Mukaltin for children: instructions for use

A child’s cough always bothers his parents and causes the desire to quickly help his son or daughter to get rid of such a discomfort symptom. Among the drugs used in the fight against cough, herbal medicines are in special demand. They are called safer and often discharged to children.

One of the long-known remedies based on such a medicinal plant as the Altea is Mukaltin. This drug has been treating cough for many years, prescribing it to children of different ages and their parents. How does this medicine affect the respiratory tract, at what dose is recommended in childhood, and what drugs can be replaced? Does Mukaltin dispense to a one-year-old baby and how to give it to small patients who cannot swallow pills?

Mukaltin is produced by many domestic pharmacological companies (Medisorb, Tatkhimpharmpreparaty, Aveksima, Update, Moscow Pharmaceutical Factory, etc.), but is represented by only one form - tablet. Such tablets have small size, characteristic aroma and cylindrical shape. Their shade is from light gray to a darker gray-brown color, and because of the vegetable raw materials, there are a lot of light and dark patches in the preparation. There is a risk on each tablet, so that if necessary it is easy to divide the medication into equal halves.

The medication is sold either in paper cell-free packaging or in foil and film blisters. One package / one blister contains 10 tablets, and a box can have 10, 20, 30 or more tablets. In addition, some manufacturers pack Mukaltin in polymer cans, bottles, tubes or canisters of 30 or 50 pieces.

The main component of Mukaltin is an extract, which is obtained from the root of Althea. One tablet contains 50 mg of such a dry extract, supplemented with povidone, tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and calcium stearate. These ingredients make the tablet dense and provide its shape.

Polysaccharides, pectins, plant mucus, mineral salts, starch, fatty acids, betaine and other substances that are found in Althea Drug, have expectorant and enveloping effects on the respiratory tract. They reflexively stimulate the respiratory tract, acting both on the peristalsis of the bronchioles and on the ciliated epithelium. In addition, taking pills activates the secretion of glands that are in the bronchi, softens the mucous membrane and reduces the inflammatory process. The result of this effect will be an active dilution of sputum and facilitate the expectoration of liquid mucus. This will reduce the intensity of cough and the duration of cough attacks.

Mukaltin is used for various pathologies of the respiratory system, a symptom of which is a cough with a very viscous sputum, called unproductive (when a small patient has difficulty separating mucus).

Medication prescribed:

• With obstructive bronchitis.
• When tracheobronchitis.
• With laryngitis.
• With pneumonia.
• With bronchiectasis.
• When tracheitis.

Answer this question is definitely difficult. In the annotation to the tablets of some manufacturers among the contraindications can be seen up to 12 years, but in many instructions no data on the age limit is noted. Some doctors prescribe such medicine from 3 years, others believe that it does not harm even younger children, prescribing Mukaltin to patients older than a year.

Mukaltin is not prescribed if the child has:

• An intolerance to any of the components of the drug.
• There is an ulcer disease of the upper part of the digestive tract (stomach and duodenum 12).
• The medicine is also not recommended for dry cough, when sputum is not formed at all, because in this case, Mukaltin intake will not have the desired effect.

It is advised to give the drug if:

• The child coughs up thick sputum, which is transparent, with white, yellowish or greenish inclusions.
• The cough is stronger in the morning, because immediately after waking up, all the sputum that has accumulated during the night's sleep should be removed from the respiratory tract.
• When coughing, wet rales are heard, as if soap bubbles burst.

These signs suggest that the child has such a wet cough, which is precisely treated with expectorant drugs.

Since the action of Mukaltin is provided by the plant base, allergic reactions may occur while taking the pills. They show redness, nausea, urticaria, vomiting, or pruritus. In rare cases, a child who is prescribed the drug has dyspeptic symptoms. Other side effects such treatment means usually does not provoke.

• Mukaltin give the child to swallow before eating (optimally - half an hour before the meal), offering to drink a pill with a small amount of water. The drug can also be absorbed in the mouth.
• For very young patients or if swallowing is difficult, Mukaltin should be dissolved in warm water.. To do this, add a tablet in 30-100 ml of water (liquid is taken in a volume of up to a third of a glass).
• If the baby is not allergic, then you can add a little honey or jam to the dissolved medicine to improve the taste.. It is also permissible to dilute the drug in warm compote or milk.
• Children under three years old with a single dose of Mukaltin is usually half a tablet.but a more accurate dosage for such patients is determined by the doctor. From the age of 3, you can take the medicine on the whole tablet. At the age of more than 12 years, the drug is also often taken 1 tablet each, but it can also be given two tablets per reception.
• Drink twice either thrice a day.

Such procedures with Mukaltin do in a nebulizer. Before inhalation dissolve one tablet in 80 milliliters of saline. Next, 3-4 ml are taken from the resulting volume and this amount of dissolved drug is poured into the nebulizer chamber. Breathing with this solution should be 1-2 times a day, the duration of the procedure is from three to five minutes, and the entire course of inhalation should not last more than 10 days.

A very large number of tablets does not have a toxic effect, but can cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, or an allergic reaction.If a child accidentally swallowed the drug in a considerable amount, you should immediately perform a gastric lavage and give some sorbent, for example, Enterosgel or polysorb. If an allergic reaction occurs, drugs with an antihistamine effect are used.

In addition, children with an overdose should be given more to drink, in order to quickly remove the ingredients of the tablets from the body.

Mukaltin is compatible with many other drugs that are used in the treatment of bronchopulmonary pathologies, for example, antibiotics, antipyretic, antiviral medications or other expectorant drugs (AmbroxolBrogmexin).

To buy Mukaltin in a pharmacy, you do not need to take a prescription from a doctor, but you must consult a specialist before using it in children (especially if the sick child is three years old). The price of tablets varies depending on the manufacturer and packaging, and can be from 7 to 40 rubles.

The shelf life of the drug is marked on the packaging of tablets and is usually 2 years or 3 years. To prevent the drug from losing its therapeutic effect, it should be kept in a dry place at a temperature of approximately from +15 to +25 degrees. Access for small children to such a place should not be. If the expiration date has expired, giving the child a pill is prohibited.

On the treatment of children Mukaltin can be found a lot of good reviews. The tool is praised for its availability in pharmacies, low cost and vegetable origin. According to parents, the drug copes well with an unproductive cough and helps to make thick sputum more liquid, making it easier for the child to cough up.

The disadvantages of pills, many mothers attribute their sour or bitter taste. The lack of medication is also called the absence of other dosage forms in addition to tablets. Because of this, parents often refuse Mukaltin and choose drugs with similar effects, which are released in syrup, because giving liquid and sweet medicine to kids is much easier.

You can replace Mukaltin with Altea syrup, as this medicine also contains an extract from the root of the plant. Its advantage is a sweet taste, so children take it more readily than dissolved Mukaltin tablets.

In addition, instead of Mukaltin can use other drugs with expectorant effect, which are based on medicinal plants:

• Bronchipret. This remedy, which is produced in drops and syrup, contains a combination of thyme and ivy plant extracts. Syrup is allowed to be given to infants of the first year of life (it is prescribed from 3 months), and drops are prescribed for children 6 years and older.

• Gelomirtol. Such soft capsules, including active substances from lemon, eucalyptus, orange and myrtle, are used when coughing in children over six years old.

• Bronhikum S. The effect of such lozenges is provided by thyme extract and levomenthol. The drug is in demand in children older than 6 years. Younger children can be given elixir Bronhikum TP (from 1 year) or Bronhikum syrup (from six months).

• Herbion. This name is immediately in several cough syrups containing thyme, mallow, ivy, plantain and primrose. All of them are used in children older than 2 years.

• Dr. Mom. The line of cough medicines under this name includes syrup, lozenges and ointment. For their manufacture use levomenthol, extracts from medicinal plants, thymol and other substances. Syrup and ointment are used from 3 years of age, and lozenges should not be given until the age of 14-18.

• Dry cough mixture. This medicine contains extracts from licorice, anise, althea and other plants. The doctor can prescribe this medicine even for babies up to a year, if there are grounds for this.

• Linkas. As part of this syrup, you can see extracts from licorice, zizifus, althea, cordia, violet, alpine and other plants. The drug is prescribed to children with cough older than 6 months.

• Gedelix The basis of this syrup are ivy leaves. The drug is allowed from birth, and its analogue is Prospan syrup. Also released Gedelix dropsappointed by children older than 2 years (their analogue is Prospan drops).

• Evkabal. The main ingredients of this syrup are thyme and plantain. Children it is prescribed at the age of 1 year older.

Instead of inhalation with Mukaltin, you can do procedures with expectorant drugs like Ambrobene, ACC, Lasolvan or Bronchipret.

For what cough is and how to treat it, see the next video.