Colds weaken the body. It can be prolonged and manifest itself with various symptoms. One of the most unpleasant to become a dry cough in a child at night. How to soothe an irritated throat and let your baby fall asleep, every mom should know.
Definition
Cough is a natural reaction of the body. This is a kind of cleansing, removing unnecessary and harmful substances and bacteria from it. The muscles of the respiratory tract react with lightning speed to the presence of any irritant and try to get rid of it. Pathogenic microorganisms or irritating allergens are excreted along with the mucus, the lungs are cleared, the person can take a deep breath. That is, it is only a symptom of a certain disease. To know how to calm a child's cough, you should identify the root cause of its appearance and try to eliminate it as soon as possible.
Views
You need to treat the disease itself, but you also want to relieve an unpleasant uncomfortable symptom. Whereinit is important not only to determine its root cause, but also with the type of cough itself. Wet and dry it is eliminated by different means and requires the right approach.
Dry is frequent unproductive coughing. They do not provoke the removal of mucus from the lungs and irritate the child's throat more and more. Such a cough leads to a worsening of the condition, more and more injury to the throat, and sometimes becomes continuous and can cause vomiting. Its symptoms also depend on a certain type of disease, so, with nervous and allergic reactions, it often manifests itself superficially, with characteristic small coughs, sometimes it becomes barking or annoyingly exhausting, as with whooping cough. Before calming a strong cough in a child of this nature, you should consult a doctor and conduct a thorough examination of the trachea and bronchi.
Wet - determined by the characteristic sputum discharge. Its sound indicates that a certain amount of viscous fluid (pus or blood) has accumulated in the baby's lungs, which require immediate and proper withdrawal. The reproduction of this process, constant coughing up mucus, indicate a high-quality cleansing of the body. Medications help to alleviate the situation, with their help, the mucus is completely removed, and the cough stops.
Causes of night cough
Before you calm a child's cough, you should think about the reasons that cause it. At night, the patient's mucus is not able to go out in the usual way, it accumulates and causessuffocating bouts of violent coughing. Exactly the same process takes place in the lungs, when the baby is in a horizontal position at night, their blood supply slows down and sputum dissolves extremely slowly.
A lot of environmental factors can provoke such attacks. Even very dry or too cool indoor air. Dry cough in a child is especially acute at night. An experienced pediatrician knows how to soothe a sore throat and ease the process of coughing up, who should be contacted at the first characteristic symptoms that appear, since in some cases a rather serious type of infection can become the cause of a cough.
First Aid
The doctor should treat the identified disease, but every parent should know how to calm the child's cough quickly and correctly. Cough receptor suppressants will help relieve a choking attack, and the right drug to remove sputum will significantly speed up the recovery process.
Dry cough at night causes a lot of inconvenience. It is tiring, exhausting the child and does not allow him to sleep peacefully. Such attacks are well eliminated by conventional inhalations, which our mothers and grandmothers have always used in such situations. For these purposes, it is advisable to purchase a special inhaler, it is sold at any pharmacy and necessarily includes a certain type of saline solution in its kit. How to calm a coughing fit in a child if there was no inhaler with a hand? Ask him to just breathe on the steamit moisturizes a parched throat well and quickly relieves tickling in it.
Main recommendations
Having figured out how to calm a bad cough in a child at night, special attention should be paid to the factors surrounding the baby.
- Make a wet cleaning of the entire room. This is an important aspect that requires mandatory implementation. Humid and clean air contributes to high-quality filtration of the lungs, they are less irritated. Be sure to ventilate the room, if possible, install a special humidifier in it or simply hang towels well moistened with water on batteries.
- Frequent coughing can be a symptom of an allergy. Pay attention to the objects surrounding the child, remove everything suspicious from the room. Be sure to change your bed linen, the laundry detergent can also cause an annoying nighttime cough.
- When deciding how to calm a child's cough, do not forget to drink plenty of fluids. It is it that helps to compensate for the lack of fluid in the body and lungs, promotes high-quality liquefaction of sputum and its rapid withdrawal. Food and fluids taken should not be hot, they will increase the sore throat. Warm food and drink is ideal, and be sure to drink in large quantities.
Cough medicines
How to calm a strong cough in a child at night, the doctor must decide. Only an experienced specialist is able to correctly identify the root cause andprescribe appropriate medications. They are divided into several completely different types, and their misuse can greatly complicate the situation.
Mixes - often are compositions that include several potent ingredients at once. In a pharmacy, such drugs are offered without a prescription, they have a wide spectrum of action, they are used immediately as expectorants, decongestants. Here you should take into account the nature of the cough in the baby and be sure to compare it with the effect of the remedy. Dry cough of an allergic nature should not be treated with antihistamines or antitussive drugs, which can create a blockage in the lungs that impedes breathing.
Expectorant and mucolytic - usually the doctor prescribes both of these drugs, thereby enhancing the overall effect of the drug. These funds perfectly thin the mucus and contribute to its rapid removal from the lungs.
Antitussives - it is better to use only as prescribed by a doctor, they are able to completely eliminate the reflex located in the brain and responsible for the reproduction of cough. But with a large accumulation of fluid in the lungs, their intake is strictly contraindicated.
Massage
Before calming a child's cough at night with various medications, try massage. Usually it brings significant relief, contributes to improved sputum output, the baby will be able to clear his throat and sleep well. This type of massage is characterized by soft stroking, kneading movements.in the chest and back (between the shoulder blades). Various essential oils and plant-based ointments will help enhance ego effectiveness. Before using them, be sure to test the baby's sensitivity to this type of substance.
Folk methods
How to soothe a dry cough in a child, our grandmothers knew, and natural home remedies were used with great success in these cases. Honey is especially good in this case, it is filled with vitamins and microelements useful for the weakened body of the baby, and children will take sweet tasty syrup based on it with pleasure.
- Very he althy warm drink that can be consumed throughout the day and be sure to drink before bed. Mix a spoonful of honey and a little lemon juice in a cup of warm boiled water. The content of vitamin C in such a healing drink will go through the roof, it perfectly soothes the exhausted throat and significantly alleviates attacks of dry cough. It is important to make sure you are not allergic to these foods!
- If the baby is not against warm milk, you can prepare another, no less effective mixture with it. Warm it up to a temperature of 50-60 degrees, add soda on the tip of a knife and a good spoonful of natural honey. From time immemorial, it was this drink that quickly eliminated even the most painful and dry cough in a child at night.
How to calm a cough with folk methods, all parents should know. They will bring more benefits than pharmacy options, as they do not contain artificialflavorings, preservatives and other ingredients that are unhe althy for the body.
Bedtime routines
In order not to decide how to calm a child's nighttime cough, try to prevent the occurrence of this situation by taking a number of preventive measures:
- you can apply warm paraffin on the chest area for half an hour;
- be sure to insulate the area of the bronchi well;
- don't give your child irritating foods in the evening;
- cover the baby with a warm blanket.
If there is no temperature, you can make a warm foot bath and put on cotton socks.
Important to know
The presence of an inflammatory process in the body requires an immediate visit to a specialist, in this case, clear signals will be:
- high temperature that can't be brought down for a long time;
- clear rales and noises when breathing;
- blood impurities in cough mucus;
- blue nasolabial triangle or bouts of vomiting.
