Folk remedies for the treatment of cough in children over 3 years

Coughing a child is a problem for the whole family. Often, parents of three-year-olds are interested in whether it is possible to cure this ailment at home with folk remedies that moms and dads consider for several reasons safer for the children than pharmaceutical syrups and pills.

There is nothing unusual in this desire, and the parents are right in their own way: syrups from pharmacists contain dyes, sugar, and not all children tolerate it well. However, one should not delude ourselves and believe that folk recipes can completely replace traditional medicines. Of course not, but they make it possible to alleviate the condition of the child and speed up recovery.

The main mistake of moms and dads - to believe that folk remedies are completely harmless to children. In fact, as with the use of tablets and mixtures, when treating with “grandmother's” recipes, it is important to observe the proportions, the dosage, and also to know when it is possible and when it is impossible to take folk remedies when coughing. We will talk about this in more detail.

Before starting the treatment of children's cough, parents should clarify a number of very important questions necessary for a competent choice of a method of therapy and means. First, you need to try to understand what causes this unconditioned reflex, which, as you know, is not an independent disease.

In children, cough in 90% of cases is caused by a viral infection, such as influenza or ARVI.

A relatively small percentage of babies suffer from an allergic reflex caused by irritation to an external or internal antigen (this can be either allergy on a flowering poplar, so the reaction to polluted air, chemical vapors, household chemicals, which is used in the apartment, etc.).

Impressive kids with a “fine mental organization” can suffer a nervous cough after experiencing stress, and inquisitive three-year-olds who like to disassemble everything into bolts and bolts can inadvertently inhale some sort of small foreign body. By the way, this reason is far from uncommon, as it may seem at first glance.

It is clear that at home to find the exact cause of cough is quite difficult. That is why I will not get tired of repeating that a doctor should make a diagnosis, but parents can choose the method of treatment on their own, these pediatricians are always ready to discuss with their patients. Thus, it is best to show the child with a cough to the doctor, and only then look for suitable folk remedies to alleviate the baby’s condition.

If the reason is better to contact a specialist, then there are other criteria for coughing that parents can determine on their own. This is the duration of the symptom:

• acute (up to 2 weeks);
• prolonged (more than 2 weeks);
• subacute (more than a month);
• chronic (more than 2 months).

Also moms and dads useful to learn how to determine the type of cough, and this is one of two things:

• Wet. Productive cough, which is characterized by the separation of sputum (bronchial secretions). After a cough reflex attack, the child becomes easier.Sometimes with deep breathing without special medical devices one can hear gurgling sounds in the bronchus region.

• Dry. Unproductive cough, exhausting, with frequent and painful attacks. Phlegm does not stand out, so after each attack of the reflex relief the child does not feel. Dry cough becomes more intense at night, sometimes accompanied by strong hoarseness, coarsening of the voice and in this case is called "barking."

It should be noted that with viral infections, as a rule, the cough is initially dry. With improper therapy or lack of treatment, it can turn into wet.

Wet cough give expectorant medicines and traditional medicine, which have the property to quickly withdraw sputum from the bronchi, to prevent its accumulation and thickening.

With dry cough the task of therapy is to reduce the intensity of the cough reflex. For these purposes, using antitussive drugs and traditional medicine prescriptions that have this effect.

Apply simultaneously, and those other drugs is unacceptable. This will cause deterioration and the development of strong inflammatory processes in the respiratory organs.

Folk remedies cure cough is quite difficult, it is wiser to use them as adjuvant therapy in combination with medicines prescribed by a doctor. This approach will be most appropriate in the treatment of cough caused by viral infections.

However, one should not forget that there are conditions and diseases that are strictly forbidden to be treated only with folk remedies. So, cough sometimes as a symptom accompanies diseases of the cardiovascular system, the gastrointestinal tract, it may be the only sign of tuberculosis and other dangerous ailments. If in this situation, to treat the child only for cough, and folk remedies that do not eliminate the causes of this very cough, then you can bring the child to disability or death.

Alone "grandmother's" recipes can not do if the child in the sputum, we notice the admixture of blood or pus, if he had a bad breath, if the cough attack ends vomitif the cough is protracted, if no other symptoms besides him are noticeable.

The use of traditional recipes of alternative medicine requires more responsibility and rationality from parents than the therapy prescribed by the doctor in pharmaceutical pharmaceutical preparations.

Only “grandmother's” recipes can not do if the child in the sputum, we notice the admixture of blood or pus, if he had an unpleasant smell from the mouth, if the cough attack ends with vomiting, if the cough has a protracted nature, if no other symptoms besides him, not noticeable.

Children older than three years of traditional medicine offers a fairly wide range of effective recipes. From this age, you can enter into the diet honey, lemons, to give herbal, which themselves are quite allergenic. Thus, the parents of these children have the opportunity to try different ways, such an opportunity is completely deprived of the mother and father of children under one year.

Ingredients: a glass of boiled milk of any fat content, a tablespoon of honey, a tablespoon of butter, 1 chicken egg, soda. The yolk should be separated from the protein, grind and add soda at the tip of the knife. Add butter and honey to the hot milk, cool slightly and carefully pour the yolk with soda. Drink a quarter glass three times a day with a wet cough.

Ingredients: 1 lemon, two tablespoons of glycerin, liquid honey. The lemon is washed, and several punctures are made on the peel, after which they are dipped in boiling water for five minutes. After that, it will be easy to get juice from lemon. Glycerin is mixed in, everything is poured into a glass and filled to the top with liquid honey. Insist means should be about 3-4 hours. Children over 3 years old give a teaspoon three times a day half an hour before meals.

Ingredients: 2-3 medium sized bulbs, 0.5 liters of milk, a tablespoon of honey. Onions should be chopped and cooked in milk until soft. Broth filter and add chalk to it. Children from 3 years give a tablespoon every 3 hours to reduce the intensity of dry cough.

Ingredients: 1 pine cone or 100 gr. Raw pine nuts, a liter of milk. It is easy to make a drink - you need to boil the lump or nuts for 40 minutes in milk over low heat. Give the resulting child warm liquid, 2 tablespoons 5 times a day.

Ingredients: 200 grams of black currant (fresh or thawed), a teaspoon of honey. From the berries squeeze juice mixed with honey. Give a baby a teaspoon 4-5 times a day. The tool helps with dry unproductive cough.

Ingredients: 300 grams of granular cottage cheese, gauze, food film. Cottage cheese spread on the gauze, covered with the top of its second end. A compress is placed on the child’s chest, covered with cling film and wrapped with a woolen scarf or shawl on top. Compress can be left overnight.

Ingredients: mustard powder (10 g). Dry compress when coughing make legs. Mustard powder is poured into woolen socks and put on the baby’s legs for 2-3 hours. The tool is effective for dry and unproductive cough. Flakes based on mustard, honey, vegetable oil and flour can be applied on the chest for 2-4 hours in a warm form.

The treatment will be more effective and safe for the child if mom and dad know a few important nuances of home cough therapy:

• Create the right microclimate. Bronchial secretion will not dry out, and the risk of severe inflammatory processes in the respiratory organs will significantly decrease if you monitor the temperature of the air in the apartment where the child lives and the humidity of the air in it.

• Air and do wet cleaning in the nursery daily. If your baby has an allergic cough, do not use household chemicals containing chlorine, make sure that no dust accumulates in the apartment, that the baby’s things are washed only with baby powder. You also need to collect and throw away all cheap toys of unknown origin, which may be toxic.
• Follow the drinking regime. During the treatment of cough, it is important to give the child as much warm drink as possible. This is done in order to protect the mucous membranes of the respiratory organs from drying out, and also drinking helps to liquefy and eliminate sputum. Do not give carbonated drinks and liquid that is too cold (this can cause vasospasm). It is best to cook a compote of dried fruit, make green tea, give herbal preparations, rosehip decoction, fruit drinks. Warm drinking helps to reduce the cough reflex and expectoration.
• Limit the use of compresses and inhalations. These procedures, so beloved by many parents, can cause serious harm to the health of the child if they are not carried out according to the rules. Inhalations and warming wet compresses are strictly forbidden if the coughing occurs on the background of increased body temperature.This can cause a violation of heat transfer in the child and cause severe and extensive inflammatory processes.
• Do not do inhalation with hot steam, the old-fashioned forcing the child to breathe over a pot of boiling water or potatoes. This can cause burns to the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, larynx, bronchi, trachea. Use special devices - inhaler or nebulizer.

• Treatment should be comprehensive. Recovery will be faster if parents begin to use not only medicines and folk recipes, but also master the vibratory and drainage massage. It is simple and does not require special skills, but effectively helps the separation and removal of bronchial mucus. The massage is based on stroking and tapping at the ribs, chest and back. But to put the banks, as was customary 20-30 years ago, modern doctors do not recommend.

• Change your lifestyle. With frequent diseases and chronic cough, the child should think about the possibility of systematic hardening of the child. The kid, even with a cough, must walk a lot. During treatment, do not limit its mobility, running, charging, sports, and simply active games contribute to more frequent breaths, and therefore, additionally stimulate the release of sputum.

• Spend a psychosomatic correction. It is no secret that all diseases in addition to the main pathogen have a close connection with the psychological state of the child.