What can cause a cough in a month old baby. How to deal with a cough in one month old newborns How to cure a cough in a 1 month old baby

With the advent of cold weather comes a period of colds. Toddlers are especially vulnerable because their immune systems are just learning to deal with foreign bacteria. Hearing a cough in a baby, a young mother may be confused and not respond in time, although this is a very serious symptom. In the article, we will look at what causes coughing, how to treat cough in newborns, and review popular cough medicines for the smallest.

Causes of cough in a baby

First of all, it is necessary to recognize the nature of the cough.

A child's cough may be:

  • Wet
  • Dry
  • With or without temperature.

By its intensity and sound, one can understand whether the cause lies in the disease or something interferes with the normal functioning of the respiratory tract. So, the most common causes of cough in an infant.

1. SARS

More than in 90% cases, cough is the first symptom of a beginning ARVI. The baby occasionally coughs, the intensity of the cough increases in the evening and at night. Throat red, inflamed. The cells begin to secrete mucus. A cough that lasts more than 2 weeks is very dangerous. The immune defense is weakened, the process can become chronic.

2. Inflammatory process of the upper respiratory tract

It is characterized by an obsessive cough, at first dry. Very painful for a child. When neglected, it can lead to complications. The most dangerous is false croup. With it, the walls of the throat narrow sharply, the child, due to a lack of oxygen, begins to whistle hoarsely and suffocate. The disease requires immediate medical attention.

3. Dry indoor air

May cause sore throat. If an infant has a strong cough that does not have prerequisites for illness, you should pay attention to the normalization of humidity in the room of a newborn baby.

4. Inflammation of the middle ear

With inflammation of the middle ear, the child begins a reflex cough. This is the body's response to this inflammation. When pressing on the earlobe, the child emits a sharp, piercing cry - which means that the reason is precisely in the ear pain. The best option would be to call an emergency ambulance.

5. Foreign body inhalation

If a foreign object - any - has got into the child's airways, urgently call 03. The child's life is at risk and the countdown is seconds. Do not knock on the back and do not try to "knock" this object out - you can get it stuck in the trachea or bronchi.

6. Polluted air

Is it smoky in the room, or is it too gassed outside? Don't be surprised if your child starts coughing non-stop. The longer you stay in such conditions, the more harmful substances will absorb the immature and tender lungs of the baby.

We treat cough: what mom needs to know

Treatment of cough, both with and without fever, should be carried out only under the supervision of a pediatrician. At the first symptoms, you need to start the prescribed therapy.

But here is what a mother can do to alleviate the condition of the child:

  • Observe the optimal level of humidity in the room. If the heating season has begun and the batteries inevitably dry the air with their heat, purchase an air humidifier or make it yourself from improvised means. You can fill the container with clean water and put it on the battery - the water will evaporate and the humidity will increase. In extreme cases, you can irrigate the room with water from a spray bottle once an hour.
  • Ventilate your home at least twice a day. Lack of oxygen will only aggravate the condition of your baby's respiratory system.
  • Give your baby a light back massage. It helps to expel mucus and improve the well-being of the child.
  • Encourage your child to drink frequently. Especially if the baby has a fever. To avoid dehydration, let water, tea, juices be available to the child.
  • An old folk cough remedy for babies is rubbing with animal fat. It is best to do the procedure before going to bed. Thoroughly rub the baby's body on the back and chest, wrap it up and put it to bed. In the morning the child will feel much better. See detailed article:
  • Don't forget the walks. Inhaling fresh air, the lungs of the baby open, filled with strength and freshness. The kid will be distracted from the painful cough, and a good mood always has a positive effect on the healing process.

An excellent remedy for the treatment of cough at the initial stage - nebulizer. Pour into a glass 5 ml of physical. solution (sold in a pharmacy within 50 rubles) and let the child breathe for 5-7 minutes. The mucous membranes will be moistened, the sputum will become less viscous. You can repeat the procedure twice a day. This method is effective when it takes place.

With temperature jokes are bad. With a cough and a temperature of 38.5, most likely you and your baby will be hospitalized in the hospital. Do not be afraid to get there, it is better not to take risks and be under the supervision of specialists. The main thing is the health of your child, and temporary inconvenience can be tolerated.

Cough medicines

Remember: only a doctor can prescribe all medications! This overview is for informational purposes only.

  • With a wet cough, a drug is needed to help remove sputum. The following herbal syrups have proven themselves well: Gedelix and Prospan . They gently liquefy phlegm, have a sweet taste, and are used twice a day.
  • For dry cough homeopathic syrup works well Stodal and homeopathic remedy Oscillococcinum (granules for dissolution in water). Homeopathy has no contraindications, can be used in conjunction with the main treatment.
  • Ease breathing and relieve cough patches Nozzle. They are glued to clothes, impregnated with extracts of useful herbs that have a beneficial effect on the mucous membranes of the nose and larynx.
  • Sprays for babies are contraindicated due to the danger of suffocation. However, when strong inflammatory process application possible Spray Tantum Verde . It has a sweet taste, soothes sore throats and dulls coughing fits.

IMPORTANT! Article: This should be in every home!

Video

Often the chest coughs. But bronchospasm may not be a sign of illness. Cough in a baby (as in an adult) is a natural reaction of the respiratory tract to irritation caused by the ingress of foreign bodies (solid and liquid) into them. Get into the bronchi and cause an attack can: milk, saliva, mucus, etc.

A cough in a newborn will pass as soon as the body gets rid of the irritant. On average, young children can cough up to ten times a day. And this is considered the norm for a healthy child. A slight cough is also the norm, you should not worry about it. However, it is important to remember that a cough in a child of 8 months or at any other age can be a symptom of a cold.

TEST: Why are you coughing?

How long have you been coughing?

Is your cough combined with a runny nose and is most noticeable in the morning (after sleep) and in the evening (already in bed)?

Cough can be described as:

You characterize cough as:

Can you say that the cough is deep (in order to understand this, take a lot of air into your lungs and cough)?

During a coughing fit, do you feel pain in your abdomen and/or chest (pain in the intercostal muscles and abdominals)?

Do you smoke?

Pay attention to the nature of the mucus that is released during the cough (no matter how much it is: a little or a lot). She is:

Do you feel a dull pain in the chest, which does not depend on movements and is of an “internal” nature (as if the focus of pain is in the lung itself)?

Do you suffer from shortness of breath (during physical activity, you quickly “out of breath” and get tired, breathing becomes faster, after which there is a lack of air)?

Types of cough

Coughing in a newborn (like sneezing) is a normal phenomenon and a protective reflex. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between types of cough in order to accurately determine the cause of bronchospasm.

Dry cough in infants can be caused by many factors. Therefore, it is not easy to accurately determine the cause of bronchospasm. It may be a symptom of SARS. In addition, a dry cough is characteristic of parapertussis and whooping cough at the initial stage. In other cases, such a cough in infants indicates an allergic reaction or even bronchial asthma.

Young children cannot clear mucus on their own. Therefore, at first glance it seems that the bronchospasm is dry, but in fact it is wet, because the baby simply swallows sputum.

In addition, a two-month-old baby's cough may be wet. In most cases, it accompanies SARS, but at the final stage of recovery. If the coughed up mucus is clear, then you should not worry. Complications are not observed.

Coughing with yellow or green sputum is a sign of a bacterial infection. It affects the respiratory tract and often provokes such ailments as pneumonia, tracheitis, bronchitis and others.

Causes of bronchospasm

What causes coughing in a 5 month old baby? This is important to know. After all, the correct diagnosis is the key to successful treatment. So, the main causes of coughing in an infant are:

How can I help you?

A cough in a child up to a year old with and without high fever should be treated only under the strict supervision of pediatricians. Otherwise, complications and dangerous consequences cannot be avoided. But a mom can help her baby relieve a dry or wet cough. Helpful tips for this:

Cough medicines

Is it possible to treat a cough in a month-old baby with medications? Yes, but only a pediatrician should prescribe them. Today, three large groups of drugs treat a cough in a three-month-old child.

Fees

If a baby is coughing, try buying a collection based on three or four medicinal herbs:

  • chamomile;
  • anise;
  • plantain;
  • marshmallow.

Some doctors advise using one, maximum two components for tea. Multi-component fees are recommended for use from 8 months of age.

Precautionary measures

Avoid overdose of expectorant cough medicines. Otherwise, the effect will be the opposite, which will lead to a protracted illness. In addition, it is fraught with an increase in the amount of sputum, which is not easy for the baby to expectorate.

It is impossible to treat a cough in a child for 1 month with antitussive and expectorant drugs at the same time. They do not mix well, which is indicated in most syrup instructions. If you ignore such advice and mix the cough preparations described above, sputum will be actively secreted and the cough center will be suppressed. This is fraught with the development of pneumonia.

Common Mistakes

Regardless of whether you are treating a cough in children under one year old or a cough in a 7 month old baby, remember well:

Do not forget: it is far from always necessary to immediately give the crumbs cough medicine. A cough in a month-old baby can be caused not by a disease, but by many other reasons. Therefore, cough preparations and the optimal treatment regimen are selected only by a specialist.

Infants often cough, but it is far from always a sign of a condition that needs to be treated. This is a reflex reaction of the respiratory tract that occurs when any foreign bodies, including liquid ones, enter them. In babies, mucus, saliva, milk often flow into the bronchi, and in order to clear the respiratory organs of them, the child begins to cough. As soon as the irritant is eliminated, all the symptoms that alarm parents stop.

But a cough in a newborn and an infant can also develop with a cold, an inflammatory process in the upper respiratory tract, bronchitis. And this is a problem that needs treatment.

Possible causes of cough in infants

Cough in children of the first month of life, when the cough reflex is just being formed, is rarely observed. The baby, especially if he is breastfed, is protected from viruses by maternal antibodies. So in a newborn, a cold is rarely the cause of a cough.

The following situations are more likely in a month-old baby:

  • The baby begins to cough immediately after waking up, and the rest of the time is calm. Most likely, the reason for this is the mucus accumulated during sleep and flowed into the respiratory tract.
  • The child cried, then coughed. Explanation: tears, snot got into the throat, which caused irritation.
  • Cough accompanied by eating. Probably, the baby is in a hurry, swallows too much milk and begins to cough choking.

  • The cough is dry and occurs for no apparent reason. It is worth analyzing the environment in which the baby is located, the diet of a nursing mother for the presence of allergens (for artificial people, pay attention to the mixture). Although in children of the first months of life, allergies manifest themselves mainly in the form of skin reactions, but respiratory symptoms are also possible.

In the first 3 situations, the problem is solved by itself, as soon as the baby clears his throat. When coughing, it usually has to be treated with antihistamines. But the primary task is to identify and eliminate the allergen.

In an infant during teething, another reason for coughing is added: increased salivation and flow of saliva into the throat. Parents of a newborn may confuse noisy breathing with stridor for coughing and wheezing in the airways. It is due to age-related features of the structure of the larynx of children up to a year. Despite the frightening hoarse sound, this phenomenon is harmless, it does not need to be treated, it disappears with age.

What diseases can cause cough

One of the possible causes of coughing in the first months of a child's life may be a cold, SARS. The baby runs the risk of becoming infected from others by airborne droplets, and weakened immunity, hypothermia contribute to the development of the disease. In children of one month of age, as well as older crumbs, up to a year, colds are manifested not only by coughing. Their - stuffy nose, snot (usually quite liquid and transparent), lethargy.

Often, due to a cough and a runny nose, sleep is disturbed, possibly. ARVI should be treated before it becomes complicated by more serious diseases. First of all, it is necessary to consult a doctor on the selection of drugs that advise the age of the baby..

Cough is also accompanied by such independent diseases and complications of the common cold:

  • laryngitis - cough dry and hoarse, painful;
  • sinusitis (most often sinusitis). Along with a cough that worsens at night, its characteristic feature is the release of purulent snot;
  • whooping cough - a serious infectious disease, accompanied by a prolonged intense cough that lasts for months;
  • , can develop both in a month-old baby and at a later age. It manifests itself first with a dry, then with a wet cough.

Another cause of cough, not associated with the disease, but requiring immediate action is aspiration. In children, foreign bodies, liquid or solid, quite often enter the respiratory tract. In addition to a strong excruciating cough in such situations, suffocation often develops. It is not always possible for a child to cough up and get rid of a foreign object on his own. If the baby coughs, starts to choke, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Some children suffer from reflux esophagitis, a pathology of the digestive system. In this case, the baby begins to cough due to the fact that acidic, irritating stomach contents have entered the esophagus and throat. This problem occurs mainly when the baby is lying down. It requires examination and treatment, but not at all the same as with colds.

Cough treatment

When a cough caused by a disease in a newborn or infant, this disease should be treated, and the cough, if it is dry, try to soften and make it wet. should correspond to the nature of the disease (antiviral for ARVI, antihistamines for an allergic reaction, antibiotics for a bacterial infection, for example, whooping cough). The pediatrician must determine the cause of the cough, the nature of the disease and prescribe a mild but effective therapy.

The cough itself can be treated with a number of pharmaceutical preparations:

  • dry cough medicine. Designed specifically for children, suitable even for months of age and even from the first days of life. The composition is plant-based, available in sachets, the contents of one sachet is designed for 15 ml of water. Children up to a year should be given 15-20 drops per reception 3-4 times a day;
  • Alteika is another popular cough medicine for children, including infants. Also with plant extracts, but in the form of a syrup. For preschoolers, it must be diluted with water;
  • Ambroxol, Lazolvan, Bromhexine and many other cough syrups for children under 2 years of age should be given in the minimum dosage. The lower age limit is not indicated in the instructions for these drugs, it is better to get advice from a pediatrician, from what month of life it is allowed to give such funds.

Non-drug treatment

In addition to using ready-made preparations, you can treat your baby with prepared products.

  • a gentle decoction of chamomile will help a child of 1-2 months. To prepare it, chamomile (1 tablespoon of flowers) must be poured with a glass of boiling water, and after a couple of hours, strain. Give the baby a teaspoon every hour, but with a strong cough this will not be enough;
  • a decoction of the leaves of coltsfoot and plantain is indicated from 4 months. A tablespoon of raw materials mixed in equal proportions is poured with a glass of boiling water and infused for 2 hours, it is better to use a thermos. This is an expectorant drug that can cause a gag reflex, in which case a dosage reduction is required. If there are no side effects, the baby can be given 2 tablespoons a quarter of an hour before meals;
  • licorice root helps a lot. The best effect is achieved when it is used together with marshmallow and elecampane roots. The components must be mixed in equal proportions. The infusion is prepared as follows: for half a liter of cold water you need a tablespoon of the mixture, it will take 8 hours to infuse the raw materials. 2-3 doses per day, 50 g at a time.

In addition to expectorants taken orally, warm compresses help eliminate coughing. But they can treat a child only at normal body temperature. Compresses are recommended not to be applied directly to the delicate skin of the baby, but to a diaper folded in several layers. A second diaper, waxed paper or polyethylene is superimposed on top, this whole structure is wrapped with a bandage, a cloth.


You can also do rubbing with badger, heated goat fat. It is best to treat the chest and legs. When doing warm compresses and rubbing, you need to treat only the chest area, and not the back. It is also important to exclude the effect on the region of the heart.

Small children do not know how to do inhalations, but you can saturate the air with healing vapors by pouring hot water with eucalyptus tincture into the bath. Then you just need to go into the room with the baby in your arms and stay there for about 10 minutes. It is better to bring him into the bathroom naked, and after the procedure, dry and wrap him up.

Measures to relieve and prevent cough in a child

In order to alleviate the condition of the infant, to alleviate the cough, it is necessary to provide him with a gentle regimen, but not completely limit his activity. If the baby is already receiving complementary foods, it is better to refuse it for a while. Do not worry if the baby began to drink less milk. It is better to give him plenty of other fluids; in infancy, ordinary drinking water is the best option.

It is important to maintain the humidity in the room, especially with a dry cough. Do not protect a sick baby from the slightest breeze and clog all windows. Airing during the period of illness of the baby is mandatory, but at this time it is better to take it to another room. In good weather, walking or sleeping in the fresh air is recommended, if. Helps with coughing light massage of the chest, reflex zones on the legs.

Cough in an infant is quite rare in comparison with children aged 1 to 7 years. If the baby receives only mother's milk as food, then the risk of suffering a cold for up to a year is minimized. In the presence of a runny nose and high temperature, ARVI can be suspected. If there is no snot, the thermometer shows 36.6 C, and the child begins to cough, you should check for allergies or whooping cough. In no case should you engage in self-medication, since the respiratory muscles of newborns and infants are not sufficiently developed. The baby will not be able to cough up sputum from the lungs and bronchi, which leads to stagnation of mucus in the airways and the occurrence of complications.

If the baby is fed breast milk, the risk of catching a cold before the age of one will be minimized.

Types of cough

Coughing in babies is the same protective reflex inherent in nature as sneezing. Mothers worry when they notice that the child is coughing. Pediatricians consider a slight manifestation of the reflex to be the norm, even if the baby coughed several times a day. There are two types of cough:

  1. Dry. It is typical for the initial stage of acute respiratory viral infections, parapertussis and whooping cough, bronchial asthma or an allergic reaction, which makes it difficult to make a correct diagnosis. An examination by a pediatrician is necessary, since mothers without experience often mistake a wet cough for a dry one (see also:). A baby under 3 months of age swallows mucus rather than coughing it up, so parents are confused.
  2. Wet. If a cough in a baby begins without a fever, this means that the disease is nearing completion. Do not worry when clear and thin sputum leaves. Yellowish or greenish mucus indicates a serious infection in the respiratory tract.

If the cough in an infant is wet, does not go away within a month and is not accompanied by fever, this may be a sign of pneumonia, tracheitis, or chronic bronchitis. The bronchi of children older than six months are able to self-cleanse, but in newborns and babies up to 5-6 months, this function has not matured. Cough appears when sputum irritates the back wall of the nasopharynx, flowing down.

Basic therapy

Cough treatment is always individual and is prescribed only after a doctor's examination. The course depends on the nature of the disease and includes:

  • Antipyretic drugs. If the temperature rises with coughing, syrups with ibuprofen or paracetamol will help to reduce it.


If the cough is accompanied by a high fever, syrup will help bring it down.
  • Antiviral medicines. SARS can be treated with immunomodulatory agents. Doctors recommend using Viferon suppositories, since they have no contraindications and age restrictions (we recommend reading:). The drug can be prescribed to children from birth to one year.
  • Washing the nasal passages. If the baby is prevented from breathing by thick snot, he sneezes and begins to breathe through his mouth (we recommend reading:). After a short period of time, the mucous membranes in the mouth and throat will dry out, and the child will cough. Before going to bed, it is important to rinse the baby's nose with saline or saline. During the day, you can instill 3 drops in each nostril 4 to 8 times. After the washing procedure, it is useful to drip the spout with an oily solution of "Ectericide" at a dosage of 1 drop. This will create a thin protective layer of the drug on the mucous membranes.
  • Homeopathy. To cure an infant from coughing, pediatricians prescribe drugs based on natural products. Especially popular is the Stondal syrup, which has established itself as an excellent antitussive, bronchodilator and expectorant.

With a runny nose, it is forbidden to use antibacterial drops for the treatment of infants. Sometimes a doctor may prescribe a vasoconstrictor if the baby sneezes, but not for the treatment of SARS.

If a cough in a month-old baby is accompanied by snot, but the temperature remains within the normal range, this may indicate pharyngitis, laryngitis, or rhinitis of allergic etiology.

Cough remedies for babies

Infants and one-year-olds can be treated with safe forms of medications - drops and syrups. Cough medicines are divided into three groups:

  1. Mucolytic. They are produced on the basis of hydrochloride, acetylcysteine, bromhexine and ambroxol, which thin thick sputum in the respiratory tract. Among the popular ones are: "Mukodin", "Flavamed", "Flyuditek", "Mukosol", "Bromhexine", "Ambrobene", "Lazolvan". Syrups are given to children up to a year, but only after consultation with a pediatrician.
  2. Antitussives. They are prescribed for dry cough, which has the form of seizures. The drugs reduce the occurrence of the cough reflex, which is most effective in the treatment of whooping cough. Among the contraindications are children under 2 years of age. Syrups "Panatus" and "Sinekod" are allowed for children of the first year of life, if the therapy is carried out under the strict supervision of a doctor.
  3. Expectorants. They are effective if the cough of a one-month-old baby is wet, but the sputum comes out with difficulty (for more details, see the article:). Assign syrups based on plantain or ivy extract. Additionally, the composition includes plant components: coltsfoot, rosemary, thyme, oregano, elecampane, marshmallow, licorice, anise, thyme. Among the well-known drugs are recommended: "Prospan", "Doctor MOM", "Gedelix", "Bronchicum" and "Dr (we recommend reading:). Theiss. "Prospan" and "Bronhikum" are allowed from 4-6 months. A month-old baby may be allergic to herbs, so the baby's well-being must be monitored. If a skin rash or swelling occurs, the medication should be stopped and a pediatrician should be visited.

If a newborn sneezes and coughs, the doctor calculates the dosage of the drug (we recommend reading:). An overdose of an expectorant medicine is dangerous, since a month-old baby's cough can drag on. The volume of secreted mucus will increase, but a baby aged from a month to a year cannot physically cough it up.

It is forbidden to combine antitussive and expectorant medicines, as manufacturers warn about in the instructions. With the suppression of cough and the simultaneous formation of a large volume of mucus, pneumonia occurs.



Expectorant syrup Gedelix improves sputum discharge

Baby first aid

Before the arrival of the doctor, parents are able to follow simple tips to alleviate the condition of the crumbs. At home, it is difficult to determine why the baby is coughing and sneezing, but you can help reduce negative symptoms:

  1. Plentiful drink. If a newborn coughs, then it is allowed to drink only water. When breastfeeding, breastfeeding should be offered more frequently. Do not forget that high temperatures lead to dehydration. Do not miss a dangerous signal if you watch the filling of the diaper. With infrequent urination (1 time in 4 hours), it is necessary to start soldering the little one. Babies from six months are offered raisin water, a decoction of wild rose or linden, diluted juice or dried fruit.
  2. Minimum clothing. The warmer the baby is dressed, the faster it loses moisture. The mucous membranes dry out, so the baby begins to cough.
  3. Walks in the open air. If the child coughs, but other health indicators are normal, short walks are allowed. The exception is weather conditions when it is very cold outside. Do not be afraid if the baby only coughed during the day, and in the evening after the walk, the cough intensified. This leads to a better discharge of mucus.
  4. Comfortable air humidity. In order for a dry, painful cough to turn into a wet one, it is not necessary to resort to medicines. It is enough to set the humidity in the house at the level of 50-70%. The temperature in the room where the baby is located should not rise above 22 C. 18 C is considered ideal, otherwise the sputum in the airways will be more viscous and thick.
  5. Safe inhalation. Steam procedures are prohibited in order to avoid burns to the skin and mucous membranes. If the baby coughs, it is recommended to install next to the arena for the duration of the illness. Doctors advise with a dry cough to fill the bath with hot water, adding soda to it. Then take the baby in your arms and sit in the bathroom, inhaling wet alkaline fumes.


Walking in the fresh air will help the baby recover faster and speed up recovery.

Additional measures: do's and don'ts

A wet cough in one-year-old children is often accompanied by mucus that is difficult to separate. In this case, drainage massage will help. You can invite a specialist to your home who does professional massage for babies, but the mother is able to carry out some manipulations on her own:

  • lay the baby on the back;
  • put your palms on the chest and stroke it from the bottom up;
  • turn the little one on his stomach;
  • in circular soft movements "walk" along the back, avoiding the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe spine.

Finish the massage with light pats from the bottom up. It is advisable to position the baby so that the head is below the buttocks.

Fearing the negative consequences of taking medications, mothers, on the advice of their grandmothers, resort to the use of traditional medicine. Pediatricians are categorically against such experiments on the children's body:

  1. Thoughtless manipulations almost always lead to the opposite effect. Compresses with dry mustard, vinegar or vodka provoke burns and poisoning. Often there are dangerous spasms of the bronchi and larynx.
  2. Babies of the first year of life develop an allergy to medicinal herbs, so chest preparations, infusions and decoctions should be used after consultation with a specialist.

We must not forget that the time of shortage has long passed, and medicine does not stand still. The pharmaceutical industry can offer a lot of effective and safe drugs.



Medicinal herbs that are effective and effective for adults are far from always suitable for infants.

Expert opinion

Evgeny Olegovich Komarovsky does not see anything terrible in the cough reflex, since it is inherent in all people. The snot that appears flows down the nasopharynx in children, so the body is forced to get rid of mucus. When diseases of the upper respiratory tract or lungs occur, the volume of sputum increases, it is removed through a natural reflex.

If the snot in the nose dries up, it becomes difficult to breathe, which leads to further complications. Komarovsky believes that preventing sputum from drying out in the bronchi is also important if the little one is coughing. It is necessary to provide a sufficient amount of drink for the baby and organize access to fresh cool air. Without consulting a doctor, it is forbidden to use antitussive drugs that are effective only for whooping cough. The use of mucolytic and expectorant drugs is allowed if it is evening outside and you need to somehow act.

Symptoms of any type of cough allow you to visit a pediatrician and get the necessary recommendations. The following drugs are effective and relatively safe:

  • lazolvan;
  • acetylcysteine;
  • bromhexine;
  • potassium iodide;
  • mukaltin;
  • ammonia-anise drops.

They should be in the home first aid kit, but the doctor sets the dosage. The specialist will also tell you the appropriateness of using a particular medication.



Mukaltin is an inexpensive, but very effective expectorant drug.

The danger of complications after SARS is the development of acute bronchitis or pneumonia, there are frequent cases of secondary bacterial infections. The baby is prescribed antibiotics in tandem with additional medications. Such treatment will negatively affect the formation of the immune system, but there is no other way out. For this reason, Komarovsky recommends not self-medicating, contacting specialists in time and not endangering the baby. If the child has pneumonia before the age of 2 months, the lung alveoli remain affected and stop developing.

Why is whooping cough dangerous?

With whooping cough, the cough reflex has some characteristic features, only a pediatrician is able to make a correct diagnosis. A timely DPT vaccination does not completely protect against infection, but allows you to transfer the disease in a milder form. The mass refusal of vaccination in recent years has led to the fact that whooping cough is more common among preschool children. Self-treatment and self-confidence of mothers in their own actions complicate and slow down the diagnosis, since they turn to doctors at 2-3 weeks of illness.



Vaccination will not protect one hundred percent from the disease, but it will help to significantly alleviate its course.

Whooping cough and its severe forms are deadly to infants because of paroxysmal, hysterical coughing that provokes severe vomiting, respiratory failure, and even respiratory arrest. Whooping cough symptoms include:

  • dry cough, similar to a common cold;
  • in subsequent stages, the cough becomes more painful, not turning into a wet form;
  • cough reflex occurs on exhalation and is paroxysmal in nature;
  • after a prolonged cough, the child takes a deep breath, which is accompanied by a whistle;
  • sometimes an attack of coughing can result in vomiting with a discharge of viscous sputum.

The cough reflex can occur up to 50 times a day, which should alert parents. Whooping cough is a bacterial infection, so antibiotics are used in therapy. Antibacterial agents are effective at the first symptoms, when the cough center is not yet in the stage of excitation. Additionally, antitussive drugs are prescribed to reduce the frequency and intensity of the cough reflex. The course lasts from several months to six months, so that the baby ceases to be contagious and does not pose a danger to others. During therapy, outdoor walks are not contraindicated, and it is advisable for parents to be patient.

Often the chest coughs. But bronchospasm may not be a sign of illness. Cough in a baby (as in an adult) is a natural reaction of the respiratory tract to irritation caused by the ingress of foreign bodies (solid and liquid) into them. Get into the bronchi and cause an attack can: milk, saliva, mucus, etc.

A cough in a newborn will pass as soon as the body gets rid of the irritant. On average, young children can cough up to ten times a day. And this is considered the norm for a healthy child. A slight cough is also the norm, you should not worry about it. However, it is important to remember that a cough in a child of 8 months or at any other age can be a symptom of a cold.

TEST: Why are you coughing?

How long have you been coughing?

Is your cough combined with a runny nose and is most noticeable in the morning (after sleep) and in the evening (already in bed)?

Cough can be described as:

You characterize cough as:

Can you say that the cough is deep (in order to understand this, take a lot of air into your lungs and cough)?

During a coughing fit, do you feel pain in your abdomen and/or chest (pain in the intercostal muscles and abdominals)?

Do you smoke?

Pay attention to the nature of the mucus that is released during the cough (no matter how much it is: a little or a lot). She is:

Do you feel a dull pain in the chest, which does not depend on movements and is of an “internal” nature (as if the focus of pain is in the lung itself)?

Do you suffer from shortness of breath (during physical activity, you quickly “out of breath” and get tired, breathing becomes faster, after which there is a lack of air)?

Types of cough

Coughing in a newborn (like sneezing) is a normal phenomenon and a protective reflex. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between types of cough in order to accurately determine the cause of bronchospasm.

Dry cough in infants can be caused by many factors. Therefore, it is not easy to accurately determine the cause of bronchospasm. It may be a symptom of SARS. In addition, a dry cough is characteristic of parapertussis and whooping cough at the initial stage. In other cases, such a cough in infants indicates an allergic reaction or even bronchial asthma.

Young children cannot clear mucus on their own. Therefore, at first glance it seems that the bronchospasm is dry, but in fact it is wet, because the baby simply swallows sputum.

In addition, a two-month-old baby's cough may be wet. In most cases, it accompanies SARS, but at the final stage of recovery. If the coughed up mucus is clear, then you should not worry. Complications are not observed.

Coughing with yellow or green sputum is a sign of a bacterial infection. It affects the respiratory tract and often provokes such ailments as pneumonia, tracheitis, bronchitis and others.

Causes of bronchospasm

What causes coughing in a 5 month old baby? This is important to know. After all, the correct diagnosis is the key to successful treatment. So, the main causes of coughing in an infant are:

How can I help you?

A cough in a child up to a year old with and without high fever should be treated only under the strict supervision of pediatricians. Otherwise, complications and dangerous consequences cannot be avoided. But a mom can help her baby relieve a dry or wet cough. Helpful tips for this:

Cough medicines

Is it possible to treat a cough in a month-old baby with medications? Yes, but only a pediatrician should prescribe them. Today, three large groups of drugs treat a cough in a three-month-old child.

Fees

If a baby is coughing, try buying a collection based on three or four medicinal herbs:

  • chamomile;
  • anise;
  • plantain;
  • marshmallow.

Some doctors advise using one, maximum two components for tea. Multi-component fees are recommended for use from 8 months of age.

Precautionary measures

Avoid overdose of expectorant cough medicines. Otherwise, the effect will be the opposite, which will lead to a protracted illness. In addition, it is fraught with an increase in the amount of sputum, which is not easy for the baby to expectorate.

It is impossible to treat a cough in a child for 1 month with antitussive and expectorant drugs at the same time. They do not mix well, which is indicated in most syrup instructions. If you ignore such advice and mix the cough preparations described above, sputum will be actively secreted and the cough center will be suppressed. This is fraught with the development of pneumonia.

Common Mistakes

Regardless of whether you are treating a cough in children under one year old or a cough in a 7 month old baby, remember well:

Do not forget: it is far from always necessary to immediately give the crumbs cough medicine. A cough in a month-old baby can be caused not by a disease, but by many other reasons. Therefore, cough preparations and the optimal treatment regimen are selected only by a specialist.