The child has been coughing for more than a month, nothing helps - what to do? Causes of a cough in a child

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Any child's cough for a parent is a big problem and cause for serious concern. When a child has been coughing for more than a month, nothing helps, examinations do not bring results, and the next package of pills and potions only exacerbates the symptoms, the parents' head is spinning.

What is a cough

Cough is a kind of protective reaction of the body. It is necessary for every person who breathes not the cleanest city air in order to cleanse the lungs of the accumulated "dirt".

When a person gets sick, phlegm forms in the nasopharynx, bronchi, and even in the upper 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 divide the following types of cough:

• Spicy. This type of dry cough usually stops after a few days. Instead, it appears wet, productive, with sputum discharge.
• Persistent cough lasts 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, it's not uncommon for a baby to cough for more than a month. Nothing helps - also not an out of the ordinary situation. Let's figure out what can cause a prolonged and chronic cough and how to treat it.

Why does the cough last long

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, due to which the unpleasant symptoms of the disease may not go away for a long time:

Using expectorants to treat a wet cough (very often on the advice of a pharmacist or a friend). Such an error in the choice of the drug causes excessive sputum production 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 that such remedies are more effective than drinking plenty of water and washing the nose

• Too dry and warm indoor air. Such a seemingly trifle can do a disservice in the treatment of any infection.
• Using 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 resulting sputum.
• Warming up, hot inhalations, rubbing (especially during the acute period of illness) should not be done. First, nonethe doctor will not advise overheating a child who already has a temperature. Secondly, even if the temperature has long passed, the effectiveness of this treatment method raises many doubts. Instead of such procedures, doctors recommend using a nebulizer.

The child coughs for a month. Komarovsky answers

The doctor claims that the main treatment for coughing with SARS should be drinking plenty of water at room temperature, airing, humidifying the air and walking.

If a child coughs for a month without a fever, this is most likely the fault of the parents, who, for example, began to give mucolytics. Komarovsky always pays special attention to the fact that drugs are no more effective than a normal climate and frequent drinking. According to Oleg Evgenievich, it is simply dangerous to give such funds to children under two or three years old.

"Normal" the doctor considers this type of cough: a dry, acute cough, turning into a wet one with sputum in a couple of days, which gradually disappears (maximum in three weeks). If, after a viral infection, the child coughs without stopping, and against this background the temperature rises again, an urgent consultation with a doctor is necessary. Komarovsky recalls that such symptoms may be characteristic of a bacterial complication of SARS.

Whooping cough

Whooping cough is a dangerous infectious disease that in unvaccinated children in the early stages manifests itself as follows:

• Temperature increased to 37-37.5 degrees.
• Dry infrequent cough.
• Weakness.
• Mucus discharge from the nose.

After about the second week of illness, spasmodic attacks intensify, the child coughs at night during sleep and during the day. Attacks can be so strong 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, whooping cough most often goes away in a very mild or erased form. Cough can only distinguish it 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 gets worse, and then gradually disappears without treatment in about a month.

Allergic cough

If a child has been coughing for more than a month, nothing helps, and does not get better, it is worth considering whether an allergic reaction is causing the attacks. Typical symptoms of an allergy cough:

• Starts abruptly and is paroxysmal.
• Allergic cough is always dry and often accompanied by rhinitis (runny nose).
• An attack can last a very long time - up to several hours.
• Cough brings no 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, find out why as soon as possible. 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 rather serious disease, which today, with timely and proper treatment, can be cured quite successfully and without consequences.

Cough with bronchitis in a child has a number of differences:

• Violent, wet cough with phlegm.
• Sudden rise in temperature.
• Weakness.
• Whistling pulmonary rales.
• Presence of moist rales in the lungs with characteristic gurgling, which can often be heard without a phonendoscope.
• Harsh breathing.

The maximum duration of a cough with bronchitis is two weeks. In other cases, we can talk about complications or that the bronchi have not recovered from the disease, and physiotherapy is required.

Neurological cough

Very often, pediatricians forget about such a common cause of cough as neurological problems. Sometimes mothers complain that the child has been coughing for more than a month, nothing helps. All medicines have already been tried, tests have been passed not once, doctors have started to bypass the third round, but there is no result. The cause of the cough may not be physiological at all, but psychological.

Here is a list of neurotic cough symptoms:

• Intrusive dry cough.
• No signs of SARS.
• Baby only coughs during the day.
• Seizures increase in the evening (from accumulated fatigue).
• No deterioration or improvement for a long time.
• Drugs don't help.
• May experience shortness of breath when coughing.
• Always appearsin a moment of stress.
• Often loud, as if special.

During the diagnosis of such a psychogenic illness, a complete examination by a pulmonologist, otolaryngologist, allergist, neuropathologist and psychotherapist is necessary. It is important to rule out all possible common causes of cough (including asthma and tuberculosis) as psychogenic cough lasting more than three months is only detected in ten percent of all cases.

The child is coughing. What to do?

So, the child has classic SARS symptoms:

• temperature rose;
• weakness appeared;
• has a runny nose;
• itchy throat;
• worried about dry cough.

It makes sense to call a doctor and get treated for several days at home without pills: give the child more water, feed less, ventilate and humidify the room. In 90% of cases, a dry cough will pass in a day or two, and a wet one with sputum will appear. The temperature will begin to decrease, 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 the opportunity to recover properly.

If you observe unusual symptoms in your baby, this is a sign of an urgent visit to the doctor:

• cough without fever;
• no runny nose;
• chest pain;
• impurity in sputum (blood, pus);
• deterioration after a clear improvement in SARS;
• temperature does not go astray (neither "Paracetamol" nor "Ibuprofen");
• paleskin color;
• shortness of breath;
• harsh barking cough without stopping;
• suspected presence of a foreign object in the respiratory tract;
• nocturnal bouts of coughing;
• not being able to take a deep breath;
• wheezing;
• cough lasts more than three weeks.

Examination by a pediatrician is necessary for any illness of a child. But if you find any of the above symptoms in your baby, you should see a doctor as soon as possible (depending on the condition, you may even need to call an ambulance).

The doctor may recommend one or more tests to accurately diagnose the disease:

• Clinical analysis of blood and urine to identify the nature of the disease (bacterium or virus).
• Sputum examination is prescribed if necessary by an ENT doctor (microbiological examination).
• Chest x-ray - if wheezing is present.
• Allergy test or blood immunoglobulin test (determines the presence of an allergic cause of a cough).
• Blood test for whooping cough (bacterial culture or detection of antibodies).

There can be only one conclusion: a cough cannot be treated without a doctor. Self-medication is dangerous and can lead to chronic diseases.