Causes of night cough in children according to Komarovsky. A strong cough in a child at night: causes and treatment Cough does not allow the child to sleep Komarovsky

A systematic nocturnal cough in a child is a serious reason to find out the causes of this phenomenon. This symptom is defined as a reflex excretion from the body of accumulated mucus or foreign bodies that have entered the children's respiratory tract. Without understanding the source of the problem, taking antiviral drugs, inhalations and traditional medicine will be powerless.

Dr. Komarovsky calls coughing a symptom, for the treatment of which it is important to understand the reasons that provoked its appearance. He strictly forbids giving a child cough suppressants without a medical prescription, assuring that there is nothing dangerous in a night cough, and parents need to be patient with active treatment before visiting a pediatrician.

Komarovsky about the causes of night cough

Cough is not always the result of terrible and dangerous processes in the child's body. You can create a list of the most common situations when a child coughs at night:

1. Allergic cough: the reaction of the child's body to downy, woolen and synthetic bedding fillers, smells of paint and varnish products.
2. Runny nose. Even with minor nasal discharge, a child can cough during sleep. This is due to the fact that the mucus from the nose flows down the back of the throat, tickling and irritating the mucosa. With the help of coughing, the body spontaneously tries to bring it out.
3. Dry air in the room. With the beginning of the heating season, there is a temperature drop, and parents are extremely concerned about keeping the heat in the house. However, too hot air dries the delicate mucous membrane of the child, which is the cause of dry cough.
4. Growing teeth: a common cause of nocturnal coughing in infants. Cough provokes profuse salivation.
5. Complex diseases, in particular - diseases of the respiratory tract, for the treatment of which a doctor's consultation is needed.

Komarovsky conventionally classifies cough into allergic and viral. If the symptom is accompanied by a strong fever, runny nose, general weakness and poor health, this is a sign of a viral infection. Cough in a child without fever in the absence of additional signs of the disease is defined as allergic.

Treatment of viral cough with antibiotics is prohibited and impractical, since antibacterial drugs are powerless in the fight against viruses.

What to do

To begin with, the parent should determine the nature of the cough, body temperature and check the general condition of the child. Further:

Komarovsky categorically forbids doing amateur activities and trying to overcome such serious diseases as bronchitis, pneumonia, rhinitis, etc. without the help of a doctor. There are too many antitussives, and they all have a different focus.

By blocking the cough reflex with a wet cough, and taking sputum expulsion agents with a dry one, you can earn complications, vomiting and a host of other negative consequences for your child's health. Acting wisely, you can easily cope with a night cough.

Do I need to give medication

According to Dr. Komarovsky, it is not a cough that needs to be treated, but the disease that caused it. If the child is dressed according to the weather, drinks enough fluids, the air in his room is humidified, it is cool in the nursery - 90% of the actions aimed at treating symptomatic cough have already been done. Do I still need to take medication?

Any antitussive drugs are in no way connected with independent methods of treatment. Even when it is obvious to the parent that the child is sick with SARS, medication can be prescribed only after the doctor listens to the child's lungs and makes sure that they are clean and there is nothing to cough on.

The use of medications that increase the volume of bronchial secretions is dangerous because their action is aimed at reducing the frequency of coughing and mucus accumulation, which significantly increases the risk of complications.

We can summarize:

• with ARVI, in most cases, cough medicines are not needed and are contraindicated;
• the use of cough suppressants for children under 2 years of age is dangerous and useless;
• medication treatment of children older than 2 years is allowed only if there are clear recommendations from the doctor and under his vigilant supervision;
• it is strictly forbidden to combine antitussives and drugs that increase the volume of sputum into one complex of therapy;
• do not expect super-effectiveness from drugs, ignoring the simple conditions of treatment: drinking plenty of water, fresh air, humidity in the room, etc.

Since cough is the most common symptom of childhood illnesses, the choice of drugs that affect it is frighteningly large. The effectiveness of the vast majority of funds has not been proven. This is due to the fact that the nature of the symptom mainly depends on the conditions in which the child is located.

A huge arsenal of cough remedies is a sedative for relatives who need to cure their child. Eliminating the cause of the cough and providing a healthy environment are key indicators of a successful and speedy recovery.

In therapy, the correct distribution of responsibilities is important: the pediatrician must find and eliminate the cause of the disease, the parents must create conditions under which the prescribed drugs can be most effective, and the body must defeat the disease. Sufficient use of safe and appropriate means is the main principle of symptomatic treatment.

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Komarovsky, a well-known doctor, lists cough as a symptom that needs to be treated. Also, in cases where a child has a cough at night, Komarovsky does not recommend that parents give medicines to children at random.

Cough at night or during the day is considered a protective reaction of the body to foreign bodies that have entered the body with food or airborne droplets. During coughing, a thick consistency called sputum is separated from the walls of the respiratory tract and exits through the oral cavity. However, if during the day the baby’s cough was not strong, then by night this symptom intensifies. Often this happens in young children: the baby lies on his back, and air enters the lungs in a limited amount, which is why lumps of sputum accumulate in the lungs and bronchi.

You will be interested in the article - Why does a child have a cough in the morning and how to treat it?

To distinguish between allergies and a cold in a child, it is necessary to measure the body temperature. If there is no increase, then the cause of dry cough is an allergic reaction. Attacks are often accompanied by increased tearfulness and perspiration in the respiratory tract.

First aid: how to relieve a coughing fit

Many parents, when the above symptom appears in a child, are wondering how to relieve a coughing fit in a child at night. First, the baby needs to be shown to the pediatrician so that he can establish the diagnosis and prescribe the necessary drugs to eliminate the disease. In addition, the type of cough in a child is determined. The causes are eliminated depending on the type: wet or dry cough reflex. Treatment given when the following type is found:

• Wet. With this type, an active accumulation of a thick secret - sputum - occurs in the airways. The task of the drugs that the doctor prescribes for the child is to clear the lungs and bronchi as quickly as possible. The following expectorants and mucolytics are prescribed:

Syrup Altea. The dark brown liquid helps the baby expectorate mucus clots and eliminate inflammation. Give medicine to children with caution, as there is a risk of an allergic reaction.

Doctor Mom. On the shelves of the pharmacy is sold in the form of lozenges, syrup and ointment. For the youngest children, the doctor will prescribe syrup. The tool effectively eliminates inflammation and prevents the formation of sputum masses in the lungs and bronchi of the baby.

• Dry. The pediatrician prescribes drugs that suppress the cough centers in the child's brain. Children's cough of dry type is treated with the following drugs:

Synekod. The medicine is available in the form of drops for internal use. One vial contains 20 ml of medicinal substance. The drops come with a special device - a dropper for convenient dosage. The medicine is different in that it does not contain narcotic substances, which is not addictive.

Glaucine. Effectively relieves spasms in the baby's bronchi, providing an anti-inflammatory effect. The cough reflex is blocked, but breathing is not suppressed. Adverse reactions are extremely rare.

Treating a nocturnal cough in a child

A child's persistent cough, which gets worse at night and persists for several days in a row, should worry parents. After the examination, the pediatrician will prescribe medication to the young patient. If there are suspicions of serious illnesses, for example, whooping cough or bronchial asthma, then an additional examination of the baby is prescribed. When diagnosed with a cold, treatment is always easy and almost without complications. Methods for fighting cough at night in a child will be as follows:

1. Mandatory ventilation of the room where the child sleeps.
2. Plentiful warm drink. You can use milk with honey.
3. Taking medicines prescribed by a doctor.

Dry cough is treated with antitussive drugs. With a wet type of cough, mucolytic and expectorant drugs are prescribed.

Special chest collections against coughing during a cold are popular. Effective chest collections against cough in a child:

• Breast collection No. 2. Composed of large plantain, licorice root and coltsfoot. When using the collection, the inflammatory process decreases, sputum is easier to expectorate from the lungs and bronchi. Drink the resulting solution 4 times a day. The temperature of the cooked heat should not be hot. Give children 100 ml each, shake vigorously before that. They are treated with a collection of no more than 21 days.
• Breast collection No. 3. The composition of the collection includes anise, licorice, sage, marshmallow and pine buds. After drinking, swelling in the baby's lungs disappears, sputum is easily removed from the walls of the respiratory tract, the microbes that caused the cold are destroyed.

Dr. Komarovsky about dry cough

Children do not always suffer at night from a dry cough due to severe pathologies. According to Dr. Komarovsky, the above symptom may appear in the following cases:

1. Tooth growth. It is this cause of dry cough, according to Dr. Komarovsky, that is common among children whose age has not yet reached one year. During the eruption of the first teeth, the baby is tormented by increased salivation.
2. Insufficient air humidification.
3. Runny nose and swelling of the nasal cavity. The nasal opening of the baby is blocked, and the mucus rolls down the throat, so the baby is worried about the above symptom.
4. Chronic or acute respiratory diseases.

Dr. Komarovsky says that it is better to use drugs prescribed by a doctor for treatment. In no case should you self-medicate children, so as not to start a serious disease of the lungs or bronchi.

If the symptom is due to allergens or dry air, it is necessary to exclude children from contact with the allergen and freshen the room for relief. If the baby is suffering from shortness of breath and fever, it is necessary to apply complex treatment. In case of a worsened condition, the baby is called an ambulance.

At the hospital, specialists give the children a powerful injection to bring down the fever and eliminate the fever. Komarovsky warns parents that the symptoms are especially acute at night. If the child's cough is similar to barking, it is necessary to use inhalation procedures. This will ease the condition of the baby for a while.

Prevention and treatment

When treating a small patient, the main thing is to choose the right remedy. Dr. Komarovsky recommends going to see a pediatrician first. The doctor prescribes the type of medicine depending on the type of the above symptom:

• Mucolytics. Liquefies sputum that accumulates on the walls of the respiratory tract or lungs and bronchi. When the viscosity decreases, sputum comes out easily. They are used for such diagnoses as pneumonia or bronchitis.
• Expectorants. Contribute to the easy movement of sputum masses up the throat opening.
• Combination of substances. Preparations with this property act in a complex way: they reduce inflammation, thin the viscous secret in the respiratory tract and have an expectorant effect.

To protect children from viral and colds, a number of important rules must be observed.

Any disease in children, parents are experiencing very acutely. Anxiety for the condition of the child does not give rest. Coughing is a defense mechanism to clear accumulated mucus, and it can come in for a variety of reasons. Most often, this symptom appears during colds. But the children's doctor Komarovsky also sees the causes of a night cough in a child in other pathologies and conditions. To prescribe effective treatment, it is important to find out the provoking factor and eliminate it.

Komarovsky's opinion on the causes of nocturnal cough

If a child has a nocturnal cough reflex, then this does not necessarily indicate the development of a serious illness, although such attacks should not be ignored.

Komarovsky sees the reasons for coughing at night in a child in the following:

1. Allergic reactions.
2. Colds.
3. Baby's teething period.
4. Too dry air in the children's bedroom.
5. Psychogenic cough. In this case, there is psychosomatics, the symptom is caused by nervous disorders. Convulsions are not uncommon in such cases.
6. Residual effect after an infectious disease.
7. Serious pathologies requiring medical intervention.

It is possible to make a decision on possible treatment only after finding out the cause, a pediatrician should deal with this.

Possible diseases with cough without fever

When the child goes to bed, the horizontal position leads to the accumulation of mucus in the upper respiratory tract. If a child has a cough at night, Komarovsky believes that the absence of temperature may indicate the presence of the following pathologies:

• Rhinitis, pharyngitis. With these diseases, the cough is dry and irritating. Between attacks, the baby may cough, a sore throat appears.
• Bronchitis of an asthmatic nature. The cough is accompanied by wheezing, the child complains of chest pain, it becomes difficult for him to breathe.
• Whooping cough. A serious illness that manifests itself as a non-stop barking cough. At the same time, whistling sounds appear, a large amount of sputum is secreted, and vomiting may occur. The strongest cough simply exhausts the baby, disturbing sleep and leading to exhaustion.
• Adenoids. With such a pathology, the cough reflex increases during periods of exacerbation and with a severe degree of pathology. Mucus, going down the nasopharynx, makes the child cough.
• Gastrointestinal reflux is manifested by dry cough and sore throat. If you cough too hard, you may vomit.
• Worm infestations. The presence of helminths in the child's body often causes a dry cough reflex. The child may also have abdominal pain and a feeling of nausea.

If an unpleasant symptom does not allow the child to fall asleep, torments him at night, then during the day he is sleepy, looks tired. If a child does not cough during sleep for a long time, then Komarovsky believes that it is time to visit a doctor.

You should not prescribe drugs for the treatment of a child on your own. It could be dangerous to his health.

The child coughs only at night

Parents begin to worry if there is no cough during the day, and at night their child often wakes up due to an obsessive symptom. Komarovsky advises to pay attention to some points if the child coughs when he sleeps:

It is important to distinguish an allergic cough from the symptoms of a cold. Therapy is different.

The pediatrician believes that it is not the symptom itself that should be treated, but the pathology that provoked it. Parents often ask the question, how to stop an attack, what to do in such cases?

• If the cough is allergic, then you should try to eliminate allergens: lay bed linen only from natural fabrics, regularly carry out wet cleaning, and ventilate the children's bedroom before going to bed.
• Infectious pathology, as the cause of cough, requires its own medical treatment.
• To maintain the humidity at a normal level, a humidifier is ideal for a child's room.
• Cutting teeth became the culprit of the cough, there's nothing you can do about it, you need to survive this period.

If parents are sure that a strong cough is provoked by a cold infection, SARS, then drug therapy will be needed, but only a doctor should prescribe it.

As for taking medications, Komarovsky has his own opinion on this matter:

1. Most often, in the presence of a respiratory infection, cough medicines are not required, and sometimes completely prohibited.
2. If the baby is less than two years old, then drugs that depress the cough reflex are contraindicated. The result can be achieved quickly, but the consequences can be quite serious.
3. It is strictly forbidden to combine cough suppressants with sputum enlargers. This is fraught with the accumulation of fluid in the lungs and the development of an inflammatory process in them.
4. Drug therapy should be combined with air humidification, warm and plentiful drinking, and temperature control in the room.

Drug treatment

According to Komarovsky, if a child coughs in a dream and therapy is prescribed by a doctor, then parents should have an idea about the mechanism of action of a particular drug. Such funds are divided into several groups:

1. Mucolytic. The active ingredients of the drugs thin the sputum.
2. Expectorants. Helps to remove mucus from the bronchi.
3. Combined funds. At the same time, the inflammatory process is removed. They make sputum less viscous and contribute to its expectoration.

Depending on the type of cough the child has, the doctor will prescribe a medicine. The following drugs will help soothe dry and improve sleep:

• "Sinecode".
• Tusuprex.
• "Sedotussin".
• Antitussive mixtures: "Stoptussin", "Bronholitin".

The dosage and regimen of therapy is selected individually, taking into account the condition of the baby, age and the presence of concomitant symptoms.

Relief from a wet cough will bring the following medicines:

• "Bronchicum".
• "Doctor Mom".
• "Pekutsin".

In addition to drugs to alleviate the cough reflex itself, funds are prescribed to combat the cause of the symptom. If a bacterial infection has joined, then antibiotics cannot be dispensed with.

If a viral infection provoked a cough reflex, then treatment with antiviral agents will be added.

Physiotherapy for cough relief

Physiotherapy treatment speeds up recovery and improves the child's condition. Taking into account the reason, the doctor prescribes a set of procedures during which the following devices are used:

• Magnetotherapy. The action is based on a magnetic field, which eliminates the inflammatory process, improves the child's condition, and reduces the amount of medication taken.
• Quantum and laser therapy. Procedures using such equipment can increase the body's immune response, which helps to reduce the amount of drugs consumed.

Among the methods of cough treatment are often used: electrophoresis, UHF therapy, treatment with mud, salt. Such therapy is especially useful if the cough reflex is caused by bronchitis or other infectious diseases of the respiratory system.

At home, it is not possible to use the devices, but you can resort to using the following procedures:

• Banks and warming plasters.
• Vibration massage of the back and chest.
• Respiratory gymnastics will help to alleviate the condition of the baby.
• Physiotherapy. The specialist will help you choose a set of exercises that will help strengthen the respiratory system, sputum discharge.
• Steam inhalation. Procedures contribute to liquefaction of sputum, reducing the inflammatory process. Nebulizers are great for inhalation.

In the presence of serious diseases, physiotherapy treatment will be an excellent addition to speed up the recovery process. Even if, as Komarovsky believes, the child coughs during the day, but not at night. The time of onset of the symptom does not matter, physiotherapy helps to treat any cough.

Folk remedies

Many mothers try to avoid taking medications and resort to the help of traditional medicine recipes. It should be noted that such remedies help a lot, but if a serious illness has become a cough provocateur, then they can only supplement the main drug treatment.

Among the effective recipes are the following:

1. Mix warm milk with honey and baking soda. Drink day and night.
2. In a pharmacy, buy herbal collection: coltsfoot, oregano and licorice root. This composition helps to reduce inflammation and improve mucus discharge.
3. You can calm the morning or night cough reflex with the help of compresses. For the procedure, boiled potatoes are suitable. It is kneaded, internal fat, half a teaspoon of mustard and honey are added. It is better to do the procedure at night.
4. Use badger fat to rub the breast and back of the child.
5. Grate the radish, mix with sugar or honey, squeeze and give several times a teaspoon during the day.

If parents do not regularly engage in prevention and do not monitor the health of the child, then after treatment, the cough may soon return again.

Cough prevention

Children's doctor Komarovsky assigns a major role to prevention. It should be as follows:

1. Every day before sending the child to bed, you need to ventilate the bedroom and do a wet cleaning.
2. Maintain optimal humidity levels.
3. Avoid contact with any household chemicals, possible allergens, do not allow smoking in the house.
4. During the day, provide a drink, in the season of colds it is better if it is herbal teas, rosehip infusions.
5. Soar legs before going to bed.
6. In the presence of laryngitis, it will facilitate the inhalation of steam. You need to fill the bath with hot water and bring the child to breathe.
7. Babies from the age of one are recommended inhalations with saline solutions, medicinal herbs.

Infants are prohibited from inhalation, antihistamines, so you can alleviate a nighttime cough by changing the position of the child in the crib more often.

Doctors also recommend paying great attention to nutrition. The diet should contain only healthy foods, fresh vegetables, fruits. A balanced diet allows you to strengthen the immune system, increase tone, which will allow the body to quickly get rid of an unpleasant symptom.

Coughing is, of course, a problem, but not always a serious one. It is only important to recognize the culprit of the symptom in time and take the necessary measures to establish a night's sleep in a child and improve his condition.

It is rare that a mother can be in a calm state when a baby comes in a fit of coughing in the nursery at night. What to do, how to treat a child’s night cough, which prevents him from fully resting and causing parents to worry? Before dealing with nocturnal cough, it is necessary to determine the culprit of the syndrome.

Causes of trouble

When the baby is in a horizontal position at night, sputum accumulates in the upper respiratory tract. In children, the pulmonary apparatus is not yet perfect, the respiratory bronchial tubes have a small lumen, and the removal of mucus is difficult. The body, trying to get rid of sputum, provokes the development of a reflex.

There are many reasons for a child to have a nighttime cough, prolonged attacks often develop due to colds and infectious diseases. Before treating a child's night cough, pay attention to the type of reflex:

Pharyngitis, rhinitis, sinusitis. Dry, irritating cough. It differs in duration of attacks. The kid complains of perspiration and tingling in the throat. There are choking and coughing in the interval between the main attack.

Asthmatic bronchitis. The symptom disappears with whistling and wheezing. With an asthmatic nocturnal cough, the child develops shortness of breath,
it's hard to breathe. The baby complains of pain in the sternum in the region of the heart.

Whooping cough. Whooping cough consists of 5-10 shocks. They follow non-stop, not allowing the child to inhale. Trying to get air, the baby makes a whistling sound. The cough is hollow, barking and loose, with copious expectoration. Mucus is viscous and glassy. In small children, it can separate through the nostrils in blisters.

Whooping cough often leads to vomiting caused by copious sputum. The baby's face turns red, trying to clear his throat, he sticks out his tongue and tenses. The cough is so strong that it completely exhausts the child, bringing him to exhaustion.

Adenoiditis. A cough symptom in adenoids is characterized by dryness and difficult to separate purulent sputum. A nocturnal cough develops already with an advanced disease, when the viscous mucus accumulated in the nasal passages descends into the respiratory tract and irritates the mucous membrane of the larynx.

Gastroesophageal reflux. This pathology is characterized by a dry nocturnal cough without fever and sore throat. The manifestations of the syndrome are similar to coughing with bronchitis or allergies. Severe coughing can cause vomiting and nausea in a child.

Allergy. Allergic nocturnal cough starts suddenly. It is booming, barking and more often dry (when wet, the child separates clear mucus). Allergic cough goes away with runny nose and sneezing, but without fever. The child may complain of itching and sore throat.

Colds, influenza, parainfluenza. The syndrome develops suddenly, a high temperature can rise rapidly. Chills, feverish conditions are observed. At the beginning of the disease, a nocturnal cough is characterized by dryness and severe debilitating attacks. The child complains of sore throat and sore throat.

Tracheitis. At the beginning of the development of the disease, a dry, paroxysmal cough is noted. Painful attacks often occur in the morning. The symptom is accompanied by a severe sore throat.

In small crumbs, an attack often develops during crying or screaming. At the same time, a high temperature rises (up to + 30-40⁰ C), headaches are observed.

Worm infestations. Helminthiasis becomes a frequent culprit of dry cough in a child at night. Worm infestations provoke the development of the syndrome at night without accompanying symptoms in other diseases (sore throat, chills, temperature). Babies complain of abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, and upset stools.

A night cough can occur in a child due to dry, cold air in the room. Attacks disturb the baby, preventing him from sleeping peacefully when teething, when a lot of saliva is formed, and it flows into the larynx, provoking a cough reflex.

When a child is worried about a night cough for a long time, during the day he feels tired and exhausted, you should immediately seek help in treatment from a pediatrician. Do not self-medicate! Only a pediatrician is able to find out the real culprit of a night cough in a child and prescribe competent treatment.

Fight against night cough

If the baby has a persistent cough symptom at night, he should be examined by a pediatrician. When diseases are detected, the main task of the doctor is to treat the child from the disease caused by coughing. To relieve nightly coughing attacks, the doctor prescribes remedies for treatment depending on the type of reflex:

Dry. The child is prescribed antitussive drugs that act on the cough center (it is located in the brain stem). Such drugs created for children's treatment include:

• Glaucine.
• Synekod.
• Tusuprex.
• Sedotussin.

Pediatricians also advise paying attention to children's antitussive drugs that act on receptors: levopront, libexin and antitussive mixtures: broncholithin and stoptussin.

Wet. In order to relieve a coughing fit in a child who passes with wet expectoration, pediatricians prescribe drugs for treatment that help to free the bronchi and lungs from accumulated mucus: bronchicum elixir, Altein and Dr. Mom syrups, pectusin.

Folk remedies

Most mothers do not want to treat their child with medicinal syrups and potions, preferring the methods of a folk pharmacy. Natural buckwheat honey becomes an effective remedy in the treatment of night cough (honey should not be given to a baby with allergies). Tasty medicine should be given to suck to the child in the evening.

Warm milk is a good treatment. It can be mixed with baking soda (¼ teaspoon) and melted honey (5-6 ml).

Be sure to solder the child with warm berry fruit drinks and raspberry tea. Pharmacies will also offer ready-made children's herbal medicinal preparations for the treatment of:

• Breast collection No. 1. For the treatment of cough reflex in tracheitis, laryngitis. The package includes an herbal mixture of coltsfoot, oregano and licorice root. Such plants reduce the inflammatory process and contribute to the withdrawal of sputum.
• Breast collection No. 2 and 3. For the treatment of prolonged cough syndrome with pneumonia and bronchitis. Medicinal plants that are part of this collection have an antiseptic, expectorant and softening effect.
• Breast collection No. 4. This herbal collection is the safest for the treatment of children. Its package includes six healing plants (peppermint, chamomile, violet, ledum, calendula and licorice).

Herbal preparations have been created and selected for the treatment of a child over 6 years old, and collection number 4 can be given to babies as early as 2 years old.

Potato compresses also help to treat a night cough (numerous reviews speak of the effectiveness of such treatment). A couple of hot boiled potatoes are mashed and alcohol, mustard (½ tsp), interior fat and honey (one tablespoon each) are added to the puree.

A cake is made from the mixture and applied to the back and chest of the child. Previously, the baby's body is covered with a film and cotton wool with a layer of 3-4 cm. From above, the compress is tied with a warm scarf and held for 1-1.5 hours.

Prevention measures

1. Before going to bed, thoroughly ventilate the children's room and carry out wet cleaning in it.
2. Humidify the air regularly (the optimum temperature in the room should be + 20-22⁰ C).
3. Avoid contact of the baby with irritating and strong-smelling objects (paints, solvents, household chemicals, tobacco smoke).
4. During the day, increase the dose of drink for a sick baby. Let's drink to the child warm vitamin fruit drinks, honey milk with butter, rosehip decoctions and berry compotes.
5. Cleanse your child's nose every night. Use a saline solution for this, and then ask the baby to blow his nose well.
6. Every evening, soak the child's legs in hot water at a temperature of + 42-43⁰ C.
7. If your child has a nocturnal cough from laryngitis, help your child breathe easier by inhaling steam. Take your baby to the bathroom and run hot water. Let the baby breathe in wet steam for 10-15 minutes.
8. For children after a year of life, perform inhalation procedures daily. For inhalation, use saline solutions, decoctions of medicinal herbs, soda.

Infants up to six months should not be inhaled and rubbed, taking antihistamines for the treatment of allergies is also contraindicated for them. To make it easier for them to sleep at night, change the position of the baby in the crib more often. This will prevent the accumulation of mucus in the baby's nose.

Parents are also required to know what is strictly forbidden for children to do with a night cough. When treating the syndrome, antibiotics should not be given to the child. With a symptom with sputum, it is forbidden to give the baby antitussives to drink, and with a dry cough, give expectorants.

Diet in the fight against night cough

Pediatricians claim that with the relief of nocturnal cough syndrome, effective treatment is provided by special diet therapy. Include the following foods in your child's daily menu:

• Natural fresh juices.
• Milk potato puree.
• Herculean porridge in vegetable oil.
• Salad of durum radish with sour cream.
• Grapes or fresh grape juice diluted with natural honey.
• Vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C (rose hips, persimmons, citrus fruits, cranberries).

Children put on a healing diet recover faster, because such products increase vitality and immunity of the body, provoke coughing and actively relieve bronchospasm.

Be attentive to the health of the child and at the first sign of malaise seek medical advice. Only by joint efforts with the pediatrician, parents will be able to help the baby get rid of the painful night cough.

Health to your baby!

A cough in a child worries not only the baby, but also his parents, who seek to help their son or daughter in every way. Some begin to use folk recipes on the advice of relatives, others go to the pharmacy for syrup, and someone makes inhalations. Let's figure out whose actions are correct in the opinion of a specialist, and how the popular pediatrician Komarovsky advises to treat a cough.

Symptomatic treatment

First of all, when a child of any age coughs, Komarovsky focuses the attention of parents on the fact that it's just a symptom of some disease affecting the respiratory tract. In addition, this symptom is protective, so in most cases it is not worth suppressing.

The main cause of cough in childhood, a popular doctor calls SARS. And therefore, in the vast majority of cases of coughing in a child, the elimination of its cause, according to Komarovsky, is impossible. But it is not necessary to leave the child without help, therefore, a well-known pediatrician advises symptomatic treatment.

Wherein he calls the main principle of such cough treatment not eliminating the symptom itself, but increasing the effectiveness of coughing. This can be achieved by influencing the quantity and quality of sputum with the help of:

1. Humid and cool air.
2. Plentiful drink.

See more about this in the program of Dr. Komarovsky.

Humidify and purify the air

Komarovsky calls providing a child with moist and cool air one of the most important tasks of parents. it reduce the load on the respiratory tract of the baby, and also prevent the mucous membranes from drying out.

If you optimize the conditions in which the child is located, his body will not spend efforts on air processing (heating, cleaning and humidifying it), but will focus on developing antiviral immunity.

In addition to temperature and humidity, a popular doctor draws attention to the need for clean air in the room where the coughing child is. Komarovsky notes that children's need for clean air when coughing increases several times. This is primarily due to nasal congestion in acute respiratory infections and reduced activity of the epithelium in the respiratory tract. When dust enters the respiratory tract, it leads to impaired ventilation and additional sputum production.

Komarovsky advises:

• Reduce the number of possible dust collectors in the room, for example, hide books behind glass, put toys in boxes, take out carpets.
• Avoid contact of the child with foreign odors and substances, for example, do not use deodorants and perfumes indoors, do not wash the floor with chlorine, do not spray insects.
• Avoid exposure to tobacco smoke.
• Carry out frequent wet cleaning. A well-known pediatrician does not advise vacuuming in a room with a sick child, and if the vacuum cleaner is used for cleaning, the child should be sent to another room while cleaning the room.
• Maintain the room temperature at +18 degrees.
• Maintain indoor humidity at 60-70%. The best choice would be to use a humidifier, but if there is no such device in the family, Komarovsky recommends using water containers and wet sheets.

It is especially important to maintain optimal temperatures and humidity at night. This will prevent night coughing caused by overdrying of the mucous membranes and staying in a lying position, as well as coughing after sleep.

Letting your child drink more

According to Komarovsky, drinking plenty of water for a child with a cough is indispensable. It will maintain and restore the properties of sputum by affecting blood rheology, that is, drinking will first make the blood more liquid, which will increase blood circulation in the mucous membranes of the respiratory system and improve their ability to form normal mucus. In addition, the body of the child spends a lot of fluid with increased temperature and rapid breathing, which also necessitates frequent drinking.

In order for the drunk liquid to be absorbed faster, Komarovsky advises to give any drink heated to about body temperature.. In this case, the liquid will be immediately absorbed in the stomach and enter the bloodstream.

As for the drinks themselves, the child can be given:

• Solutions for rehydration.
• Weak tea, can be with sugar and safe fruit.
• Dried fruits compote.
• Infusion of raisins (infuse a tablespoon of raisins, poured with 200 ml of water for 30-40 minutes).
• Compote of berries and fruits that the child tried before the illness.
• Morse or juice.
• Non-carbonated mineral water with a neutral taste.
• Watermelon.

Komarovsky calls rehydration solutions the best choice for drinking, however, with a body temperature of up to + 38 ° C, sufficient air humidification and no breathing problems, you can be guided by the desires of the child.

For babies with a cough, a popular doctor advises to give to drink in addition to breastfeeding, since human milk does not cover the pathological waste of fluid. At an early age, the baby can be given a solution for rehydration, children's tea, mineral water without gas, and a decoction of raisins.

You need to drink your baby more actively if:

• The air in the room is dry and warm.
• The child's body temperature is high.
• Urination is rare, and the urine itself is darker than usual.
• There is severe shortness of breath and dry cough.
• The skin and mucous membranes are dry.

With a slight deterioration in the condition, low temperature, as well as access to cool and humid air, Komarovsky calls the child's thirst the main criterion for the frequency of drinking. At the same time, you need to offer a drink very often and at every opportunity. Supporting the drinking regimen is also important in cases where the child has a prolonged and residual cough.

Medical treatment

Komarovsky calls the appointment of any medicines for children with a cough the prerogative of the doctor. This is especially true for coughs in infants.

Cough preparations

Since coughing is a necessary protective reflex, in most cases such drugs are not needed. Komarovsky calls their appointment justified with whooping cough, when the child is tormented by coughing to vomiting. Also, drugs that depress the cough reflex are needed for pleurisy, an oncological process in the respiratory tract, and for an irritating cough caused by factors that affect the nerve endings.

Komarovsky is categorically against the independent prescription of antitussive drugs by parents to their children. He reminds that Some drugs in this group are narcotic and can cause addiction. In addition, many antitussives can also depress the respiratory center, which is especially dangerous in children under 2 years of age. So it is possible to use these drugs in children older than 2 years only if indicated and after being prescribed by a pediatrician.

Expectorants

The main purpose of the use of such drugs, a popular pediatrician calls the cleansing of the respiratory tract from sputum. It is very dangerous, according to Komarovsky, to combine such drugs with antitussives, because in such cases the sputum accumulated in the lungs will not be coughed up.

A well-known doctor divides all expectorants according to their mode of action into resorptive (they are absorbed in the stomach and excreted in the bronchi, affecting mucus) and reflex (they activate the nerve endings in the stomach and affect the muscles of the bronchi and mucus production).