Should your child drink more water when coughing? How many of the 7 misunderstandings of coughing have you made?

Stream A, RSV, COVID..... Respiratory infections are frequent this year, and coughing is common in children.

Myth 1: Coughing is sick

Cough is a protective reflex of the body, and if an infection occurs in the respiratory tract, inflammation or secretions that irritate the respiratory tract can trigger cough, which is also a common cause of cough.

However, the disease can cause cough does not mean that cough is caused by disease, in addition to respiratory infections, smoke, irritating gases, etc. can also cause cough, so we should not see the child cough and think that the child is sick and needs to take medicine.

It is usually normal for a child to cough a few times once in a while, and if your child coughs frequently and persistently, it means that he is sick, but most of them are still common colds.

Myth 2: Coughing will cough up pneumonia

"If the child coughs, he is afraid of coughing up pneumonia!" Many people have heard this advertising slogan, and it has also penetrated into the hearts of many parents, so the child coughs for a few days and will worry about coughing pneumonia, and then give the child medicine.

In fact, pneumonia is a respiratory infection and a cough can occur, but coughing does not cause pneumonia. On the contrary, coughing helps clear the airways and can also help with recovery.

Therefore, pneumonia can have a cough, cough is always bad and there is fever, shortness of breath, labor, poor spirits These symptoms need to be vigilant against pneumonia, but cough will not cough up pneumonia, do not need to worry about coughing up pneumonia and use cough medicine.

Misunderstanding three, cough without cough medicine will not be good

After a cold, it may be for a long time, the child is fine with everything but still has a cough, and many parents will feel that coughing without medicine will not be good.

In fact, cough is the longest lasting of all cold symptoms and the slowest to relieve. However, as the disease recovers, the respiratory inflammation caused by the infection decreases, the respiratory secretions decrease, and the child's cough will gradually decrease and disappear.

From：American Rhinologic Society

If the child's cough is not good, it is necessary to be alert to the possibility of other problems, such as sinusitis, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux, tracheal foreign body and other problems, if you are worried, you can go to the doctor, if you find the cause can be treated for the cause.

For children, especially children under 6 years of age, the effect of cough suppressants has not been verified and may cause serious adverse effects, so do not give cough suppressants to children under 6 years of age. For older children and adults, the effect of cough medicine is to relieve cough, and it cannot change the direction of disease development.

Myth 4: Drink more water for coughing

"Drinking more water for cough can keep the respiratory tract moist, can dilute sputum, and then relieve cough." Many people think this way, including me before. However, it was later found that there is no evidence that drinking more water is helpful for coughing, on the contrary, respiratory syncytial virus infection may cause abnormal levels of antidiuretic hormone, and if too much fluid intake in this case, it may also cause problems such as hyponatremia. [1]

Therefore, if the child is thirsty can drink water, if the throat is dry itchy and irritating cough, you can also drink water to moisten it, for children over one year old, drinking some honey water before going to bed may also relieve the night cough, but there is no need to drink a lot more water because of cough.

Myth 5: Coughing up green sputum indicates a bacterial infection

After a respiratory infection, our immune system responds, such as white blood cells to devour some viruses or bacteria, in the process, some white blood cells will release some iron-containing proteins, causing the sputum to turn green. Therefore, whether it is a bacterial or viral infection, as long as there is an inflammatory response, green sputum may be produced, and green sputum does not mean that there is a bacterial infection.

In children, whether it is an upper or lower respiratory tract infection, the most common is a viral infection. Regardless of whether there is green sputum or not, antibiotics are not needed in most cases [2], so there is no need to take antibiotics because you see your child coughing up green sputum.

Myth 6: Patting the back can help eliminate phlegm

Many parents, including some medical staff, will want to shake the sputum by patting the back to loosen and shift, and then discharge, but whether it is bronchiolitis in children or pneumonia, the current study has not found that physical therapy such as back patting is helpful for improving the condition, I have also written related articles before, see:

Give your child a pat on the back to expel phlegm, with a real or empty palm? Stop getting tangled

Myth 7: Coughing is useful for tuina

This is a misunderstanding with Chinese characteristics. For the mechanism of cough, modern medicine has a relatively clear explanation, that is, the cough receptors mainly distributed in the respiratory tract are stimulated and send signals to the cough center in the brain, and the cough center then sends instructions to the body to cause cough.

Eliminating irritation, such as tracheal foreign bodies being removed, respiratory tract infections being controlled, or suppressing the cough center of the brain with some central cough suppressants, can suppress cough. Tuina on the surface of the body does not interfere with the process of cough reflex and does not affect cough. Some people's cough improves after a while of tuina, because many respiratory infections are self-healing diseases, which is the natural outcome of the disease, and has nothing to do with whether to do tuina.

Resources:

[1] Guppy MPB, Mickan SM, Del Mar CB. “Drink plenty of fluids”: a systematic review of evidence for this recommendation in acute respiratory infections BMJ 2004;328: 499-500.

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/green-phlegm-and-snot-not-always-a-sign-of-an-infection-needing-antibiotics

Child or adult health problems