Q: What is the recommendation when your child has a cough?
A: Doctor and time.
Cough is a protective reflex of body, so the most important thing is to identify the cause of it.
While most coughs are caused by viral infections of the respiratory tract and are usually self-resolving, a few are caused by diseases of asthma, pneumonia, or foreign bodies in the airways, which can lead to a bad outcome.
If parents suspect that a cough is not caused by a cold, while they cannot accurately determine it by themselves, they need to seek professional medical help, who will take different treatment plans for different causes to avoid delay of the illness.
If the cough is caused by a cold, which is most commonly caused by a viral infection, what is needed is time. Cough is an important way to help the body clear inflammatory secretions and expel pathogens from the respiratory tract, so it will disappear naturally while waiting for the illness to heal itself.
Parents also need to get their child to a doctor promptly if he or she develops a persistent high fever, shortness of breath, or other abnormalities during the course of the illness.
