How to cure a child's cough?

Let's begin with Cough in itself is not a disease, but a symptom. In general, cough is a protective reaction of the body,It allows to clear respiratory tracts from foreign bodies and other irritants. This is the same unconditioned reflex, as, for example, pulling your hand away from a red-hot object. So a cough in a child can be a symptom of a huge number of diseases, from ARI and pollinosis (allergies to pollen) to false croup, asthma and even tuberculosis.

Therefore, you need to treat not a symptom, but a disease. Also, doctors do not recommend to completely eliminate cough: nevertheless it promotes the purification of respiratoryways, and therefore - a speedy recovery. The only exception is a dry, painful cough, which no longer fulfills its protective function, but only worsens the patient's condition.

To cure a child's cough (or to alleviate it), use three kinds of medicines:

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  Antitussives: drugs that suppress a painful cough, not justified physiologically. They either act centrally on the cough center in the brain, or suppress the sensitivity of the cough receptors.
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  Mucolytic agents: drugs that dilute sputum and facilitate its excretion.
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  Expectorants: drugs that accelerate the excretion of phlegm.

In principle, mucolytics can be considered as a subset of expectorants. Antitussives are used for dry cough, and expectorants - for wet. Cure a child's cough, using both groups of funds, will not work. You just hurt him, because the sputum will accumulate in the bronchi, and there will be a threat of their blockage.

What drugs can be used to treat children cough?, and which ones - no? Let's "go through" the groups of drugs and find out what cough drugs will help cure a child's cough, and which ones should be avoided.

Narcotic drugs for cough (dimmorphan, ethylmorphine, codeine) block the cough reflex. They are prescribed to children only when a debilitating dry cough (say, with whooping cough or pleurisy) can not be cured by other drugs. Appoint such funds can only a doctor!

Therefore, with a strong dry cough, poorly treatable (with whooping cough, pleurisy, flu, etc.), the child is usually prescribed non-narcotic antitussives (oxeladin, butamate, glaucin). These drugs also affect the brain, but do not become addictive.

Antitussive remedies for peripheral action (affecting not the brain, but the cough receptors), for example, prenoxidiazine, is prescribed rarely because of their low effectiveness. They can be used only with the permission of a doctor!

With a wet cough (for pneumonia, bronchitis, acute respiratory infections), more often mucolytic drugs. From "pure" mucolytics popular ATSTS, Bromheksin, Ambroksol, Karbotsistein, Mesna. Of expectorant - Mukaltin, Solutan, Tussin, Bronholitin, Pertussin, potassium iodide, sodium hydrogen carbonate. Most of them are based on medicinal herbs. Expectorant effect has and infusions and decoctions of medicinal plants "In its pure form." Such plants include marshmallow and licorice (roots), plantain and mother-and-stepmother (leaves), thyme. You can buy them in the form of a ready-made pharmacy "breast collection". Thanks to the licorice root, these collections have a pleasant sweetish taste, which is important in the treatment of a child.

Finally, in ARI it is possible to give combined means. They combine an expectorant,mucolytic, bronchodilator, anti-inflammatory and antitussive effect. These are such drugs as, say, Dr. Mom and Kodelak fito. Whichever means you choose, you need to accurately observe the dosage and in no case combine antitussive and expectorant drugs.

But in order to cure a child's cough,one medicine is not enough. It is very important to provide the child with complete peace and to protect him from external stimuli (noise, bright light, etc.). Still need to give the child a copious drink (including alkaline mineral water) and provide a balanced calorie diet. Still can help inhalation, but they can be done only for older children, because they can cause a spasm of the respiratory tract in a small child.

If the child has a wet acute cough, the task of the parents is not to cure the child's cough, but to facilitate it and make it more productive to speed up the cleansing of the respiratory tract. A if the cough is dry, prolonged, debilitating, turning into a chronic form, you should always consult a doctor.