Cough in a child up to a year

We used to regard cough as something not dangerous andoften neglect his treatment: they say, in due course he will pass. However, if you are the parent of an infant, this approach may be dangerous to your baby's health. It is important to remember that cough is a protective reaction of the body, which indicates that the bodytries to get rid of foreign contents in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract. Under foreign content can be understood as relatively large foreign bodies, as well as fine dust and microorganisms.

Cough in a child up to a year may be a symptom ARVI, inflammation of ENT organs, adenoids,bronchial asthma, foreign body inhalation, allergies, respiratory tract irritation. Sometimes a cough in an infant indicates problems that are not directly related to the respiratory system. It can be severe stress, poisoning, gastrointestinal damage, heart disease.

At all, cough in infants is divided into two types: physiological and pathological. Physiological cough can be a sign of respiratory irritationways (for example, food caught in the trachea can cause a cough reflex), sometimes such cough accompanied by crying and teething. Also, children over six months sometimes use cough to attract the attention of adults. Physiological cough is weak, passes quickly, is not accompanied by other symptoms, does not cause the child discomfort.

Pathological cough usually prolonged, it can be verydiverse in nature. It indicates a disease of the upper respiratory tract and is often accompanied by a number of other symptoms. Such a cough can be dry or wet. A dry (unproductive) cough (that is, one that is not accompanied by a sputum secretion) is more dangerous than a wet one. Such a situation is especially dangerous for the health of an infant:

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  a ceaseless cough that developed suddenly;
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  cough accompanied by wheezing;
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  night cough;
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  cough, accompanied by the release of blood or sputum green;
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  cough developed against the background of ARVI and does not stop for three weeks or more;
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  cough accompanied by high fever.

If an infant is coughing, first of all you need to see a doctor, without waiting for the situation to worsen. It is important to understand that the cough itself is notis a disease, it's just a symptom. To cough a baby has passed, you need to eliminate the cause that caused it. And the reason can be established only by a doctor, he will prescribe a cure. Self-medication in this case may not only be ineffective, but also dangerous.

However, in order to cure a child's cough, it is not enough just to follow the doctor's recommendations. Very often, the cough is aggravated by an additional load on the respiratory system, which creates dry air. When the child is ill, you need to regularly ventilate the room in which he is. Also, you may need additional air humidification, especially during the heating season. The air temperature should be 22-24 degrees. Regularly do a wet cleaning, because the dust in the air irritates the respiratory tract. Another baby in the period of illness needs a lot of drinking.

So, if your child coughs, you need as much as possiblerather, see a doctor. In no case can you do self-medication: the consequences of improper treatment of an infant may be much more serious than the consequences of improper treatment of an adult. Only a doctor can correctly determine the cause of cough and prescribe appropriate treatment.