Chronic or dry cough during a protracted illness exhausts the body. Especially small children who do not understand what is happening to them suffer from it. Parents often do not know how to treat a cough.
Succumbing to emotions, they do not turn to a specialist and begin to deal with the cough on their own, and not with the cause that caused it. As a result, the baby only gets worse, the disease progresses. To prevent this from happening, you need to know what function a cough performs and what could be the reasons for its appearance. This knowledge will help you understand how and how to treat a cough in a child aged 2 years and younger, as well as in an adult.
Function and physiology
In fact, coughing performs a very useful function for the body. Being a protective reflex, it helps to clear the respiratory tract from sputum, dangerous microorganisms, foreign bodies, dust particles. Phlegm is constantly secreted by the trachea and bronchi, protecting the respiratory system from external threats. When the airways become inflamed, the body producesan increased amount of mucus that destroys pathogenic bacteria.
It would seem that a cough significantly complicates a person's life, but it helps the patient to breathe: without this reflex, sputum accumulating in the lungs and bronchi would literally suffocate the patient. The physiology of cough is as follows. The respiratory system has very sensitive receptors, which, when irritated by a foreign body or harmful microorganisms, cause a sharp reflex contraction of the throat muscles. Air is expelled powerfully through the trachea, and the person coughs or sneezes. But cough is caused not only by inflammation of the respiratory tract, but also by other reasons.
Reasons
Before you treat a monthly cough, you need to establish its cause. Sometimes you can diagnose it yourself when the source of the cough is obvious. It could be a bad cold, smoking, or a piece of food inhaled. However, it is often difficult to establish a diagnosis without a doctor and a thorough examination, because cough becomes a concomitant symptom of such diseases and external factors:
- whooping cough, tuberculosis, emphysema, cancer;
- allergies;
- asthma;
- heart failure;
- dust, smoke, other air pollution;
- drug reaction;
- stress, anxiety, mental disorders;
- flu, acute respiratory infections.
Types of cough
There is a definite classification of cough. However, it may be incomprehensible to people far from medicine. For a person who wants to know how to treat a cough at home for an adultor a child, a simplified division into types according to three most important features is suitable:
- in terms of productivity - unproductive (dry without sputum) and productive (wet with intense expectoration of sputum, usually accompanied by a runny nose);
- by duration - chronic cough (more than three weeks) or acute (up to three weeks);
- by nature - coughing, constant, paroxysmal.
Diagnosis
Often, people carry the disease on their feet and refuse to take sick leave so as not to interrupt work and other things. They believe that constant coughing is a trifle that does not deserve the attention of a doctor. As a result, patients are treated haphazardly. But this carelessness can turn into a disaster. Cough is a marker that usually indicates the presence of an inflammatory process. Without treatment, it can develop into a chronic disease.
Timely measures not only facilitate the process of recovery, but also save the patient from unnecessary expenses. For this reason, before treating a cough, you need to find out what caused it. And a person ignorant in medicine will not be able to accurately answer this question, because he lacks knowledge and skills.
An experienced doctor only by the sound of a cough determines which disease provokes it. But in the arsenal of a specialist there are many tools that allow diagnosing an ailment. Based on the examination, the doctor decides how to treat the cough. The main diagnostic methods include:
- interrogation and examination of the patient;
- sputum microflora culture and various blood tests;
- bronchoscopy;
- bronchography;
- radiography;
- lung biopsy.
Basic treatments
If the cough does not go away for a long time, how to treat this ailment? The method depends on the disease and age of the patient. After all, you can not prescribe the same drugs to an adult and a baby. How to treat a cough in a child at 2 years old, the specialist determines. But even if the reason is obvious, for example, at the first signs of acute respiratory infections, you should not self-medicate - this can lead to complications.
But if the patient still wants to be treated at home, in order to minimize the risk, it is better to gain knowledge before treatment: read articles from trustworthy sources, watch videos in which experts will tell you how and how to treat cough. Komarovsky, Malysheva and other leading medical talk shows will help you avoid common mistakes. In particular, Komarovsky strongly recommends not using cough suppressants without a doctor's prescription. Herbal expectorants can be used for bronchitis and acute respiratory infections.
You can highlight the main ways to treat a cough at home quickly and effectively.
- Systemic antibiotics. They are prescribed only by the decision of the doctor when other methods of treating the disease do not work. The patient should never be treated with antibiotics on their own. At a low dosage, the drug will not help and will only harm the body. Even modern drugs have a number of side effects on the liver,digestive system and other organs. If overdosed, antibiotics will eliminate the disease and associated cough, but will cause other diseases.
- Antitussive drugs that suppress the work of the cough center. Thanks to advertising, these drugs are remembered first of all when the question arises of how to treat a dry cough at home. The mechanism of action of the drug is quite simple. The drug simply turns off the reflex with the help of its constituent substances, such as codeine. Antitussives should also be taken on the recommendation of a specialist, and they cannot be bought without a prescription. First, they are addictive. Secondly, not always they can cure the disease. In particular, such drugs are harmful with a wet cough, which helps the body to actively get rid of sputum.
- Medicines with bronchodilator, thinning, expectorant and anti-inflammatory action. Available as potions, tablets and aerosols.
- Gargling an inflamed throat with warm solutions of furacilin, s alt or soda. This method is often underestimated, considering it an inefficient procedure. In fact, it helps to repair the mucous membrane damaged by constant coughing, and also effectively destroys pathogenic bacteria.
- Inhalations. Especially effective are inhalations that are carried out with a nebulizer. Thanks to him, the medicine penetrates deep into the bronchi and lungs, while not burning the already injured mucous membrane.
- Rubbing, massages and compresses. These procedures are often performed for diseaseschildren aged 1 year. How to treat a cough in such babies, many parents do not know, because most medicines are contraindicated for them. The solution to the problem will be warming rubbing with special ointments, massages of the chest and back, warming compresses: they activate the sputum secretion and bring relief to the child.
- Folk remedies. A popular and effective recipe is warm milk with honey. In a glass of warm (not hot) milk, dissolve 1-2 tsp. honey and a pinch of soda. You can take this medicine throughout the day. There are many other recipes for how to treat a cough with folk remedies, but it is better to consult a doctor first.
What kind of cough should a doctor treat?
First of all, you can not engage in self-treatment of children. A small child still has a weak, unstable immunity. Careless parents due to lack of knowledge can treat the baby incorrectly, which often leads to serious complications. Therefore, only a pediatrician should determine how to treat a cough at 3 years or less. Moreover, even a beginning, mild cough in children is a cause for concern.
For adults, a dry cough that lasts more than three weeks is dangerous. It is characteristic of such serious diseases as chronic bronchitis, gastroesophageal reflux, cancer, bronchial asthma, heart failure. Choking coughing spells that are accompanied by fever, chest pain, severe shortness of breath, blood clots and pus in the sputum are also alarming symptoms.
The patient needs to immediatelyconsult a doctor and do not expect the disease to recede by itself. Only a professional physician can say how to treat cough and snot in this case. Examination and diagnosis will help determine the disease and prescribe effective treatment.
What kind of cough can be treated at home?
Mild respiratory problems, early colds, smoker's coughs, or sneezes and coughs that accompany seasonal allergies can be treated at home. Allergy sufferers get used to seasonal coughs over the years and know how to protect themselves from the allergen and mitigate the symptoms of the disease. Smokers also get used to living with a constant cough, which does not depend on the season and is eliminated only by quitting.
There are many ways to cure a cough caused by a cold at home. They work best in combination. But you must always remember the main principle: the disease must be treated, and coughing is only one of its symptoms that can be alleviated.
General tips
Regardless of the nature of a cough, it irritates the airways. There are some universal tips that will make life easier for a coughing person and speed up his recovery.
- Sufficient humidity of the room. Due to poor ventilation and intensive operation of the heating system in apartments in winter, the air is very dry. It is saturated with dust that settles on the mucous membrane of the throat and can cause a cough even in a he althy person. It is better to humidify the air with special devices designed for this. But if they are not, then you can putwater container in the room. You also need to periodically do wet cleaning.
- Plenty of warm drink. Abundant fluid intake thins sputum and makes it easier to expectorate. It can be tea, herbal tea, milk with honey or soda, plain or mineral water. The main thing is that the liquid is not cold or too hot.
- Lollipops. They are especially effective in inflammatory processes of the upper respiratory tract. These can be ordinary candies and cough drops, which increase the secretion of saliva, have an anti-inflammatory effect and reduce perspiration. And of course the kids love them.
- Warm saline rinses. It is necessary to dilute a spoonful of table s alt in a glass of water. The tool helps to relieve pain and relieve irritation from the mucous membrane of the throat.
- Smoking cessation. If a smoker is not able to completely give up the addiction, then for his own good, he should stop inhaling caustic smoke at least during treatment.
- Avoiding household chemicals, air pollution and other respiratory irritants.
How to treat dry cough at home
Dry cough does not produce sputum, and a person can cough for weeks. Moreover, sometimes the disease proceeds without other symptoms - without nasal congestion, without enlarged lymph nodes, without temperature. How to treat a cough in an adult in such cases? The main task is to make the cough wet so that sputum production begins.
With a strong, exhausting cough, you wanttake a cough suppressant. However, this should be done only in extreme cases and preferably after consultation with a specialist. First you need to try to overcome dry cough with a complex effect of mucolytics, sputum thinners, expectorants and bronchodilators.
At the same time, compresses, inhalations, rubbing should be done. You can treat a cough with folk remedies: drink milk with soda, honey infused with radish, onion broth, tea with raspberry jam, herbal infusions of sage, thyme, marshmallow root, linden, anise. It is also important to keep the legs, chest and throat warm. Even if the room is warm, it is still better to wear a sweater and warm socks, wrap your throat with a scarf.
But there are times when the days go by and the dry cough doesn't go away. How to treat yourself in such a situation? Sometimes patients decide to take antibiotics. But this is a dangerous method. A prolonged cough may be a symptom of an illness that only an examination will reveal. Then antibiotics will not only not help, but will harm the already sick body.
Wet cough
How to treat a wet cough without fever? The main task in the treatment of wet cough is to facilitate and intensify sputum discharge. It is necessary to help the body fight the disease, so you should not use antitussive drugs that suppress the cough reflex. In this case, intensely secreted sputum will be poorly excreted from the body and accumulate in the lungs and bronchi, which will lead to prolongation of the disease and complications.
Mucolytics and expectorants improve sputumfunds. It is advisable to use them in combination with inhalations and compresses. And, of course, you can treat a cough with folk remedies.
As a rule, with complex treatment, a wet cough quickly softens. The patient, feeling he althy prematurely, begins to lead a normal life: he moves a lot, goes to work, often is in the cold. Not surprisingly, with such an attitude, painful symptoms do not completely disappear. It is better to treat the disease thoroughly than to suffer from complications for a long time.
Cough in children
Helping a baby is much more difficult than treating a cough in an adult. The disease does not go away for weeks - urgent action is needed. The child is weak and vulnerable. Even a small draft is enough to make the baby cough. But the common cold is just one of many causes of coughs in children; it may be a sign of a beginning sore throat, pneumonia, tracheitis.
Cough cannot be ignored, but on the other hand, it is dangerous to treat a child on your own. Many procedures and medicines that help an adult are not suitable for children. For example, a sick child should not be inhaled with hot steam: it can severely burn the delicate mucous membrane and worsen the condition. This also applies to hot drinks.
Some medicines can cause severe allergies in a child. Without an appointment, children should never take antibiotics, brancholitics, antitussive drugs, mucolytics. Therefore, the best solution is to contact a pediatrician as soon as possible. timelyexamination will reduce the risk of complications, will quickly identify the cause of the cough that has appeared. The doctor will prescribe the optimal treatment program.
To alleviate discomfort in a baby, you can do the most safe and gentle procedures: massages and rubbing of the chest and back, compresses, inhalations with non-hot steam using a nebulizer. But the choice of spray should be left to an experienced physician, because some mixtures lead to complications.
You can treat cough in children with folk remedies. For example, give your baby tea from currant leaves or rose hips: it has an anti-inflammatory effect and strengthens the immune system. However, you need to be very careful with decoctions, some herbs cause Quincke's edema in children.
At all times, warm milk with honey has been used as a universal folk remedy. If there is a suspicion that honey will cause an allergy, then it is replaced with a piece of butter. This folk remedy can be made more effective by adding onions to it. First, the onion is boiled in milk, and then honey is added. The resulting decoction improves immunity and relieves inflammation, you need to give it to the child periodically, one spoon each.
Prevention
There are a number of simple but effective preventive measures that reduce the likelihood of illness in general and cough in particular. They are suitable for adults and children and are part of a he althy lifestyle.
- Increase immunity. To do this, you need to eat right, avoid stress, overwork andlack of sleep, consume the required amount of vitamins with food or in the form of supplements.
- Hardening. It is best to harden from childhood, but you can get used to this procedure at any age. Hardening strengthens the body, has a beneficial effect on the nervous system and immunity.
- Clothes for the season and the weather. Modern fashion often dictates norms that are difficult to understand from the standpoint of logic and he alth. In order to please fashion trends, young people wear thin jeans, light shoes, short skirts in cold weather, refuse scarves and hats. As a result - poor he alth and constant colds. It is necessary to explain to the child why it is important to dress warmly, and constantly control how he is dressed.
Cough is a signal that a disease is starting to develop in the body. You can not ignore this symptom, because self-medication can lead to unpleasant consequences. Only a specialist will prescribe the right treatment.
