Cough and children

Cough: how it occurs in children, what are the causes and ways to treat it safely.

How it looks, what are the causes and how to treat it safely.

Child’s cough is a symptom that parents often bring to the attention of the pediatrician.

It is usually caused by respiratory diseases, but it is important to remember that some pathological conditions affecting other systems (gastrointestinal and cardiocirculatory, for example) are also able to cause it.

Coughing is a defense mechanism against the insults that the respiratory tree can suffer every time it comes into contact with potentially harmful stimuli.

Cough is therefore an expression of pathology, but it proves to be a fairly non-specific symptom that in itself is not useful to understand its causes. For this purpose, the age of the child can be very useful as a benchmark.

Cough at different ages

In infants, cough is often associated with apnoea crises, cyanosis, stridor and inspiratory re-entanglements.

In the first days of life it can be linked to cardiac malformations, congenital malformations of the airways or gastrointestinal tract (esophagotracheal fistulas), viral and bacterial infections, ciliary dyskinesia and cystic fibrosis.

In older children, respiratory tract infections are the most common cause of coughing, but asthma and infectious diseases, especially whooping cough and measles, should always be taken into account.

Gastroesophageal reflux and aspiration of a foreign body can also cause it; without neglecting the possibility of a cough of a psychogenic nature, determined by somatization mechanisms.

Cough, virus and bacteria

Respiratory infections can be responsible for coughing at virtually any level. However, some symptoms may change depending on the area affected by the infection.

Localization of infection Symptoms
Pharynx Fever, pharyngodynia and local redness
Larynx Often dry, metallic cough and dysphonia
Lower respiratory tract Fever, dyspnoea and impairment of the general state

Even the discharge of mucus in the retronasal area can determine the appearance of cough: the presence of mucous or mucopurulent material in the pharynx, which is often associated with nasal congestion, can trigger the appearance of accessual cough for the descent of mucus into the pharynx and larynx, as frequently happens in sinusitis.

Pertussis (infectious cough caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis) can be a cause of chronic cough: in this case repeated accesses associated with vomiting are observed and, at the end of the coughs, the patient makes a deep inhalation, with a characteristic stridor.

What does coughing look like in the child

Depending on the cause that causes it and the area of the respiratory tract involved in inflammation, it can occur in different ways:

  • dry, stubborn, annoying, coughing: in these cases it is almost always caused by irritation of the larynx or trachea;
  • asthmatic: characterized by wheezing and whistling;
  • Catarrhal cough, “oily”, productive: the mucus produced depends on irritation of the upper and lower respiratory tract. In the latter form it is necessary to intervene on the mucus in order to normalize its production.

Numerous studies have shown that mucolytic drugs are able to increase the volume of sputum, change the consistency of the excretion as reducing viscosity and increasing “spinability”, a parameter that indicates how much mucus is removable from the ciliary apparatus).

In addition, these drugs increase the speed of tracheobronchial mucus (TMV) and promote pulmonary ventilation for better particle distribution in the respiratory tree.

Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.

The blog covers a wide range of topics related to health and wellness, with articles organized into several categories.

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