During the high incidence of respiratory diseases in children, many parents will think of various ways to relieve the cough of young children after seeing that their children are uncomfortable. However, there are many kinds of cough in young children, can not blindly stop coughing, cough is not only "cough cough cough" so simple, cough caused by different reasons will be slightly different in performance.
Specific manifestations of four types of cough
1. Wind chill cough
Symptoms: cough, thin and white sputum, itchy throat, often accompanied by nasal congestion, runny nose, frequent sneezing, cold headache, thin white tongue and so on.
Tip: The method of chinese medicine to treat wind chill cough is to loosen the wind and disperse the cold, and promote the lungs to relieve cough. In addition, attention should be paid to keeping warm, and clothing should be increased or decreased in time according to temperature changes. It is not advisable to eat cool foods, such as watermelon, pears and other fruits, which will aggravate the coolness in the body and make the cough more than ever.
2. Wind fever cough
Symptoms: unpleasant cough or heavy cough, viscous sputum, yellow color, a small amount of blood, thirst, sore throat, nasal turbidity; or accompanied by fever, headache, fear of wind, slight sweating; red tongue, thin yellow tongue.
Tip: Although the symptoms of wind fever cough are similar to those of wind chill cough, the treatment is diametrically opposed. The treatment method is to relieve wind and heat, promote lung and cough. It is not advisable to eat hot foods, such as lychees, mangoes, etc., and you can eat more pears, water chestnuts, etc.
3. Phlegm fever cough
Symptoms: cough, sputum multi-colored yellow, sputum thick and difficult to cough out, some children even shortness of breath, phlegm in the throat; or accompanied by fever and thirst, irritability, short urine output, yellow urine, dry stool; red tongue, yellow tongue, yellow tongue.
Tip: When treating this type of cough, you should start with clearing the heat and thinning the lungs, opening up the phlegm and suppressing the cough. Diet should not eat too many hot foods, such as fish, meat, tropical fruits, etc., should be light.
4. Wet cough with sputum
Symptoms: cough phlegm, white and thin sputum, wet phlegm between the throat, chest tightness, bad appetite, sleepy look; tongue color is reddish, tongue moss white.
Tip: Some children's cough is due to food accumulation, and children's "injury to food" affects the spleen and stomach transport ability easily sputum, resulting in cough. The principle of treatment is to clear the lungs and dissolve phlegm and strengthen the spleen.
The specific manifestations of the above 4 kinds of cough can only help parents make preliminary judgments about the child's cough, if the child's cough time is too long, please lead the child to the hospital in time.
Cough care matters
1, air circulation, suitable temperature, humid air
Maintain indoor air circulation, room temperature is 18-20 ° C is appropriate, relative humidity is 60%-70%, humidifiers can be used (to ensure that the humidifier should be cleaned and disinfected frequently, to prevent the sink from growing bacteria), or put a basin of water in the room and other methods to increase air humidity.
2. Drink plenty of water
Drinking plenty of water not only prevents your child from dehydration, but also flushes dilute secretions. At the same time, drinking water can improve blood circulation, so that the waste or toxins produced by the body's metabolism are quickly excreted from the body, thereby reducing the stimulation of the respiratory tract.
3. Take more rest
Children need enough ability to fight off the virus. So provide a comfortable environment for the child, the atmosphere to let him rest, such as holding him comfortably, reading him a book, telling stories.
4. Head height
Raising your child's head with a towel or pillow can help him breathe more smoothly and can also reduce nasal discharge and drain backwards, causing itching in the throat and worsening cough.
5. Pat your back
Let your child sit up straight, hold your hand in an empty fist, and gently pat your child's chest and back (lung position) more vigorously than burp. This can help the secretions of the respiratory tract become loose and easier for children to excrete.
Dietary care
1. Avoid eating orange meat
Many people think that oranges have anti-cough and phlegm effects, so they choose to let children with colds and coughs eat more oranges. In fact, there is a misunderstanding here, orange peel does have the effect of coughing up phlegm, but orange flesh is heated and phlegm.
2. Avoid eating cold food
Cold or frozen drinks should not be eaten when coughing. At this time, if the diet is too cold, it is easy to cause lung qi occlusion, aggravation of symptoms, and will not heal for a long time.
3. Avoid eating fatty and sweet foods
Chinese medicine believes that coughs are mostly caused by lung fever, especially in children. When the child coughs, the gastrointestinal function is relatively weak, and the fried food can increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, and it helps to dampness and heat, breeding sputum, making the cough difficult to heal.
4. Avoid eating fishy shrimp and crabs
Many children with fever and cough have worsening symptoms after eating fishy foods, which is related to the fishy smell irritating the respiratory tract and protein allergies to fish and shrimp foods. Children who are allergic to some fish and eggs should pay more attention, among which silver carp and striped fish have the greatest impact.
5. Avoid eating sweet and sour foods
Acid food often collects phlegm, making it difficult to cough up sputum, so as to aggravate the disease and make the cough difficult to heal. When the cough is severe, apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, etc. are not suitable for eating, and eating sweets will also help heat, making inflammation difficult to cure.
6. Avoid eating supplements
Many parents give some supplements to children with weak constitutions, but when the child's cough is not healed, they should stop taking supplements so as not to make the cough difficult to heal.
Medication misunderstandings
1. Children should use cough medicine to ×
Some parents think that coughing should be antitussive, and children will be treated with antitussive medicine as soon as they cough, which is very dangerous.
2. Pediatric cough is not directly related to nasal congestion and runny nose ×
Children's cough often has symptoms of nasal congestion and runny nose, but parents often only treat the symptoms of cough, and they do not know that nasal congestion and runny nose are also the main causes of children's cough.
3. Children's cough should first be × with anti-inflammatory drugs
Many parents think that children's cough is inflammation of the respiratory tract, so children must use anti-inflammatory drugs when coughing, which will have many adverse effects on children.
4. Children's cough can use adult cough medicine ×
Some parents do not understand the way to use drugs, do not understand the difference between children and adults, and mistakenly think that it is enough to halve or reduce the dosage of drugs, which is very harmful.
5. Children use traditional Chinese medicine to relieve cough, and the side effects are less ×
Some parents believe that the side effects of Traditional Chinese medicine are small, and children cough and casually give Traditional Chinese medicine to children, which will cause unexpected consequences. Parents should treat children's coughs scientifically to avoid other complications caused by repeated coughing by children.
Cough remedies should be used with caution!
The cough is menacing, the parents are impatient, in addition to taking medicine, but also looking for home remedies everywhere, roasted oranges, salt steamed oranges, garlic water, Sichuan shell steamed pears... A variety of folk remedies emerge in the circle of friends.
Some cough remedies do have certain basic pharmacological and health care effects, but the medical evidence of home remedies for the treatment of cough is insufficient, and can only be used as an adjunctive treatment, while some will aggravate the condition. Such as eating ginger tablets to suppress cough, ginger is spicy, slightly warm, for wind and heat cough may not play a cough suppressant effect, and even make the cough worse.
In the face of a long cough season, parents must first be impatient, scientific prevention and care is the best help to help children resist the invasion of the virus. For sick children, it is necessary to seek medical treatment in time, so that it will not delay the disease, and the child can return to health as soon as possible.
(Source: Maternal and Infant Vision)