Doctor Komarovsky about how to treat a child's cough
A child’s cough worries not only the baby, but also his parents, who are trying in every way to help their son or daughter. Some are beginning to use popular recipes on the advice of relatives, others are sent to the pharmacy for syrup, and someone makes inhalation. Let's find out whose actions are correct according to the specialist, and how the popular pediatrician Komarovsky advises how to treat cough.
Symptomatic treatment
First of all, when coughing in a child of any age, Komarovsky focuses parents’s attention on the fact that this is just a symptom of some diseaseaffecting the airways. In addition, this symptom is protective, so in most cases you should not suppress it.
The main reason for cough in childhood, a popular doctor calls ARVI. And therefore, in the overwhelming number of cases of cough in a child, the elimination of its cause, according to Komarovsky, is impossible. But it is not necessary to leave the child without help, so the famous pediatrician advises symptomatic treatment.
Wherein the main principle of such a cough treatment he calls not eliminating the symptom itself, but increasing the effectiveness of cough. This can be achieved by affecting the quantity and quality of sputum using:
- Humid and cool air.
- Drink plenty of water.
For more on this, see the transfer of Dr. Komarovsky.
Moisturize and purify the air
Komarovsky calls providing a child with moist and cool air is one of the most important tasks of parents. it will reduce the load on the respiratory tract of the baby, as well as prevent the drying of mucous membranes.
If you optimize the conditions in which the child is, his body will not spend efforts on the treatment of air (its heating, cleaning and moisturizing), but will focus on the development of antiviral immunity.
In addition to temperature and humidity, a popular doctor pays attention to the need for clean air in a room where a coughing baby is staying. Komarovsky notes that the need of children for clean air when coughing increases several times. This is primarily due to nasal congestion with Colds and reduced epithelial activity in the airways. When dust enters the respiratory tract, this leads to impaired ventilation and additional sputum formation.
Komarovsky advises:
- Reduce the number of possible dust drives in the roomFor example, to hide books behind glass, to put toys in boxes, carpets to endure.
- Avoid contact of the child with foreign odors and substances., for example, do not use deodorants and perfumes in the room, do not mop the floor with chlorine, do not spray insect spray.
- Eliminate the effects of tobacco smoke on the child.
- Perform frequent wet cleaning. A well-known pediatrician does not recommend 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 an indoor temperature of +18 degrees.
- Maintain humidity in the room 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 containers with water and damp sheets.
It is especially important to maintain optimal temperature and humidity at night. This will be the prevention of night cough caused by overdrying of mucous membranes and staying in a recumbent position, as well as coughing after sleep.
Give your child more drink
According to Komarovsky, Drink plenty for a child with a cough is indispensable. It will support and restore the properties of sputum, affecting the rheology of bloodThat is, first drinking will make the blood more fluid, which will increase blood circulation in the mucous membranes of the respiratory system and improve their ability to form normal mucus. In addition, the child's body spends a lot of fluid at elevated temperatures and rapid breathing, which also necessitates frequent drinking.
So that the liquid you drink is absorbed faster Komarovsky advises to give any drink heated to about body temperature.. In this case, the fluid will be immediately absorbed in the stomach and into the blood.
As for the drinks themselves, the child can be given:
- Solutions for rehydration.
- Poor tea, can be with sugar and safe fruits.
- Dried fruits compote.
- Infusion of raisins (insist a tablespoon of raisins, filled with 200 ml of water for 30-40 minutes).
- Compote of berries and fruits that the child tried before the disease.
- Morse or juice.
- Non-carbonated mineral water with a neutral taste.
- Watermelon.
Komarovsky calls rehydration solutions the best choice of drinking, however, with body temperature up to + 38 ° C, sufficient air moistening and the absence of breathing problems, one can be guided by the child’s desires.
A popular doctor advises giving babies coughing in addition to drinking breastfeeding, since the pathological waste of liquid breast milk does not cover. At an early age, the baby can be given a solution for rehydration, baby tea, mineral water and a decoction of raisins.
You need to water your baby more actively if:
- Indoor air is dry and warm.
- The body temperature of the child is high.
- Urination rare, and the urine itself is darker than usual.
- There is severe shortness of breath and dry cough.
- Skin and mucous dry.
With a slight deterioration, low temperature, and access to cool and humid air, Komarovsky calls thirst in a child the main criterion for the frequency of drinking. In this case, it is necessary to offer a drink very often and whenever possible. Support drinking regime is important in cases where the child has a protracted and residual cough.
Drug treatment
The appointment of any drugs to children with cough Komarovsky calls the prerogative of the doctor. This is especially true for cough in babies.
Protiscic preparations
Since the cough is a necessary protective reflex, in most cases such drugs are not needed. Their appointment Komarovsky calls justified whooping coughwhen the child is tormented by coughing up vomiting. Also, drugs that depress the cough reflex are needed for pleurisy, oncological process in the airways and for irritating cough caused by factors affecting the nerve endings.
Komarovsky is categorically against self-prescribing parents of antitussive drugs to their children. He recalls 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 over 2 years old only with indications and after prescription by a pediatrician.
Expectorants
The main purpose of the use of such drugs popular pediatrician calls the purification of the respiratory tract from sputum.According to Komarovsky, it is very dangerous to combine such medicines with antitussive ones, because in such cases the sputum accumulated in the lungs will not cough.
A well-known doctor separates all expectorants by their method of resorptive (they are absorbed in the stomach and excreted in the bronchi, affecting mucus) and reflex (they activate nerve endings in the stomach and affect the bronchial muscles and mucus production).
Most modern drugs refers to the means of reflex action. Komarovsky stresses that they are safe for children, but their effectiveness has not been proven, and the nature of the cough is influenced more by the conditions the child is in than any expectorant drugs.
Mucolytics
Such drugs affect the sputum itself, changing its rheology. Komarovsky names Ambroxol among the drugs of this group, bromhexine, carbocysteine, acetylcysteine and guaifenesin. Well-known doctor notes that such drugs should be used in the presence of a viscous thick sputum. If the child has a light version of ARVI and has a wet cough, according to Komarovsky, mucolytics are not needed and can even increase the cough. In addition, the effect of such drugs will be ineffective if they do not additionally affect the rheology of the blood through drinking plenty.
