phlegm, and when "wet" there is. Antitussives are usually used when the symptom of a cough is difficult to cure. And expectorants help to thin the sputum and it is better separated, releasing the bronchi. Therefore, with a "dry" cough it is necessary to achieve that the cough passed into the "wet".
In practice, the positive result of antitussive drugs is small, but side effects are frequent. They help to calm a couple's inhalation cough, warm compresses, menthol, but unfortunately, the positive effect of such treatment lasts a short time. Combating cough can be not only medicamentous means, but also with the help of medicinal herbs or homeopathy.
At home, you can help your child reduce coughing attacks if you make a glass of poppy milk and give it a sip. To make a drink you need to grind a mortar 1 or 2 teaspoons of poppy, moistened with hot water and pour half a cup of boiling water. After the milk of poppy is infused, it can be drunk after percolation.
Or you can prepare a "traditional" gogol-mogol. To do this, the raw egg yolks are ground with sugar until their color turns white. The mixture becomes larger in volume by about 2-3 times. Use it on an empty stomach.
To lovers of folk methods of treatment, one should not forget that for a child the dosage should be reduced in half. Usually when coughing it is recommended to drink decoctions of medicinal plants, such as mother-and-stepmothers, wormwood, eucalyptus, ledum, viburnum, althea root and licorice. In pharmacies, you can buy ready-made pork collections, consisting of several types of plants. A strong remedy is the juice of black radish with honey, and children drink it with pleasure. For preparation, a black radish is taken , the top is cut off and the pit is cut inside. In the hole put a small amount of honey. The radish itself should be put in a glass of water. In a few hours, the juice will start to be allocated, which must be drunk. You can offer the child a delicious and healthy juice of carrots with honey, which is drunk on a tablespoon 4-5 times a day.
Here is another ancient folk recipe. The fig is cooked in milk (about 2-3 pieces for one glass of milk). They drink the broth warm before bedtime. But infusion from the leaves of figs can be taken with bronchial asthma. It helps to sputum massage of the chest.
When coughing, you should be careful diet. From the diet to exclude spicy food, sweet drinks, coffee and sweets. It is useful to include in the food liquid gruel porridge boiled in milk, mashed potatoes with the addition of milk, radish salad dressed with unrefined butter and sour cream. Grapes help healing of lungs and expectoration of sputum. Give more liquid (warm milk, cream or herbal teas) to the baby, as it allows you to better dilute sputum and helps to remove it.
And try to often ventilate the room in which there is a sick child. Now you know how to cure chronic cough in children.
Get well soon!