7 probable causes of cough after eating

Types of cough: signs of the disease

Cough is one of the main symptoms of colds and other respiratory diseases. If it suddenly occurs after or during a meal, the person is lost and does not know how to react correctly. Often he is either overly frightened or, conversely, ignores the symptoms. Sometimes this behavior of coughing after eating can be fatal. Every adult should know what to do if they or another person has a cough after eating, and be able to provide first aid.

To do this, first of all, you need to assess the type of cough based on several criteria:

1. Presence of sputum
   . If a wet cough indicates the presence of a respiratory disease. Light, almost transparent mucus appears at the initial stage. Thick, yellow or greenish - in the chronic form.

2. Dry cough
   . Its main cause is food entering the respiratory tract. This cough is accompanied by painful sensations in the throat and lungs.

3. Vomit
   . A person feels a tickle, a false sensation of a foreign object. When you try to cough, stomach juice comes out, followed by vomit.

You need to pay attention to the type of vomiting. If there are no impurities in it, it is enough to rinse your mouth and drink water to wash away gastric juice from the walls of the esophagus.

If there are red bloody streaks in the vomit, the patient urgently needs to be taken to the hospital.

Blood indicates the presence of damage to the walls of the stomach or esophagus. This is a sign of many dangerous diseases, including stomach cancer and perforated ulcers.

How to treat a cough that occurs after eating

Patients who often have a cough after eating are advised to drink plenty of fluids (an exception may be a cough due to heart failure; consultation with a doctor is required). Drinking a sufficient amount of warm liquid helps to moisturize the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, as well as dilute mucus and remove it from the respiratory tract.

It is recommended to give up bad habits, avoid overeating (especially at night), normalize body weight, drink enough liquid, and avoid wearing clothes that compress the body in the throat and abdomen.

You should regularly clean the house and, if necessary, humidify the air in living areas. People with chronic diseases need to undergo a preventive medical examination at least once a year.

To better remove phlegm, you need to drink plenty of fluids.

Treatment for cough that occurs after eating depends on its cause:

• If the body is dehydrated, the patient is advised to drink plenty of fluids, and electrolyte preparations may be prescribed. For a dry cough, antitussive medications can be used. For inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system, mucolytic, expectorant, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic drugs, immunomodulators, vitamin-mineral complexes can be used;
• in case of infectious processes, depending on the type of pathogen, antiviral, antimycotic drugs, antibiotics, mucolytics, and cough suppressants can be used;
• if a foreign body enters the respiratory tract , hospitalization is usually required; surgery may be necessary to remove the object;
• in the case of gastroesophageal reflux disease , patients are shown a gentle diet; drugs that reduce the production of gastric juice and improve motility may be prescribed. Surgery may be required;
• for allergies, antihistamines are prescribed;
• for dysphagia, it is recommended to eat softened food warm, limit or eliminate the use of hot, spicy and other irritating foods.

What diseases can cause a person to cough?

A sudden bout of coughing can help make a correct diagnosis, especially if other symptoms have not yet appeared. Such diseases include:

1. Gastroesophageal reflux disease
   . The appearance of this pathology is caused by decreased muscle tone of the esophageal ring. Food entering the stomach is thrown back into the esophagus. Along with it, the air that enters the body during eating comes back. In this case, coughing helps to get rid of it.

2. Pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract
   . Any disturbance in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract can cause soreness and cough. First of all, this is gastritis and bloating.

3. Allergy
   . When eating pieces of food, vagal receptors are small projections located in the esophagus. Normally, they help push the bolus of food toward the stomach. But if you have an allergy, the receptors become too irritated, causing coughing and suffocation.

4. Asthma
   . Carelessly eating food that is too hot or too spicy can cause immediate choking.

5. Infectious diseases
   . Pieces of food irritate the inflamed mucous membranes, which leads to spasms. The body’s natural reaction to a spasm is a reflex cough, which intensifies in the evenings and almost does not appear in the mornings.

To get rid of a situational cough, just drink warm water or milk. If you have a sore throat, you can drink mint syrup - it will reduce swelling and irritation.

Most common reasons

All causes of cough after eating can be roughly grouped into the following groups:

• related to the process of eating;
• caused by pathological conditions and diseases;
• resulting from the feeding habits of infants.

Aspiration is directly related to food intake (usually they say that a person “choked”) due to food particles entering the respiratory tract.

The body reflexively resorts to coughing to eliminate breathing obstructions, as well as to prevent foreign bodies from entering the bronchi and lungs.

The same group also includes irritation of the throat with spices, acids (for example, acetic or citric) and sudden changes in the temperature of food consumed.

The reason for the first type may be the lack of sufficient moisture in the mucous membrane. This happens if a person eats dry foods (bread, crackers) without washing them down.

The second group includes a number of diseases (including chronic ones) and pathologies.

1. Food allergies cause a cough after eating if an allergen was present in the dishes (peanuts, shellfish, citrus fruits). If you have a strong reaction to a product, this can even happen from its smell.
2. Asthma, which is often associated with allergic reactions, is also a cause of coughing after eating. A suffocating coughing attack often becomes a reaction of the bronchi to strong odors or the presence of allergens in dishes.
3. Infectious diseases affecting the mucous membrane of the respiratory organs lead to its increased sensitivity. The patient coughs when eating and after eating, since in this state both hot or spicy foods and dry or chilled foods can become irritants.
4. Enteroviral and adenoviral infections may have cough after eating as symptoms. Enteroviruses enter the body through the gastrointestinal tract and then spread through the blood into the trachea or bronchi, causing irritation and inflammation. Adenoviruses can remain in the body in a latent form (from 7 to 12 days), manifesting themselves in the form of attacks of dry cough in the initial period and wet cough closer to 3-4 days.
5. Gastritis (some forms of the disease) provokes increased acid secretion and its entry into the esophagus. The mucous membrane becomes irritated, the person feels a sore throat and coughs reflexively. In these cases, an attack of painful coughing with vomiting may occur.
6. GRB pathology, the full name of which is gastroesophageal reflux disease. The muscular esophageal ring in the patient, instead of contracting after eating, is relaxed and allows part of the food back into the esophagus along with air from the stomach. Coughing attacks occur 5-10 minutes after eating.
7. Helminths (parasites in the human body) can cause coughing due to the irritating effect of waste products of the larvae on the mucous membranes of the larynx.
8. The chronic form of dysbiosis causes consequences similar to those of gastritis and can cause a dry cough after eating. In this case, the oral cavity is often subject to fungal infection, which causes tonsillitis (inflammation of the tonsils).
9. Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, is more common in young children. The child reflexively clears his throat when a lump of food enters the respiratory tract.

The third group of causes of cough caused by feeding habits of infants includes the following factors.

• Incorrect choice of baby's body position when eating (milk or formula enters the nasopharynx).
• There is too much liquid, the child does not have time to swallow it.
• In infants in the first months of life, coughing occurs before burping. Air enters the baby's stomach if the child swallows too quickly; therefore, the baby may cough when the air escapes.

Causes not related to diseases

Not only diseases, but also individual eating habits and even body characteristics can cause coughing. These include:

1. Eating food too quickly
   . Hasty swallowing of solid food is harmful to the body: rough pieces of food scratch the esophagus, causing vomiting and bloating.

2. Dehydration
   . When dehydrated, saliva production is impaired. The bolus of food is too dry and difficult to chew and swallow. Due to the dryness in the larynx and the resulting soreness, a cough begins.

3. Swallowing dysfunction
   . With this pathology, the food bolus cannot move normally through the esophagus because its muscles are too weakened.

Physiological features that interfere with normal food absorption are often associated with age-related changes. The older a person gets, the slower he needs to eat. It is better to completely exclude coarse fibrous foods.

Coughing after eating is not only a symptom of the disease: without treatment, this symptom will provoke the development of other pathologies.

During coughing, the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract contract strongly. This interferes with the normal course of the digestive process. If this is repeated regularly and becomes permanent, the person’s ability to digest food normally is impaired, bloating, nausea, and problems with stool appear. The chronic form of this condition is called intestinal neurosis.

Aspiration pneumonia

Sometimes small pieces of food or droplets of liquid are inhaled into the lungs, where they can introduce bacteria. This usually happens when you swallow something and it goes down the wrong throat. Healthy lungs usually clear out, but if they don't, the bacteria can cause a serious illness called aspiration pneumonia. Acid reflux or dysphagia increases the risk of developing aspiration pneumonia.

A wet cough after eating is a symptom of aspiration pneumonia. Also, when you cough, you may experience mucus that is greenish in appearance or contains traces of blood. Other symptoms include:

• painful swallowing;
• cough or shortness of breath after eating;
• heartburn;
• fever within an hour after eating;
• recurrent pneumonia;
• excessive salivation;
• feeling of stuffiness after eating or drinking;
• shortness of breath or tiredness while eating or drinking.

If aspiration pneumonia is left untreated, it can cause serious problems such as lung abscess or respiratory failure. Talk to your doctor as soon as possible if you think you may have aspiration pneumonia.

Associated symptoms and how to distinguish them

In addition to coughing, a person may experience other symptoms. It is important to recognize the signs that require immediate assistance and be able to provide it.

The appearance of an accompanying symptom does not always mean the presence of a physiological disease. If symptoms appear only in specific situations (for example, after a strong emotional experience), they may be caused by a somatic reaction of the body and have psychological causes.

Diagnosis of the causes of cough

A pulmonologist should examine a patient with such complaints. After conducting a preliminary examination and interview, he may refer the patient for additional examination to a gastroenterologist, allergist or cardiologist.

To make a correct diagnosis, it is necessary to undergo a number of studies:

• X-ray of the stomach and chest;
• immunological tests;
• spirography and cardiography;
• stress tests;
• blood tests for viruses.

If there is a wet cough, the patient must be referred for sputum analysis. Many patients have difficulty collecting materials for analysis.

You cannot deliberately induce a cough to collect sputum: this can lead to injury to the esophagus.

Trying to cough up phlegm on purpose can cause vomiting. The entry of vomit into the analysis material will distort the result of the study. If the patient is unable to cough up enough sputum, another type of diagnosis is performed.

Methods of treatment when the disease is detected

A cough that appears after eating can be treated with tablets, suspensions and mixtures. The choice of treatment methods depends on the cause that needs to be eliminated:

1. Treatment for food reflux into the esophagus. In this case, antacids are used in the form of a suspension: Almagel, Gaviscon, Enterosgel. They reduce the acidity of gastric juice and the contraction of the sphincter ceases to provoke a cough.

2. Treatment for respiratory diseases. It is carried out using lozenges and mixtures: Doctor MOM, Septolete, Trachisan. They can also be used if the patient has a sore throat, but does not cough.
3. Treatment for allergies. It is not carried out separately; it is relieved along with other symptoms with antiallergic drugs.
4. Treatments for bloating. This is done with the help of tablets that improve digestion: Espumisan, Rennie.

If you need to take both tablets and suspension, then first you need to drink the tablet with a small amount of water. Afterwards, drink the suspension. The exception is lozenges. They cannot be taken with water and should be taken after other types of medications.

Cough after eating in infants under one year of age

Breastfed babies often burp after eating. The previous symptom is a severe dry cough. It is not a disease and indicates an incorrect approach to feeding. The reason for its appearance may be:

• the child swallowing a large amount of air during feeding;
• indigestion caused by drinking too much milk;
• Incorrect position of the baby during feeding.

To get rid of a cough, it is enough to eliminate the cause by feeding the child more often, but in smaller portions. When putting the baby to the chest, make sure that you do not gasp for air with your lips. If the baby begins to cough during feeding, stop and allow him to regain his breathing.

An infant, unlike adults, cannot name the cause of the cough. It is the parents’ task to notice the symptoms and help get rid of them. If the cough does not stop within a minute, and the skin begins to turn blue, you need to immediately begin providing first aid. Due to undeveloped laryngeal muscles, an infant may cough to the point of vomiting and choke on vomit. It is important to have time to clear the airways before oxygen starvation occurs.

Methods for preventing cough after eating

To avoid coughing, vomiting and the dangerous consequences associated with them, you must follow simple rules for eating:

1. Do not mix hot foods with cold ones. The temperature difference causes stomach cramps. This is not only unpleasant, but also threatens with various consequences, including ulcers.

2. Chew and swallow slowly. The smaller the food particles, the faster and easier they will be digested. You need to be especially careful with foods rich in fiber: they can scratch the esophagus. Chewing thoroughly helps prevent injury and gastritis.
3. Don't eat on the go. While moving, the risk of choking increases, you have to eat quickly, and there is no way to chew and swallow food normally. If you can't sit down, you need to at least stop.
4. Don't overeat. The feeling of fullness does not appear immediately, so it is better to eat a little less than you want. To avoid feeling hungry between meals, have small snacks. It is better to eat fractionally, in small portions 4-5 times a day.
5. Take food with a small amount of water. 3-4 sips are enough to rinse your mouth and get rid of unpleasant dryness. It is also helpful to drink some water before meals.

It is not always possible to follow the rules. If you feel discomfort in your stomach after eating, you need to take Mezim or another drug that improves digestion. And wait with your next meal until the discomfort completely disappears.

What can be done for prevention

To avoid coughing after eating, you should follow the following recommendations:

• do not eat food later than 3-4 hours before going to bed;
• maintain body weight within normal limits;
• give preference to fractional meals with small portions;
• give up irritating foods;
• drink enough water.

Coughing after eating in most cases indicates diseases of the digestive or respiratory system. To determine the cause of the symptom, you should consult a doctor. The specialist will prescribe a treatment regimen based on the results of diagnostic procedures.