How to treat dry suffocating cough in a child

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Green Elena Stanislavovna

Otolaryngologist of the second category

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Cough is a symptom of many diseases affecting the respiratory system. Any cough causes a lot of discomfort to a sick child. A dry suffocating cough in a child is considered especially dangerous, unpleasant and painful, which can appear for many reasons, often indicating that the disease has reached a severe stage. In medicine, cough is divided into dry and wet. The latter is often beneficial because it allows you to cleanse the bronchial mucosa of accumulated phlegm. As for a dry suffocating cough, it is not only painful for the baby, but also dangerous to health, and sometimes life. With such a cough, phlegm is not removed from the lungs and bronchi, it causes irritation of the larynx, exhausts the child, and disrupts sleep. If a child has a suffocating cough, the first thing you need to do is determine the cause, and also skillfully help the child and relieve him of the annoying symptom.

Causes of suffocating cough

The epidemiology of choking cough is based on several causes and predisposing factors. Most often, this symptom is the body’s response to an inflammatory process, which provokes the appearance of a spasm - obstruction. Similar symptoms can occur in a number of diseases, so it is very important to recognize the cause and make the correct diagnosis. The most common diseases that can cause a suffocating, dry cough include:

Increased sensitivity to allergens: dust, flowers, some foods, animal hair and others.

• Bronchial asthma.
• Bronchial obstruction.
• Laryngitis.
• Whooping cough.
• Measles.
• Tuberculosis.
• Pneumonia.
• Viral infections in the acute period.
• Entry of a foreign body into the respiratory tract.

Any of the above diseases can cause bronchospasm, swelling of the bronchial mucosa and larynx. A suffocating cough should not be ignored, since such a symptom can cause suffocation, shortness of breath, bluishness of the skin due to oxygen deficiency and other dangerous symptoms.

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Use of drug therapy

How to treat dry cough with medications? The main method of treating nonproductive cough in pediatric practice is the use of medications aimed at transferring the cough from dry to wet or the use of antitussives (for allergies, whooping cough). For the youngest patients, doctors advise giving children under two years of age drugs in syrup form (although they also provoke allergic reactions in some cases.

The symptom of coughing is the result of the progression of various diseases, so you should not suppress it with antitussives. With such a symptom, you should definitely see a doctor, because a banal cough can hide such a serious disease as bronchial asthma. As mentioned above, two types of drugs can be used to treat dry cough:

• Medicines for converting a dry cough into a wet one;
• Antitussives.

Means for converting a non-productive cough into a productive one. Drugs are classified as follows:

• Mucolytic action. The drugs have an expectorant effect, aimed at thinning mucus and helping the child cough it up. These include Ambrobene, Ascoril, Flavamed, ACC, Bromhexine.
• Secretomotor action. Herbal preparations. Their action is aimed at stimulating sputum production and absorption of the drug through the stomach. For example: Herbion with plantain extract, Althea syrup, Licorice root, breast mixture.

On this topic:

Causes of night cough in children

Antitussives that act on the central nervous system by suppressing the cough reflex:

• Sinecode;
• Erespal.

In cases where a dry cough in children is accompanied by fever, the treatment complex is supplemented with antibiotic therapy.

How to help a child?

A choking cough can occur at any time of the day or night. When it appears, it is important to help the child as quickly as possible, to eliminate the risk of suffocation and swelling of the larynx. It is important to know the cause of such a symptom, then it is much easier to provide help. For example, if a child has bronchial asthma, the first thing you need to do is take an antihistamine, inhale Berodual, Ventolin or another bronchodilator. Such assistance can also be provided for laryngitis or bronchial obstruction. You can use such drugs only when prescribed by a doctor. If the cause of the cough is unknown, the use of such medications is not recommended, it is better to call emergency help. Before doctors arrive, parents can try to reduce the intensity of the cough by performing simple steps.

• Calm the child. The more the baby worries and experiences fear, the stronger the attacks of suffocation will be.
• Give the child warm liquid to drink. Suitable drinks include tea, milk, and herbal decoction.
• Give the child a small piece of butter and honey. Honey can be given to a child only when there is no allergy to it.
• Perform steam inhalation. If you have a nebulizer at home, you can use alkaline water, saline solution or mineral water. When there is no device, it is enough to breathe over the steam with hot water or a decoction of herbs. Inhalation procedures well moisturize the bronchial mucosa and relieve spasms.
• Provide access to fresh air. You can open the window slightly, but do not allow a draft.

Treatment

Therapy for suffocating cough consists of complex treatment, taking drugs with systemic and symptomatic action. Any drug must be prescribed by a doctor, based on the diagnosis, age, and body weight of the child. If a child has a dry, suffocating cough, it is recommended to take medications that will relieve bronchospasm, relax smooth muscles, soften the cough, and speed up the removal of sputum. If the cough is prolonged, primary therapy has not brought the desired result, and the disease itself is bacterial in nature, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics. An integrated approach to treatment will help not only eliminate the cough, but also the very cause of the disease and other catarrhal symptoms.

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Mucolytics and expectorants

For a suffocating dry cough, when the sputum is viscous and difficult to clear, the doctor prescribes mucolytics and expectorants. Such drugs are produced in several pharmaceutical forms, they have different compositions, but the same principle of action. Taking such drugs allows you to thin sputum, moisturize the bronchial mucosa, and make coughing less painful and productive.

• ACC.
• Lazolvan.
• Ambrobene.
• Fluimucin.
• Ambrohexal.

Antitussives

Antitussive drugs are recommended to be taken for paroxysmal cough. Taking such drugs allows you to suppress cough reflexivity and improve the child’s well-being. Drugs from the group of antitussives are divided into central and peripheral agents. The following medications may most often be prescribed to children:

• Bronholitin.
• Sinekod.
• Ascoril.

Anti-inflammatory drugs

For inflammatory processes in the respiratory system, anti-inflammatory drugs are often prescribed to help relieve inflammation, reduce irritation, and have a moderate antihistamine effect. Children are most often prescribed drugs that contain fenspiride:

• Erespal.
• Inspiron.

Antibiotics

If there is a suspicion of a complication of diseases of the bronchi, lungs, or the disease is of bacterial origin, the doctor may prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics. Children are often prescribed antibacterial drugs in the form of a suspension. Taking such drugs allows you to destroy pathogens and block their growth and development. In practice, the following are most often used:

• Ospamox.
• Augmentin.
• Sumamed.
• Fromilid.
• Macropen.

Only a doctor can prescribe antibiotics, strictly selecting the dose and duration of treatment.

Inhalations

A good result with a dry suffocating cough can be obtained using inhalation procedures. As a means for inhalation, you can take pharmaceutical solutions for a nebulizer or traditional medicine. If you have a nebulizer at home, inhalations can be done with the following solutions:

• Saline solution.
• Alkaline water.
• Lazolvan.
• Mukolwan.
• Dekasan.

Inhalations act at the very source of inflammation, relieve spasms, swelling of the mucous membrane, moisturize and soften dry, unproductive cough. When using medicinal solutions, they must be diluted with 9% sodium chloride.

If there is no nebulizer in the house, and the child is over 5 years old, you can use steam inhalation with a decoction of herbs, soda or potatoes. Such inhalations moisturize the mucous membrane well and eliminate attacks of suffocating cough.

Folk remedies

Traditional medicine is an auxiliary therapy to the main treatment. Recipes for non-traditional treatment can complement the treatment process, but only when there is confidence that the baby does not have an increased reaction to the components of the recipe. The following recipes are proven, safe and effective:

Recipe No. 1. Herbal decoctions. You can use dry raw materials coltsfoot, plantain, anise and thyme. To prepare a decoction, just take 1 tablespoon of any medicinal herb, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water, leave for 30 minutes, strain and take 1 tablespoon three times a day.

Recipe No. 2. Honey and butter. If you are not allergic to bee products, if you have a suffocating cough, you can take 1 teaspoon of honey and butter in equal parts and mix. Give to a child during coughing attacks. The baby should absorb the consistency.

Recipe No. 3. Black radish juice. To prepare the recipe, you need to take 1 medium-sized root vegetable, cut in half. Inside each part, make a small depression, inside which put 1 spoon of honey or sugar. Place in the oven for 1 hour. Over time, a liquid forms inside the radish, which is taken a teaspoon three times a day.

There are other recipes, but any of them should be used with caution, first consulting a doctor.

Choking cough in a child: causes, symptoms, treatment, how to relieve an attack, video

When a child’s cough hurts or, even worse, the baby chokes from coughing, you must definitely react, otherwise you will face fuss and insomnia at night. It seems that you can go to the pharmacy, buy a bunch of advertised drugs and everything will be fine, but initially you need to determine the reasons that provoked the appearance of a suffocating cough !

Causes and symptoms

Among the most common causes of a dry cough may be the entry of foreign microorganisms into the child’s respiratory tract (an allergic reaction) if he choked while eating or drinking. But if a dry, suffocating cough does not disappear over time, it is important to identify the disease that caused it.

A child’s body needs a cough, as it is a protective reaction and cleanses the airways. The appearance of a cough can signal many diseases, and even those that are not associated with the respiratory tract (anomalies of the cardiovascular system or gastrointestinal diseases).

The following diseases can be sources of a suffocating cough in a child:

• ARVI;
• whooping cough (a very common disease among both children and adults), the defining feature of whooping cough seems to be a severe cough of a spasmodic, paroxysmal nature;
• a jerky and loud cough in a child may indicate laryngitis;
• allergies or cardiovascular failure are often accompanied by a night cough;
• pathological occurrence in the bronchi area (indentation by a tumor, lymph nodes, aortic aneurysm, etc.) is characterized by a hacking dry cough;
• periodic repetition of cough when eating or later, in many cases indicates a hiatal hernia, esophageal or neurogenic disorders;
• cough with foamy sputum, characteristic of esophageal-bronchial fistulas in young children;
• tuberculosis and tumors are described by a dry cough and emaciation of the baby, as well as weakness;
• if the patient has bronchial asthma, then the most important severe symptom is a strong non-productive type of cough, which does not stop at night and by the morning develops into a suffocating one.

You should not rush to extremes and give your child all the medications you have; first determine the nature of the cough and the stage of the disease, because all medications have different indications and effects.

Kinds

There are three types of cough, depending on the duration and clinical development:

• spicy;
• chronic;
• protracted.

Spicy

Acute – lasts an average of three weeks. An acute cough is characterized by constant symptoms, in other words, the cough is constantly present.

A symptom such as cough, which is inherent in many types of respiratory viral infections, rhinitis and sinusitis (allergic and non-allergic), can indicate pulmonary embolism, cardiac asthma, dry pleurisy, otitis externa, pericarditis, pneumothorax, foreign body aspiration, whooping cough .

Chronic

Chronic – lasts three weeks or longer.

It can be triggered by a variety of disorders such as chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis, tumors of the lungs and mediastinum, thyroid and thymus glands .

A chronic type of cough can occur due to enlarged lymph nodes, dry cystic fibrosis, long-term use of medications, and immunodeficiency .

Often, instead of a chronic cough, an incorrect diagnosis is made - post-infectious (lasting from 8 to 12 weeks).

Protracted

Protracted – can last from 2 to 6 weeks. In very young children and preschoolers, a protracted stage of cough is often detected when mucus flows from the nasopharynx into the larynx due to diseases such as nasopharyngitis, adenoiditis, hypertrophied adenoids . Compared to bronchial cough: without wheezing in the lungs and disappears if the nasopharynx is cured.

A lingering, suffocating cough in a preschool child or teenager, which can last up to 6 weeks, often accompanies tracheitis or tracheobronchitis , which develops as a result of certain respiratory viral infections. It is often painful, paroxysmal, and at the end of the attack the lump moves away from the dense mucus.

Treatment

Dry coughs are treated with medications that suppress irritation of cough receptors in various locations and weaken the cough reflex.

Antibiotics

Antibacterial therapy is not carried out for all types of cough, only if the child has a bacterial infection that causes lung damage (pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, lung malformation).

The doctor alone decides whether antibacterial and anti-inflammatory therapy is necessary if the child coughs. This also applies to medications that increase the passage in the bronchi - bronchodilators.

Antitussives

Antitussives are drugs that help eliminate and suppress cough reflexivity . The need for them arises very rarely, since not in all situations it is necessary to suppress a child’s cough.

Moreover, if the baby has increased secretion viscosity, then the use of antitussive medications can aggravate the situation. Antitussive drugs are divided into central and peripheral agents.

• Take note: Fluditec cough syrup

It is popular and effective for dry coughs to use the following medications or analogues: broncholitin, bronchicum syrup, codelac, codeine, neo-codion, Fervex for dry cough, terpincode, etc. Also, pharmacies sell combination medications that contain both expectorants and antitussives agents (Bronholitin, Tussin, etc.).

• Be sure to read: diagnosis and treatment of parawhooping cough

Such drugs (non-narcotic!) are prescribed if the child has a noticeable dry cough of a painful nature, which provokes vomiting and pain in the chest, sleep and appetite are disturbed (for example, whooping cough).

Anti-inflammatory drugs

Since inflammation is the main mechanism for the development of any respiratory disease that is accompanied by a cough, anti-inflammatory drugs, one way or another, have a positive effect. Nowadays, fenspiride (ERESPAL), which improves sputum separation, is successfully used to treat all forms of complex respiratory infection in children of various age categories.

Mucolytics

Mucolytics are used when, after 3-4 days of illness, the child’s cough is not wet and there is no expectoration of sputum. If this happens, then the drug acetylcysteine ​​(ACC, Mukobene, Fluimucin) is recommended. Treatment with ambroxol (Ambrobene, Ambrohexal, Lazolvan) - modern mucolytics - is very effective.

Thanks to mucolytics, sputum, pus, and mucus discharged from the nose are effectively and instantly diluted. The medicine also has an antiphlogistic effect.