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A child's cough with phlegm is always a serious concern. Especially when it comes to babies. After all, small children are not yet able to cough up on their own if the mucus is thick and viscous. How to help a child cough up phlegm, what medicinal and traditional methods exist, and when to call a doctor - all this is in our article.
Causes of sputum
In childhood, a cough with sputum always signals a disease occurring in the body. That is why mothers of babies should take the appearance of copious, difficult-to-cough mucus quite seriously.
Let us consider in detail the mechanism of sputum appearance. Normally, the body of a child aged 2-3 years secretes about 50 ml per day. mucus. Usually, such an amount, when it enters the nasopharynx, is simply swallowed unnoticeably.
Abundantly produced sputum is the body’s protective reaction to a disease occurring in the respiratory system. When pathogens enter the lungs and begin to actively multiply there, the baby’s immune system joins in the fight against them. She begins to produce a large amount of secretion with antibodies. In some cases, the amount of sputum produced per day in children may exceed 500 ml.
In children, the immune system is not well developed. Therefore, the mucus secreted by the child’s body does not contain many antibodies. The consequence of this is increased secretion.
If a child has a cough with sputum, then first of all it is necessary to diagnose the cause of the disease. The number of diseases that cause increased sputum production is very large. If we remove from this list diseases that are more characteristic of adults and diseases associated with pathologies of the respiratory system, then we can distinguish 3 diseases characteristic of childhood. These include:
- Bronchitis.
- Pneumonia.
- Asthma.
Let's look at these diseases in more detail.
Bronchitis
One of the most common infectious diseases in the world. This disease affects the bronchi. The first symptom of bronchitis is a cough. At first the cough is dry, then it becomes wet, deep, and paroxysmal. Mucus released when coughing can have different colors and consistency. The color can be from transparent to dark green, the consistency from liquid to thick mucus.
With bronchitis, mucus cannot be red. The presence of blood indicates a serious illness such as tuberculosis or a lung tumor.
Pneumonia
An acute infectious pulmonary disease in which the alveoli become inflamed. Occurs in childhood due to hypothermia and viral infection. With this disease, sputum is intensively produced on days 3-6 of the disease. In lobar pneumonia, the mucus coughed up is red in color.
Asthma
A chronic disease of the respiratory tract, characterized by attacks of suffocation, a feeling of tightness in the chest, and coughing. In asthma, thick and viscous mucus is formed, which over time can thicken and partially or completely block the lumen of the bronchi.
How to cure a runny nose to get rid of a wet cough
A solution of furatsilin helps children well, it is very simple to prepare: crush 5 tablets of furatsilin, pour 0.5 liters of water into them, boil until completely dissolved, cool (!), drop 1 drop into each nostril. You can also use children's nasal drops. It is better if you take such medications at least 2-3 times a day.
Don't forget about folk remedies. You can place small heated bags of salt on the sinuses, breathe in a warm and humidified room, bathe only in warm water with the addition of herbal infusions (chamomile, calendula, St. John's wort), if the child is not allergic to them. By the way, it is after a warm bath that it is easier for a child to cough up mucus, and the mucus comes out faster. It is good to cover the child with a blanket at night to avoid hypothermia.
If your baby has a runny nose, he needs to be given more warm drinks. The ideal option is to apply it to the breast more often. You can offer warm water or a mixture. Our grandmothers treated runny noses in infants in a very original way: they instilled 1 drop of breast milk into each passage.
Furacilin disinfects the nasal cavity, washes away bacteria and the infection itself
Sputum in childhood
In childhood, there are some features of the body that can reduce the chance of independent sputum discharge in an infant.
Thus, children under the age of 1 year are mostly in an upright position. This is why mucus accumulates very well, but leaves with great difficulty.
The antitussive reflex is poorly developed, the child cannot yet cough strongly. Therefore, mucus begins to accumulate and comes off with difficulty.
The muscular system of infants is underdeveloped, so coughing does not involve the intercostal muscles and diaphragm. Due to this, the cough is weak and the baby cannot clear his throat.
If a child cannot cough up mucus for a long time, you need to know how to thin the child’s mucus.
Treatment options
In this section, we will not describe methods for treating specific diseases, but methods for getting rid of phlegm, which is a symptom of these diseases. So, there are several proven ways to remove phlegm from a child’s lungs.
Here are the main ways to get rid of cough with phlegm in a child:
- Drug treatment.
- Massage and inhalation.
- Traditional methods.
Complex therapy is often used, using all the treatment methods indicated above. Therefore, if you are wondering how to quickly remove phlegm from a child’s lungs, you can try a combination of all treatment methods.
Drug treatment
This type of treatment is aimed at two factors that facilitate treatment:
- Reducing the amount of sputum produced.
- Reducing the viscosity of sputum so that the baby can cough it up more easily.
Young children are mainly prescribed drugs based on medicinal herbs and rarely their synthetic analogues. For children under one year old, Gedelix and Ambroxol syrup are suitable. They gently dilute mucus and improve its removal from the lungs.
Another remedy recommended from birth is Bromhexine syrup. This drug enhances the work of the ciliated epithelium, the cilia on the surface of the bronchi begin to more actively remove mucus towards the respiratory tract.
Prospan syrup is also often prescribed to infants. Created on the basis of ivy leaves, the drug has proven itself in pediatric practice. It is often prescribed by doctors when they hear the question of how to remove phlegm from a baby.
Doctor Komarovsky on how to treat a child’s cough
A child’s cough worries not only the baby, but also his parents, who strive to help their son or daughter in every possible way.
Some begin to use folk recipes on the advice of relatives, others go to the pharmacy for syrup, and some do inhalations. Let's figure out whose actions are correct in the opinion of a specialist, and how the popular pediatrician Komarovsky advises treating a cough. Very often, when it comes to treating a cold, we do not go to the doctor, but go to the pharmacy, buy ourselves a few boxes (we know from TV advertising what we need) and begin self-medication.
Dr. Komarovsky wrote an excellent article in which he warns that advertised remedies are not always what we need. This is especially dangerous when it comes to the health of children.
We recommend reading the article and wish you good health.
— For an hour I was in a room with a working TV. Within an hour, I saw 8 times an advertisement for medications that, according to the manufacturer, should be swallowed immediately when a cough appears. My nerves can no longer stand listening to this scam! People, pay attention!
1. Most advertised cough medicines are mucolytics and expectorants
The vast majority of advertised cough medicines are expectorants and/or so-called mucolytics. Mucolytics are drugs that increase the volume of sputum (sputum is mucus produced in the lungs) and make it thinner and more fluid, which theoretically makes it easier to cough up.
2. They are not always needed
The vast majority of cases when you have snot, cough and fever are upper respiratory tract diseases: rhinitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis. Expectorants increase the amount of sputum! Why would you increase the amount of mucus in your lungs when you have a runny nose or sore throat? For what? Because they said it on TV?
3. Expectorants must be prescribed by a doctor
Expectorants are sometimes (rather rarely) needed for certain diseases of the lower respiratory tract - bronchitis, pneumonia. Bronchitis and pneumonia are treated by doctors, not by people who have watched enough TV.
4. They do not reduce, but intensify the cough
Expectorants do not reduce, but intensify cough, activating the discharge of sputum. But when there is a lack of fluid in the body and/or when the air in the room is dry, expectorants cannot exert their effect: the cough intensifies, but does not bring relief.
At the same time, if you drink a lot, and the room has clean, cool and moist air, then expectorants are not needed: sputum in such conditions does not become viscous and is easily coughed up without any medications. In this regard, it is not surprising that a phrase from a very well-known and, of course, non-Nashen medical textbook: “the effectiveness of expectorants compared to drinking plenty of fluids has not been proven.”
5. Mucolytics and expectorants can cause complications in young children
In children, the cough (the force of the cough impulse) is much weaker than in adults. After taking expectorants, children are often unable to cough up the increased amount of mucus. It accumulates in the lower respiratory tract and is the main cause of obstructive bronchitis and pneumonia. Giving a mucolytic and putting the child to sleep in a warm and dry room (and we have 90% of such rooms) is the easiest way to organize complications. And if, in addition to this, your nose is stuffy and your body temperature is elevated, then the chances of turning a week-long runny nose into a month-long treatment for pneumonia are maximum.
It is not surprising that in many countries mucolytics are strongly not recommended for children under the first 5 years of life, and giving them to children under 2 years of age is generally a crime. But we're lucky! With us you can do it for everyone, without a prescription, and advertise it on prime evening television.
6. Once again for those who have not yet understood: TV should not replace the brain
This rule works both in politics and in coughs. Do not buy expectorants without direct instructions from your doctor. If a doctor at home has prescribed expectorants for a child under 5 years old, look for another doctor; if the child is under 2 years old, urgently look for another doctor.
– Dress warmly. – Do everything to ensure that the room has clean, cool (16–20 ° C) and not dry air (relative humidity - 40–70%). – Watch your nose breathing - it should be there! Frequent rinsing with saline solutions and, if completely unbearable, vasoconstrictors will help. – Drink plenty of warm liquids. – Find someone who will make a diagnosis. – Turn off the TV.
Cough in children is mainly either viral or allergic. When a virus or allergen penetrates the bronchi, inflammation of their mucous membrane occurs. The body actively fights, producing mucus, which should neutralize the virus. And expectoration is an attempt to remove mucus accumulated in the lungs.
The appearance of a cough in a child, of course, worries his parents. They are especially confused by the absence of any other symptoms - fever, redness in the throat, weakness, runny nose.
What happens to the baby in this case? Komarovsky and a number of other pediatricians consider a cough in a child without fever to be a signal that some kind of illness is developing in the child’s body.
All that remains is to find out what kind of disease we are dealing with.
When a child coughs, this causes increased concern among parents, as well as teachers in kindergarten, if the child attends this institution. At the same time, the baby feels well, the body temperature remains normal, there are no symptoms of redness of the throat or runny nose. What happens to the child, as evidenced by a cough in the child’s body.
A children's pediatrician, well known to all parents, Mr. Komarovsky notes that most parents make a grave mistake by showing excessive care to their child.
For example, as soon as the air temperature drops, parents immediately begin to wrap up the child, putting on several shirts and socks.
And as soon as a child coughs, mustard plasters, mixtures, and pills are immediately used. But the cough doesn’t go away. Dr. Komarovsky is sure that in this situation the cough does not disappear for only one reason. Its independent manifestation most likely only signals that pathological changes are occurring in the body. Which ones exactly? This needs to be understood correctly.
A child's cough may occur due to an allergic reaction or infection. But if the body temperature remains normal and there is no runny nose, then there is no reason to talk about an infectious disease. Allergy remains.
If parents have not previously noticed an allergic reaction in their child, they therefore rule it out. At the same time, few people monitor the level of humidity in their living space. Air conditioners, radiators, etc. increase air dryness.
And if you examine the room more closely, you can even see dust, which often provokes coughing.
But what should parents do if they have removed all the irritants, but the cough does not go away for a long time? Only a pediatrician will help them cope with this matter.
The first thing Dr. Komarovsky recommends is to check for a runny nose, examine the mucus, the thickness of which indicates the consistency of the blood. So, sputum is liquid, which means the consistency of blood is also liquid. With thicker, more viscous blood, viscous sputum will be produced. Accordingly, parents should provide the child with plenty of fluids, which helps thin the blood.
Second rule: monitor the humidity level in the room. If a child has a dry cough, then it is extremely necessary for him to be in a room where the air is humid. For this purpose, you can use special humidifiers.
And if the child feels fine, it is advisable for him to spend more time in the fresh air. The doctor reminds that there are two types of cough medicines: drugs that doctors recommend for whooping cough, and mucolytics, which increase sputum. The latter can sometimes increase the intensity of the cough.
If an infant has a cough, then giving mucolytics to the baby is dangerous. In general, it is highly undesirable for children under 2 years of age to take mucolytics. Without any risk to his health, it is possible and necessary to provide treatment, which involves drinking plenty of fluids, rinsing the nose and humidifying the room.
- Summing up the conversation about cough without fever, Komarovsky once again focuses the attention of parents on how to treat the child:
- • moist and cool air in the room, • drinking plenty of fluids, • finding out the cause that provoked the symptom,
- • visit to the doctor.
We advise you to watch the video at the end of this article, where Dr. Komarovsky explains the treatment of dry or wet cough, what to do if there is no fever or runny nose, and how to independently determine the cause that caused this reflex. And there are many reasons that cause coughing: from the most harmless to the dangerous.
Cough in infants
Cough can often be observed in infants. Moreover, it appears after waking up, after which the urge disappears and breathing returns to normal. Komarovsky assures that this is a normal phenomenon and the child does not need treatment. Coughing after waking up is a signal from the lungs, which thus get rid of the phlegm that has accumulated while the child sleeps.
You only need to be wary if the child has a hysterical and barking dry cough, which is accompanied by a fever.
Treatment is also necessary if a child’s dry cough lasts for some time and relief does not occur.
And the last point that Komarovsky calls if a child has a cough without fever and there is no runny nose is reflux disease of the esophagus. Stomach acid enters the respiratory system, causing a dry cough.
The cause of a cough can be ordinary household dust, which tends to accumulate in soft toys and pillows. In this situation, it is necessary to remove all irritants and regularly carry out wet cleaning. Treatment consists of limiting the baby from contact with chemical dyes and maintaining a gentle diet.
Useful tips
Increase the humidity where the baby is. This is especially true in winter, when central heating dries out the air. Normally, humidity should be from 45% to 60%. This humidity is difficult to achieve by simply hanging wet things around the room. Therefore, it is advisable to purchase a specialized humidifier.
If a baby has a cough with phlegm, then it’s time to start giving him water to drink, if you have not already started doing this. An additional portion of fluid will help reduce the viscosity of sputum and improve its discharge.
If a small child coughs and produces a lot of phlegm, you can rinse the nose with salt water or saline. This will help avoid drying out the mucous membrane.
