Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So in this question I am being asked about dry coughs. The writer asks, my child has
a dry cough and I’d like to know the causes of the cough as well as what some of the treatments
are and in addition, when should I seek emergency help at the emergency room?
Well, kids cough a lot. The reasons, the most common reason that they cough is that they’re
getting over a cold and they’ve got some phlegm or fluid dripping down the back of
their throat. And you’ll probably recognize the term post-nasal drip because it’s used
pretty frequently by people describing their own symptoms.
The other thing children may develop a dry cough from and cause is because of a very,
very mild case of spasms in their airways. One word people use for that is bronchospasms
and it also has some of the symptomotology of asthma. And not to scare you but it is
very common for children to have a little bit of spasm of their airways with particular
viruses that cause colds.
And what a physician will do, taking your child to the pediatrician or their caregiver
is first of all listen to your child’s lungs and make sure the breath sounds sound good
and they’re equal between both sides of the child’s chest. And then look at the
rest of the child to make sure they don’t have something like a sinus infection or an
ear infection, and occasionally, a doctor will also check for oxygen level with something
called a pulseoxyimeter, it’s a little something they clip on their finger. Those of you who
have had babies probably got monitored with a pulseox when you had your baby or had other
surgery.
So depending on what the cause is, whether it’s the post-nasal drip issue or it’s
just a little bit of bronchospasm really dictates the treatment. The post-nasal drip issue really
just has to go away by itself. There’s no real magical cures. The better hydrated you
can keep the child the sooner that whole issue will go away. But it’s not really hurting
the child. It’s more probably causing you more stress than the child is having any uncomfortable
symptoms from.
And then in the case of a little bit of the bronchospasm we spoke about, there are some
medications that your doctor might prescribe. Some of them are actually an inhaled or an
inhaler type medication, one is commonly called albuterol. Or they may elect to use a liquid
medication and actually albuterol medicine I talked about for inhaler also comes in a
syrup.
When you want to worry about a dry cough is when a child has a very high fever that would
be over, say 102. But in general are they breathing very fast and are they using a lot
of extra muscles to breathe, i.e. when you watch them breathe, are they sucking in between
their ribs or are they sucking in here around their throat area or around here and that
means that their body is working a lot harder than it should be to get air in and out of
his chest.
If you see that, those are signals that you really need to get your child some very prompt
attention either directly to the doctor’s office, or in some cases, to the emergency
room.
But again, most time children have dry cough they are getting over a cold and have a little
bit of dripping in the back of their throat. So, I hope this is helpful to you and good
luck with your kids.