Honey and warm milk to relieve spasmodic cough
Honey and warm milk to relieve spasmodic cough - Eka Uber with latest recommendations
Why cough remains the main reason for referral to a pediatrician in children, what we should know about annoying cough, its symptoms, treatment and possible complications, what types of drugs are used to relieve annoying cough and what are the latest studies in the fight against annoying symptoms - on these and other interesting topics in the "Guest Doctor" program TSSU c. The head of the therapy service of the academic pediatric clinic named after Zhvania, doctor-pediatrician, TSSU associate professor Eka Uber spoke.
Although the background of seasonal flu and viruses has passed, why do so many parents complain about such an annoying symptom as a cough?
Cough is very relevant and is one of the main reasons for visiting a pediatrician worldwide. Cough, which bothers the child and of course the parent, is often one of the accompanying processes of diseases caused by respiratory viruses. Depending on the seasons and regional factors, viruses vary and persist. Therefore, from the month of October to the middle of April-May, it is possible to continue the activation of respiratory viruses. That is, respiratory syncytial virus activates almost all three seasons, which manifests itself with cough, especially in children under two years of age. Respiratory syncytial virus, especially in premature infants, can cause dire consequences. In children over one year of age, cough is a consequence of a simple cold, along with fever, rhinitis, earache, sore throat, conjunctivitis, and it should go away in 3-4 weeks, unless we are dealing with complications.
As a rule, cough is a symptom that may last for 3-4 weeks in a healthy child, the duration of the same virus in adults can be 5-7 days, and in a week all problems will be practically eliminated. Except for special cases, we do not sound the alarm about a cough that lasts for 3-4 weeks.
When the cough lasts for more than 2 weeks and the intensity of the cough increases instead of decreasing, then we consider other causes of the cough. It can be whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, pneumonia, foreign body aspiration, cystic fibrosis, etc. Most importantly, most cases end without problems and do not require special interventions.
Can it be said that cough in spring is characteristic of allergic children?
There are often sick children, from 1 to 6 years old, who may have respiratory pathology 6-8 times, but they were practically healthy. It is also necessary to consider the high density in the house, the risk of contact with respiratory infections, whether the child goes to the garden or not, whether there are smokers in the family, etc. That is, risk factors that may increase the risk of developing respiratory diseases.
The second group is the so-called Children who often get sick are atopic children who have atopy, that is, an allergic component. It can be manifested not only in relation to environmental factors or products, but also be virus-induced, which means that the cold virus is the trigger, and the child does not have a load on another allergic component. Allergists and pediatricians call this condition children's asthma, that is, children's asthma is a virus-induced spasmodic cough, which is usually transient and may have a persistent character. After the age of 6-7 years, when the frequency of respiratory infections decreases, the diagnosis of children's asthma is gradually removed from the agenda.
The third group includes children with chronic diseases, which are based on any chronic disease that aggravates the course of respiratory viral infections.
The fourth group consists of immunodeficient children who may have some congenital immunodeficiency condition, due to which the virus is prolonged or complicated. They often require antibiotic therapy, which makes the symptoms much more difficult to diagnose than in normal cases.
I want to ask you about the type of cough when it is accompanied by rhinitis and it practically does not end, what are we dealing with at this time?
A cough does not necessarily mean that the child has bronchitis or inflammation of the lungs. Cough may be caused by rhinitis, i.e. overflow of nasal contents into the nasopharynx, as a result of which it is possible, especially at night and in the morning, to have a large amount of productive cough. It's hard for us pediatricians to give a general answer on how to treat a cough, but I would like to mention here that while I was looking through the literature yesterday, I found that the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have endorsed the use of honey for the relief of nighttime coughs. But it should be noted here that under no circumstances can you give honey to a child under 1 year old, because the risk of developing botulism is very high. If a child from 1 to 6 years old is not prescribed a specific product, this