The child has a severe cough without fever. Cough in a child without fever - how to treat it

How much happiness a long-awaited baby brings to parents! And how much worry a mother feels when her beloved child gets sick. It seemed that troubles were receding along with recovery. But diseases are insidious. When they leave, they leave traces in the small organism.

One of the consequences is a prolonged cough in a child without fever, a cause of parental worry and concern. How to get rid of it and why does such a syndrome develop? To cope with childhood cough, you need to know everything about it.

Types of cough

Coughing is a reflex process that helps clear the airways of mucus accumulations (mucus accumulates viruses, allergens, bacteria, harmful compounds) or ingested foreign object. If the causes of cough syndrome are infectious or inflammatory diseases, the reflex becomes protracted and severe (it can pass without fever).

• A cough is natural (normal) if its frequency is up to 10-13 times a day.
• The cough reflex becomes long-term (protracted), when the child begins to cough systematically for 4-8 weeks.
• Cough syndrome becomes a chronic cough syndrome if it persists in a child for 3-4 months or more.

Wet cough

A wet (expectorant) cough is productive. The mucous membrane, which accumulates in the bronchopulmonary tree, absorbs pathogenic microorganisms (mucus is an excellent medium for their reproduction). With the help of the cough reflex, this mucus (phlegm) is expelled. Coughing up phlegm is good for the body, it is cleansing.

Be sure to teach your child to spit out mucus, expectorate it, and not swallow it!

A natural, cleansing cough without fever usually appears in the morning. Pathological prolonged wet cough syndrome occurs at any time of the day, it is accompanied by fever, runny nose, weakness, sneezing and redness of the sclera of the eyes.

Frequent attacks of prolonged wet cough cause pain in the back or sternum. A prolonged cough with phlegm provokes difficulty breathing, and when harmful mucus enters the stomach, it causes upset stools and vomiting.

A dangerous signal is the presence of blood streaks in the sputum and an increase in the duration of coughing attacks (they become protracted) and a high temperature.

The development of many diseases begins with the accompaniment of a hysterical dry cough without fever, which gradually develops into a wet one. Doctors associate this phenomenon with the gradual accumulation of bacterial microorganisms in the respiratory organs, which gradually settle in the bronchi or lungs.

Long lasting moist cough. In the case when too much sputum comes out when coughing, and the syndrome itself is observed for a long time, a productive lingering cough without fever becomes the result of some pathology. Abundant mucus secretion is associated with the growing activity of harmful microorganisms in the body.

If a lingering wet cough continues for a long time (the third or fourth week), and the amount of sputum decreases, this indicates that the disease has progressed to chronic form. In this case, treatment is carried out with expectorants (to thin the mucus and help the body get rid of it).

Productive coughing is almost always accompanied by whistling, wheezing sounds when breathing and coughing. This cough especially bothers the baby in the morning (it goes away without fever).

Sputum with a lingering wet cough tells a lot about the disease tormenting the child’s body. Mucus differs in consistency and color; doctors conduct special diagnostics of sputum in order to identify the causative agent of the disease. Separately, doctors analyze the color of mucus:

• Transparent or colorless occurs at the onset of acute inflammatory protracted colds.
• Green or yellowish indicates a large accumulation of pus in the organs of the respiratory system.
• Gray or black sputum with unpleasant smell rot indicates a progressive cancerous tumor in the lungs or bronchi.
• White slime curdled consistency indicates the development of a fungal infection. Such sputum is observed in tuberculosis.

Dry cough

A dry cough develops as a defensive reaction - the body frees the lungs and bronchi from microparticles of dust, harmful substances, toxins or pathogenic microorganisms. There are many tiny receptors located on the mucous membrane of the larynx, bronchi and trachea. When irritated, they provoke the development of a dry (non-productive) cough without fever.

Doctors divide dry cough into the following types:

• Ordinary. The child coughs 5-6 times a day, without coughing discomfort. No temperature observed. This cough reflex without wheezing is typical at the beginning of the development of colds or viral infections.
• Paroxysmal. When coughing, the child experiences pain in the sternum due to strong tension in the respiratory muscles. Paroxysmal cough is frequent and prolonged, accompanied by lacrimation, fever and weakness. This syndrome is a symptom of the development of pneumonia or bronchitis; it indicates the onset of an inflammatory process in the lower respiratory tract.
• Barking. This dry cough resembles a loud, staccato bark from a dog. It is painful for a child. When coughing, the baby suffocates, severe shortness of breath appears, and normal breathing is disrupted. Barking lingering dry coughing happens with many infectious diseases and with extensive inflammation of the pulmonary organs.
• Chronic. If a lingering dry cough continues for 2-2.5 weeks, it becomes “chronic”. This cough syndrome is characteristic of numerous pathological conditions. Chronic cough can occur without fever.

A dry cough also develops when a foreign body enters the respiratory system or when it ends up in the esophagus. gastric juice. The aggressive environment causes severe irritation of the receptors and an uncontrollable muffled cough develops. A dry, hoarse cough, even without fever, can cause a lot of suffering (especially if attacks occur at night).

Prolonged dry cough. When the dry cough continues for a long time, becoming protracted, it exhausts and exhausts the child. In such situations, doctors’ efforts are directed at converting a dry cough into a wet one. Protracted cough syndrome indicates non-infectious pathological conditions of the body. A prolonged cough without fever is observed with:

• Bronchial asthma.
• Fungal infections.
• Allergic manifestations.
• Burns of the lungs and bronchi (steam, hot air).
• The presence of foreign objects in the respiratory organs.
• Damage to the respiratory tract due to chemical reagents.
• Passive smoking (if the child is with a smoking adult).

Types of cough and possible causes

Features of cough.	Associated symptoms.	Possible disease.
Dry (unproductive)
At first dry, after 5-6 days it turns into wet. Cough is ringing, loud	The child loses his appetite and appears headache, temperature, fever, snot	Bronchitis
Spastic (constantly increasing), paroxysmal, prolonged	High temperature, rapid breathing. The child is restless and irritable	Obstructive bronchitis
The cough is rare and muffled. It gets worse when crying, talking, laughing, or changes in ambient temperature	There is a sore and red throat, it hurts to swallow, the temperature rises slightly, and there is a headache.	Pharyngitis, sinusitis, tracheobronchitis
Laryngeal (spasm of the larynx is noted), painful, barking, lingering cough	Fever, hoarseness, severe hoarseness, runny nose, swelling of the laryngeal mucosa	Laryngitis, rhinitis
Paroxysmal, intermittent, accompanied by noisy sighs	Fever, runny nose, high temperature. During a cough attack, vomiting is observed, the cough is prolonged and painful	Whooping cough, measles
Wet (productive)
At first dry, but quickly turns into moist with purulent mucous discharge, becomes protracted	Sharp rise fever, weakness, loss of appetite, muscle and joint pain. When coughing, the child feels pain in the chest	Flu
Cough with watery sputum, deep and loud	Difficulty breathing, coughing attacks occur more often in the morning, mucous discharge is purulent in nature. There may be no temperature	Chronical bronchitis
Whooping cough-like (intrusive, accompanied by tremors, booming, painful)	Fever, weakness, headache, pain in the chest area, purulent sputum. The disease may resolve without fever	Tracheitis
Initially dry, after a week rust-colored mucus separates	High temperature, fever, chills, severe weakness, loss of appetite. When coughing, chest pain is felt on the side of the affected lung	Pneumonia
Paroxysmal, often appears at night	During an attack, the child becomes agitated, breathes heavily, turns red, and has a slight rise in temperature	Bronchial asthma
Initially dry, then turns into wet, lingering	Attacks often begin at night, and the sputum produced contains bloody streaks. At long term no fever is observed	Tuberculosis

Any kind of malaise in a child should be the basis for consultation with a pediatrician. You should consult a doctor without delay in the following cases:

• If the child has been coughing for more than 2 weeks.
• A newborn baby suffers from cough.
• Coughing, the child complains of severe pain in the sternum ( Bottom part).
• When you cough, purulent sputum appears (especially if there are bloody streaks or spots in it).
• The cough reflex is accompanied by high fever, suffocation, whistling in the chest and difficulty breathing.
• After taking antibiotics, cough and fever do not go away after 30 hours.

But what to do if the cough is prolonged and there is no fever? Does this indicate dangerous reasons, decline in immunity? Or is there no need to worry in such cases?

Causes of prolonged cough without fever

We are accustomed to consider ourselves sick only when our body temperature rises. The same concerns among mothers are caused by a prolonged cough in a child. But considering a prolonged cough syndrome that goes away without fever as harmless is a fallacy.

An increase in temperature is a sign of inflammatory and infectious diseases bronchopulmonary organs, but there are exceptions everywhere. Some dangerous diseases coming with a lingering cough, not accompanied by fever and temperature:

Heart diseases. Children's heart failure develops due to the inability of cardio-vascular system provide the body with good blood circulation. The heart muscles work weakly, pushing out insufficient blood volume for the body's needs. You might even get sick one year old child.

The causes of heart failure in a child are heart injuries, malformations of the heart organ, arterial hypertension. As a result of poor blood supply to the body, a baby with heart problems experiences:

• Shortness of breath.
• Hoarse voice.
• Dry wheezing when breathing.
• Constant fatigue, weakness.
• Cyanosis (blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle and fingers).

A prolonged cough without fever, which develops with heart failure, indicates stagnation of blood in the lungs and has many types. It can be paroxysmal, sharp and loud, dry and exhausting, or accompanied by hemoptysis.

Reflux disease. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) occurs when stomach contents regularly back up into the lower intestine. Aggressive contents provoke the development of inflammation and cause damage to the mucous tissue of the esophagus.

The main manifestation of reflux is constant heartburn (a sharp burning sensation in the sternum and upper abdomen).

Regular reflux gradually changes the acidic environment of the esophagus towards oxidation. The cells of the esophageal mucosa die, unable to withstand the acidic environment. Dead cells are replaced by stomach cells or connective tissue. Gradually the esophagus loses main function– promotion of food.

Prolonged inflammation develops, accompanied by the following symptoms:

• I have a stomachache.
• Sour belching.
• Feeling of heaviness.
• Painful heartburn.
• Feeling of a lump in the throat.
• Pain in the sternum.
• Dry, prolonged cough.

A persistent cough develops in 50% of diagnosed GERD in children aged 1 year. And in 10% of children, cough syndrome is the only sign of reflux. A prolonged cough without fever with GERD is characterized by pain (sputum cannot be coughed up) and the urge to vomit. This symptom can easily be confused with a cough due to allergies or bronchial asthma. Cough syndrome with GERD appears 20-30 minutes after eating.

Tuberculosis. An infectious disease that affects the respiratory system. The deadly disease is famous for its lingering cough (called “consumptive cough”). Cough syndrome in tuberculosis is the main and important symptom (it can pass without fever). It is caused by acid-resistant microorganisms that accumulate in the patient’s lungs and bronchi.

Tuberculosis cough is pronounced only in the miliary type of the disease, which is often found in childhood. With tuberculosis, the cough is dry, but occasionally small amounts of sputum appear.

A lingering tuberculous cough begins in the early morning, when the child wakes up and gets out of bed, taking a horizontal position.

At night, the sensitivity of the mucous membrane decreases, which allows sputum to accumulate in large quantities to cause a cough without fever in the morning. A patient with tuberculosis may cough for 5-6 hours straight until the lungs clear at least a little.

If children have tumor-type tuberculosis, the cough syndrome takes on a convulsive form and gives off a booming metallic sound. The cause of this cough is the rapid entry of air into the lungs, where there are enlarged bronchial lymph nodes, which cause vibration.

If tuberculosis has taken hold of the tissues of the larynx, the cough becomes silent and hoarse. This occurs due to the tight closure of the glottis. With tuberculosis in a severe stage (open stage), there is a protracted, hacking cough, wet with bloody mucus. On examination, a red throat is noted.

In addition to cough, tuberculosis is accompanied by the following: common features:

• Sudden weight loss.
• Complete loss of appetite.
• Severe sweating at night.
• Weakness and lethargy of the body.
• Problems in the gastrointestinal tract (diarrhea, constipation).
• Chest pain when breathing.
• The appearance of painful nodules in the lower leg area.

When tuberculosis just begins to develop in a child, the cough is persistent and dry, it goes away without fever. It worsens in the morning and at night, gradually becoming chronic. Some people confuse tuberculosis cough with the cough syndrome that occurs with bronchitis and pneumonia after fever.

Pneumonia and bronchitis. To understand the characteristics of cough in these inflammatory diseases, you should know what their difference is:

• Bronchitis is an inflammatory disease of the entire bronchial tree.
• Pneumonia (or pneumonia) is characterized by inflammatory damage to the final sections of the lung (alveoli or bronchioles).

Bronchioles are the terminal regions of the bronchi. They end in alveoli (sac-like organs in which gas exchange occurs). When the infection enters respiratory organs through the nose, the viruses first enter the bronchi, then end up in the bronchioles and alveoli. Therefore, pneumonia is almost always a consequence of bronchitis.

The culprit in the development of bronchitis and pneumonia are colds (flu, rhinitis, ARVI, tonsillitis - viral pathogens). Bronchitis or pneumonia develops 4-5 days after the onset colds(by this time viruses and bacteria reach the lower respiratory tract).

Bronchitis is often of viral origin (it is provoked by adeno- and parainfluenza viruses), and pneumonia is the “work of bacteria” (pneumococci, streptococci and staphylococci).

With bronchitis and pneumonia, a sharp increase in temperature often occurs, but in Lately doctors note the development of the disease, not accompanied by fever. A lingering cough in these inflammatory diseases can also resolve without fever. Its features in diseases:

• With bronchitis, the cough is superficial, dry and painless.
• With pneumonia, the cough is wet. It is deep and causes pain in the sternum.

Besides lingering cough Inflammatory diseases of the pulmonary organs are marked by weakness of the body, shortness of breath and loss of appetite. In a child, the development of bronchitis and pneumonia occurs much faster than in an adult.

Complications after pneumonia and bronchitis can develop in childhood as early as the 2nd day of illness. Children complain of pain in other organs (ear, nose, stomach or throat hurt).

Allergy. The culprit in the development allergic reactions becomes your own immunity. Allergy is an inadequate response of the body to the action of irritants (allergens). One of the most common manifestations of allergies (except rash) is a prolonged cough without fever. Its features:

• More often, an allergic cough has a paroxysmal character; the attack begins suddenly and also passes suddenly.
• In case of allergies, a cough attack can last for 3-4 hours.
• Most often, an allergic cough is dry, irritating the throat.
• Cough syndrome is accompanied by a runny nose; with allergies, rhinitis often develops as a reaction to the action of respiratory allergens.
• Coughing attacks often occur at night.
• If sputum appears during an allergic cough, it is transparent and does not contain any impurities. The mucus is difficult to clear and the baby has to make a lot of effort to cough up.
• An allergy cough is accompanied by a runny nose and sneezing.
• Before an allergic attack, the child complains of difficulty breathing and shortness of breath - this occurs due to swelling of the mucous membrane before the onset of a cough attack.
• With allergies, the body temperature does not rise.

Often an allergic lingering cough without fever is confused with cough syndrome due to bronchitis or whooping cough. Allergies are a seasonal disease, and bronchitis occurs in the cold season. An attack of allergic cough is relieved by taking antihistamines - these drugs do not act on inflammatory diseases.

With whooping cough, a prolonged cough is accompanied by the release of viscous sputum and fever, and in the intervals between coughing shocks the child stops breathing, which is very life-threatening. It is important for parents to be able to distinguish between types of cough and understand that the baby is suffering from allergies.

Advanced allergies give impetus to development bronchial asthma or allergic bronchitis - these diseases negatively affect the quality of life and have a detrimental effect on the child’s health.

Fungal infections. Infections of fungal etymology are frequent companions of the child's body. They especially love to live in the throat. The most common fungi are Candida fungi, yeast-like microorganisms.

Candida and other similar fungi are natural saprophytes (human companions that feed on dead organic matter).

But under certain conditions, these fungi begin to actively multiply, leading to the development of diseases. The trigger for fungal infections is weakening immune system, malnutrition and poor nutrition, birth injuries and acute infectious diseases.

Common fungal infections in children include:

Thrush. This disease is characterized by the appearance in the oral cavity of a cheesy coating of white, yellowish and grayish color. Thrush has three stages of development:

• Mild degree. A foamy plaque is noticeable in certain areas of the oral cavity and is easily removed.
• Average. The curdled coating becomes filmy and difficult to remove. When it is removed, the mucous membrane is injured, leaving a bleeding surface.
• Heavy. Plaque in the form of a film fills the entire oral cavity, painful lumps form in the corners of the mouth. The plaque is firmly adhered to the mucous membrane and cannot be removed.

Mycotic seizures. It is more often diagnosed in children 4-5 years old suffering from early caries. Painful cracks covered with a white coating appear in the corners of the mouth. The skin around the cracks thickens. It is difficult for the baby to open his mouth - the affected areas of the skin burst and bleed.

Fungal glossitis. The disease affects the baby's tongue. The tongue becomes covered with a white coating, turns blue, and itches. Fungal plaque looks like a dense white film. When you try to remove it, a bleeding film remains on the tongue.

Fungal sore throat. The disease affects the child's throat. A white or yellow cheesy coating develops, which rises on the oral mucosa. This plaque is easily removed without damaging the mucous membrane.

With all types of fungal infections, sick children experience a prolonged cough. Dry cough syndrome is painful and irritating. The culprit of a lingering cough without fever is an abundant cheesy coating that irritates the nerve receptors.

Cough occurs more frequently when helminthic infestation provoked by roundworms of the larval stage - they need oxygen in order to develop into a sexually mature individual. Looking for the necessary air, worm larvae enter the lungs or bronchi, where they interfere with the free passage of air. This is how a cough appears. It is dry and strong, lingering coughing attacks strong, sometimes even causing vomiting.

A prolonged cough without fever (even a rare one) is not normal! This syndrome requires a mandatory examination by a pediatrician, tests to make a diagnosis and competent treatment.

How to treat

A prolonged cough creates inconvenience for the baby and parents. Especially if a lingering cough symptom torments the baby at night, preventing him from getting a good night's sleep. A cough without fever is evidence of many pathological situations that need to be clarified and eliminated. What to do? A pediatrician can help alleviate the child’s condition.

Let's go to the doctor

Before going to see a doctor, make sure that the air in the apartment where the child lives is not too dry. And the baby had no contact with allergic substances. Methods for treating a prolonged cough without fever depend not only on the identified cause. The type of cough syndrome is also important for the doctor:

• With a dry cough, the child has difficulty expelling mucus (it is too thick and viscous and the baby is unable to cough it up). In this case, medications are prescribed that can thin the mucus and remove it from the bronchi and lungs.
• A wet cough is productive. In this case, the doctor prescribes medications that help remove phlegm.

When prescribing therapy, the pediatrician takes into account the age of the small patient, the tendency to allergies, the condition of the body and past illnesses. What does the pediatrician prescribe?

Antibiotics. Antibacterial therapy is prescribed when a persistent cough develops due to infectious diseases of the respiratory tract (sore throat, otitis, sinusitis) and goes away with fever. Cough with whooping cough, pneumonia and bronchitis also requires taking antibiotics.

Attention! Self-prescription of antibiotics for children is strictly prohibited! These medications are aggressive and can be harmful to health.

Antitussive drugs. Medicines that dilute mucus and promote its removal are prescribed by a pediatrician to relieve a lingering dry cough in a child without fever. More often prescribed the following drugs:

• Glaucine. Alkaloid plant origin. An anti-inflammatory, bronchodilator that does not suppress the cough center.
• Butamirat. A medicine that affects the central cough center, reducing its ability to be excited. Butamirate relieves inflammation in the bronchi, actively saturating them with oxygen.
• Tusuprex. The medicine is prescribed for debilitating cough caused by a number of viral diseases (pneumonia, bronchitis, ARVI, laryngitis, whooping cough).
• Libexin. Eliminates throat pain by expanding bronchopulmonary lumens. The action of libexin is aimed at converting a dry cough into a wet, productive one.
• Delsim. A medicine that helps relieve attacks of dry cough at night, relieving the allergic manifestations of cough syndrome. Delsim affects the cough center, blocking its work.
• Robitussin. It has a vasoconstrictor effect, relieving swelling and inflammation of the bronchi. This medicine is prescribed for prolonged cough caused by colds.

Mucolytic expectorants. Mucolytics help with a prolonged wet cough without fever with thick, viscous sputum. This treatment helps remove mucus. Mucolytic drugs are divided into drugs that thin sputum and drugs that help quickly remove it. Mucolytics include:

• Ambroxol. Increases the amount of mucus produced and thins it, making it less viscous, helping to quickly remove phlegm.
• Carbocysteine. Accelerates regeneration and normalizes the functioning of the bronchial and lung mucosa. Helps form and remove mucus.
• Bromhexine. Effectively reduces the viscosity of sputum, increasing the activity of the epithelium of the bronchial mucosa.
• Fluimucil. Reduces inflammation, has antioxidant effect, helps to thin and remove mucus.
• Ambrobene. Helps in the fight against inflammatory diseases. Effective for long, wet coughs with purulent sputum. The medicine reduces the viscosity of mucus and promotes its rapid removal.
• Lazolvan. Active ingredient means reduces the viscosity of sputum and activates the work ciliated epithelium lungs, which helps to quickly stop coughing.

Attention! Mucolytics should not be taken simultaneously with antitussives! This combination leads to the development of complications, which leads to a deterioration in the child’s condition.

Folk remedies

Traditional recipes are not able to rid a child’s body of the causes that cause a prolonged cough without fever. But they become an excellent help in complex treatment. To use recipes correctly, you need to know the cause of a lingering cough and its type.

Dry cough. The following methods will help alleviate the painful and painful cough syndrome in your baby and eliminate heavy breathing:

• Inhalation from pine cones. Pine cones(10 g) steam with a glass of boiling water. Cook the mixture over low heat for half an hour with the lid closed. The baby should breathe over the healing steam for 10-15 minutes. Make sure your baby doesn't get burned!
• Milk drink. Boil a glass of fresh milk and dissolve a pinch of soda and a teaspoon of butter in it. Give the product to drink warm, a tablespoon 4-5 times daily.
• Onion drink. Add a glass of sugar and two large onions to a liter of boiling water. The mass should be cooked for 1-1.5 hours. Then remove the bulbs and give the baby one tablespoon of the broth to drink 3-4 times a day.
• Radish juice. Take a small black radish and cut off the top. Make a niche hole in the fruit. As soon as the cavity is filled with radish juice, add honey there. After infusion for 10-12 hours, the medicine is ready. The child is given a teaspoon of juice to drink 3-4 times daily.

Black radish juice is also good for prophylaxis during the off-season (the preventive course is 3 weeks).

Moist cough. Tasty and healthy syrups can help in getting rid of a lingering wet cough without fever:

• Viburnum. Mix viburnum berries with sugar (a tablespoon of each). Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 1-1.5 hours. Drink aromatic syrup 3-4 times a day.
• Onion. Finely chop a medium onion, mix it with honey (2 tablespoons) and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for half an hour. Give the syrup to drink warm 2-3 times daily.

Decoctions are an excellent way to combat a lingering wet cough. medicinal herbs. To prepare them, use one or a mixture of the following herbs: chamomile, sage, coltsfoot, elderberry and linden blossom. Steam 2-3 tablespoons of dry herbs with a glass of boiling water and leave for 30-40 minutes. Give your child a tablespoon to drink 4-5 times a day.

Rubbing counts the best method in the fight against a protracted wet cough without fever. It is better for your baby to do them before bedtime. For rubbing, use lard, badger or goat fat. Such methods will help your baby sleep well without debilitating night attacks of prolonged coughing and wheezing. They even fit one-year-old children.

• Potato compress. Boil unpeeled potatoes (2-3 fruits). Mash the potato mass with a fork, add vegetable oil (1-2 tbsp) and iodine (2-3 drops). Form a cake from the mixture and place it on a cotton towel. A cloth with potato cake is placed on the baby’s chest and secured with a warm scarf. Remove the compress when the cake has cooled.
• Cabbage with honey. The elastic cabbage leaf is softened with a rolling pin and immersed in boiling water for 5-6 minutes. While the cabbage leaf softens in boiling water, melt the honey in a water bath. Make sure that the temperature of the honey does not exceed +50⁰ C (at higher temperatures, honey loses its beneficial properties). Warm honey is applied to the baby's chest or back and a heated cabbage leaf is applied. The compress is covered with film and insulated with a long woolen scarf. Keep the compress on all night.

Preventive measures

Prevention of a prolonged cough without fever in a child is aimed at stopping repeated developments colds and viral diseases. To strengthen children's immunity, adhere to the following rules:

Hardening. Temper your baby with air baths and water procedures. Rinse your feet with cool water every day. In the summer, it is very useful to run barefoot on the grass, and in the winter, let the baby jump in the mornings and evenings on a terry towel soaked in warm salt water. Dissolve a tablespoon of salt in a liter of water and wet the cloth.

Don't overheat! Do not put a lot of warm clothes on your baby. Focus on your palms and feet - if they are warm and dry, the clothes are chosen correctly. You should walk with your baby every day in any weather. But during the cold season, especially during an outbreak of respiratory diseases, avoid visiting mass events and crowded places.

Complete nutrition and vitamins. A diet rich in vitamins improves children's health. During the off-season, be sure to give your baby a course of multivitamins with micro- and macroelements. During the period of exacerbation of acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections, pediatricians recommend giving children herbal preparations aimed at strengthening the body's protective qualities.

Give preference to products made from Echinacea purpurea, radiola rosea, ginseng, eleutherococcus and zamaniha. The course of prophylaxis lasts 3-4 weeks and is recommended for all babies starting from one year of age.

Inhalations. Inhalation procedures are effective therapeutic methods used in the treatment and to prevent a child from coughing without fever. Inhalations are best done using a special nebulizer device.

Nebulizer breaks medicinal solutions, used for inhalation, into tiny microparticles. In this way, an aerosol effect is created, and medications penetrate into the lower parts of the respiratory system, which improves the effect of the procedure.

If you don’t have a nebulizer, you can also use grandma’s methods (breathe over a container with a healing mixture, covered with a towel). What mixtures are best to use:

Inhalation with saline solution. Saline solution is a mixture of table salt and water. During the procedure, particles of the mixture settle on the mucous membranes, improving the formation and discharge of mucus. Saline solution is used in inhalations in its pure form and for diluting herbs and medicines for inhalation.

Saline solution for inhalation can be bought ready-made, or you can make it yourself: dilute finely ground table salt (10-12 g) in a liter of boiled water.

Attention! Saline solution made independently is stored in the refrigerator for up to a day, since it is not sterile. To prepare healing products for inhalation, use the following recipes:

• Herbal decoctions. Effective in fighting and preventive measures against cough are herbs such as: eucalyptus, calendula, chamomile, sage, mint, oak leaves. A tablespoon of dry herb is steamed in saline solution (250 ml).
• Essential oils. Inhalation based on etherols of citrus, eucalyptus, mint, sea buckthorn, citrus and juniper oils is good for dry coughs. For 250-300 ml of saline solution, take 3-4 drops essential oil.
• Natural honey. Melted honey is diluted in saline solution (part of the honey is taken to five parts of saline solution).

After daily inhalations, the child experiences significant improvement on the third to fifth day of therapy.

Attention! If your baby is prone to allergies, do not experiment with honey and herbal infusions. Such treatment will aggravate the development of the inflammatory process of the respiratory tract. In this case, use pure saline solution.

A cough itself without fever, even a prolonged one, is not capable of harming a baby, but such a syndrome brings a lot of inconvenience and torment to the baby. Dr. Komarovsky, when dealing with a prolonged cough, advises mothers to follow simple instructions:

1. Be sure to visit your pediatrician to find out the cause of a lingering cough (even if it goes away without fever).
2. It will become easier to get rid of cough syndrome if you humidify the air in the room where the child is. Ventilate rooms regularly and use a humidifier.
3. Use cough medicine for your child without fever only with the doctor's permission.
4. Before inclusion in therapy folk recipes to combat cough, get permission from your pediatrician to use them.

Is it possible to bathe a baby when he has a cough? Modern pediatrics advises washing your child regularly, even with a fever. After all, the hotter the baby is, the more he sweats. Together with sweat, the body gets rid of toxins, waste, bacteria, viruses, dust and dirt.

Harmful substances, being on the skin surface, clog the pores of the epidermis. Therefore, a child with a fever should be washed every evening. warm water.

But bathing a baby, allowing him to splash in the water, is allowed if there is no temperature. All babies love water, so the presence of a lingering cough should not be a reason to refuse bath procedures.

Swimming improves your baby's mood, and being in warm water warms up the body, improving therapeutic measures.

Attention! Make sure that there are no drafts in the bathroom, and that the water temperature is not lower than +37⁰ C!

Additional help in the fight against a lingering cough will be provided by water procedures with the addition of steamed medicinal herbs to the water: wild rosemary, pine needles or eucalyptus. They will help children's body cope with cough without fever sea ​​salt, dissolved in the bath and aromatic oils.

How to relieve a night cough. If a coughing attack develops suddenly at night, the following actions by adults help the baby:

1. Pick up the baby and sit him on the bed.
2. Give him a warm drink. Milk, Borjomi mineral water (add ½ teaspoon of soda to the water) or chamomile decoction/tea will do.
3. If the baby complains of a sore throat, after drinking, let the child swallow a spoonful of warmed butter or honey (if there is no allergy).
4. Gently pat your baby on the back to clear the mucus from the lungs.
5. Blame small child in the arms (an older child should walk a little).

After such manipulations, the coughing attack is relieved, now put the baby to bed - the cough will no longer bother him.

Komarovsky focuses special attention on the use of plant herbs in therapy. medicines. He advises the following:

Stop using codeine. When treating a persistent cough without fever, it is not recommended to use drugs containing codeine. There are two reasons for this ban:

1. Codeine-containing products have an aggressive and strong effect. These drugs are used as a last resort. And a prolonged cough without fever is not so bad as to warrant the use of radical measures.
2. Products containing codeine contain a lot of contraindications. It is impossible to independently determine and exclude contraindications.

Is it worth giving mucolytics? Mucolytic drugs (they are intended to facilitate the removal of sputum) can be used only for children from 2-2.5 years of age. In an infant, mucolytics cause an increase in cough syndrome and become useless for treating a persistent cough.

If your child has a lingering cough without fever (even if nothing else bothers the baby), do not hesitate to visit the pediatrician! By carrying out antitussive therapy on their own, parents risk missing the real causes of the cough and aggravating the child’s condition!

Health to your baby!

A child’s cough without fever occurs due to the most various reasons. This is how the baby’s body can react to excessive dry air in the room or any stressful situations. The cough reflex can be caused not only by colds, but also by allergens:

• dust,
• animal fur,
• plant pollen

Coughing is a normal reflex reaction of the body to irritation of the respiratory tract, and if the baby coughs 10-15 times throughout the day, but is alert and active, there is no need to worry.

If, in the absence of fever, the cough intensifies and the child’s well-being worsens, it is necessary to consult a doctor, because such a condition may indicate serious infectious processes, diseases of the respiratory tract and nasopharynx. Let's find out what are the causes of cough in a child without fever, in what cases parents need to sound the alarm and what methods to treat the baby.

Why does a cough appear without fever?

As you know, cough can be dry and wet. A wet cough in a child without fever is accompanied by mucus discharge and may be a residual sign of previous respiratory tract diseases (for example, bronchitis). In this case, the child’s condition is satisfactory, the temperature does not rise, but the cough remains for 2-3 weeks until the respiratory tract is completely cleared of accumulated sputum. A wet cough is considered productive, since contractions of the respiratory muscles of the bronchi push out mucus, which makes breathing difficult, and soon the child’s condition returns to normal.

A dry cough in a child without fever may indicate development serious illnesses respiratory system (tuberculosis, bronchitis, asthma) and be acute, protracted and chronic. A dry cough exhausts the baby and does not bring relief, since there is no sputum discharge, and constant painful attacks deprive of sleep and appetite, cause severe irritation of the mucous membrane of the larynx, provoke its swelling and a feeling of constant soreness and burning in the throat.

Such a cough exhausts the child, causes severe spastic attacks and negatively affects the state of the nervous system. But the most dangerous is considered to be a barking cough in a child without fever, which can provoke swelling of the larynx, cause suffocation and other dangerous complications.

If a child’s prolonged cough without fever persists for three or more weeks, this is a serious cause for concern, as it may indicate the development of a serious pathology. What diseases cause this symptom? The following conditions can cause attacks of dry, wet or barking cough without a rise in temperature:

The worst thing children experience is a dry cough, which is exhausting, irritates the bronchial mucosa, weakens the body and deprives them of sleep. A barking cough in a child without fever is especially dangerous, especially when it develops suddenly, against the background of general well-being. Its cause may be an allergy, an asthma attack, or diseases such as whooping cough, false croup, diphtheria. These are serious conditions that require emergency medical care, as they lead to difficulty breathing and attacks of suffocation.

A severe cough in a child without fever may be a symptom acute bronchitis, tracheitis or stenosing laryngitis, accompanied by swelling of the mucous membranes. In addition, parents should know that with a barking cough of an allergic nature, the body temperature does not change. But this condition is a harbinger of asthmatic complications.

Another serious danger of barking cough is associated with imperfect development of the upper respiratory tract in children under 5 years of age. In infants, the protective mechanism in the form of tonsils does not yet work, so any infection spreads very quickly. In addition, in children the trachea is much narrower than in an adult, so even slight swelling of the mucous membrane causes a narrowing of its lumen and threatens suffocation.

The appearance of a cough without fever in a child indicates the development of the most various pathologies, so parents should definitely show their child to the doctor. Only a specialist can determine the real reason similar condition and select an adequate treatment regimen.

What does Dr. Komarovsky say about the problem?

Dr. Komarovsky, a famous pediatrician and host of a popular health program, calls on parents to be more attentive to the problem of cough without fever in children. When a dry, and even more so barking, cough appears, the pediatrician warns adults against attempting self-treatment. In such situations, it is necessary to urgently call a doctor. Which warning signs need to pay attention?

1. the child becomes lethargic and capricious;
2. the baby suffers from an obsessive night cough;
3. the child develops a dry barking cough, shortness of breath, hoarseness of voice;
4. the baby is breathing heavily, whistling;
5. signs of suffocation appear, the skin becomes pale and cold to the touch.

What to do if a child has a cough without fever and how to alleviate the baby’s condition before the doctor arrives? Dr. Komarovsky advises ventilating the room and ensuring sufficient humidification of the air the patient breathes. Drinking plenty of warm fluids (tea with jam, honey, lemon) will help soften the inflamed mucous membrane. If an allergic attack occurs, the child can be given half a tablet of an antihistamine, having first dissolved it in a small amount of water.

To ease a night cough, calm the child, rock him in your arms, and avoid tantrums, which increase the severity of the attack. To make breathing easier, wear loose clothing on your baby. A high pillow should be placed under the child’s head; this will help prevent the spread of the inflammatory process to the lower respiratory tract and reduce nighttime coughing attacks.

To relieve the cough reflex, you can do inhalations with a nebulizer, using mineral water or decoctions of medicinal herbs (chamomile, sage) as a filler. Such procedures will soothe the inflamed mucous membrane and relieve a sore throat. From steam inhalations It is better to refuse at home, since such methods often lead to burns of the mucous membranes and further worsen the baby’s condition.

If there is swelling of the larynx, Dr. Komarovsky advises putting mustard plasters on the child’s legs. This simple procedure will increase blood flow to the extremities and reduce swelling of the airways. Give your baby more liquid (warm tea with raspberry jam or lemon, dried fruit compotes, fruit drinks). This measure will support the body weakened by the disease and help avoid dangerous dehydration.

How dangerous is a dry cough without fever?

When a dry cough appears, treatment must be started immediately, otherwise thick sputum will accumulate in the respiratory tract and cause serious complications:

1. A prolonged cough in a child without fever leads to the fact that the body begins to experience oxygen starvation, since the bronchi cannot fully perform their functions. And the longer this condition lasts, the more severe the consequences of hypoxia, from which all internal organs suffer.
2. A dry cough is often a sign of an untreated inflammatory process. If measures are not taken to eliminate it, the risk of cough becoming chronic increases, which can result in the development of diseases such as obstructive bronchitis or bronchial asthma.
3. Attacks of obsessive coughing that occur at night deplete the body, weaken the immune and nervous system, lead to impaired nasal breathing and increase the likelihood of developing otitis and sinusitis.
4. A dry cough is accompanied by irritation and swelling of the mucous membrane of the pharynx and larynx, which makes it loose and vulnerable to the penetration of all kinds of infectious agents.

For cough treatment to be effective, it is necessary to accurately determine the cause that causes this condition. This is the task of the doctor who, after necessary examination and clarifying the diagnosis, he will select the correct treatment regimen and explain to parents how to treat a child’s cough without fever.

Treatment methods

What to do if a child has a persistent cough without fever? Only a specialist can answer this question ( pediatrician or otolaryngologist) after clarifying the diagnosis.

If coughing attacks are caused by a stress factor, lungs will help sedatives based on herbal components and observation by a child psychotherapist. You can give your baby valerian, motherwort, or brew tea with mint.

If the cause of the cough is an allergic reaction, first of all they try to identify and eliminate the allergen that provokes the attacks. To alleviate the condition, the doctor recommends antihistamines and determine the required dose of the drug and duration of administration. Children are trying to be prescribed the latest generation of drugs that cause fewer side effects and are easier to tolerate. These are medications such as Zyrtec, Cetrin, Erius, Fenistil, Zodak.

If a cough occurs against the background of an infectious or cold-related disease, the doctor will prescribe medications that reduce the severity of the inflammatory process, relieve bronchospasm, and have a softening, analgesic and immunomodulatory effect. Let's take a closer look at how to treat wet and dry cough.

Treatment of dry cough

Treatment methods for wet and dry cough are fundamentally different. For an unproductive, exhausting cough, antitussives are prescribed that directly act on a certain center in the brain and thereby block the cough reflex. This is necessary in order to alleviate the condition of a sick child, reduce irritation of the mucous membranes, chest pain, improve sleep and calm the nervous system.

Antitussive medications of central and peripheral action are opioid analgesics. These medications are prescribed by a doctor and should be used with caution as they can cause addiction and serious side effects. The most strong drugs this group - Tussal, Codeine, Codelac, can only be used in children over 12 years of age and under the supervision of a doctor. In exceptional cases, they are prescribed at a young age for the treatment of pleurisy, whooping cough and others. severe lesions respiratory tract.

Non-narcotic analgesics for the treatment of dry, exhausting cough can be prescribed to children from 3 years of age. They do not have the disadvantages of opioid drugs, do not cause addiction or serious side effects, but they should be used only as indicated. These are products such as Glaucine, Sinekod, Butamirad.

In addition, in the treatment of dry cough, a number of medications are used that relieve spasm and irritation of the mucous membranes, exhibiting anti-inflammatory and softening effects. These are drugs in the form of drops, solutions, suspensions, sprays:

• Libexin,
• Bronholitin,
• Stoptussin,
• No-shpa,
• Papaverine,
• Omnitus

Medicines with an expectorant effect for non-productive coughs facilitate the discharge of sputum and prevent its stagnation. For children, such popular products are used as marshmallow syrup, licorice, Herbion, Gedelix, Lazolvan, Bromhexine tablets, Ambroxol. For children younger age it is preferable to use drugs in the form of syrup, suspension or solutions that have a pleasant taste, are well tolerated and exhibit rapid therapeutic effect.

Treatment of wet cough

When a wet cough appears, the child's condition improves. To speed up the discharge of sputum, mucolytic agents are used, which help thin the thick, viscous secretion and accelerate its removal from the respiratory tract. The most popular mucolytics for children:

• Pertussin syrup,
• Doctor Mom,
• Ambrobene,
• Bronchipret,
• Mukaltin,
• Flavamed.

The main goal of treatment is to enable the child to cough. This will help completely remove mucus from the lungs and bronchi and prevent relapse of the disease. At this stage, the use of folk remedies will help enhance the therapeutic effect of the drugs.

Folk remedies for cough in a child without fever

The use of traditional medicine will help alleviate the child’s condition with a dry cough and speed up the removal of phlegm with a wet cough. Here are some popular recipes:

• Radish with honey. A medium-sized root vegetable should be cleaned, a small hole cut in the middle and filled with honey. The juice released from the radish will mix with honey after a few hours and form a sweet and thick syrup, which should be given to the child 1 tsp. every 2 hours.
• To relieve irritation and soothe a sore throat, it is recommended to drink warm milk with honey and butter, or milk, diluted mineral water. Decoctions of medicinal herbs with an expectorant effect are useful. You can brew and give your baby a drink based on marshmallow, sage, chamomile, coltsfoot, and plantain.
• For dry coughs, an infusion of pine buds. To prepare it, take 0.5 liters of milk, add one big spoon pine buds. The composition is placed on low heat and simmered under a closed lid for 60 minutes. Ready product cool slightly, filter and give warm to the child every 2 hours in a volume of 50 ml.
• Onion syrup has an excellent expectorant and mucolytic effect. To prepare it, peel the onion, chop it, add 2 tbsp. l. sugar and leave in a sealed container overnight. During this time, the onion will give juice, the sugar will dissolve and you will get a sweet syrup containing useful material with bactericidal and antiseptic properties. This syrup can be given to the child every hour in small portions.
• Aloe juice is good for wet coughs. Juice is squeezed out of a fresh aloe leaf and mixed with honey and butter. All ingredients are taken in equal quantities. The finished composition is given to the child before meals up to 4 times a day.
• Badger fat has an excellent antitussive effect. It can be given to the child before meals (1/2 tsp), and also rubbed into the back, chest and feet.
• Compresses at night will help soften a dry cough. The main component is a mixture of vegetable oil and honey, which is heated to 50°, and then a gauze or linen napkin is soaked in this composition. The baby is wrapped in a napkin, wrapped in plastic film on top and insulated with a terry towel or down scarf. The warming compress must be kept for at least 2 hours, this will help thin the thick mucus and make it easier to clear.

Remember that any traditional medicine can only be used after consultation with your doctor.

Cough in a child is the most common complaint when visiting a doctor, since its nature can be different and dangerous. Let's try to distinguish a cold cough from an allergic one. Let's find out how to treat it.

Wet cough in a child: how to treat it

A distinctive feature of wet cough from other types is the presence of sputum. During attacks of wet cough, the child’s face turns red and watery eyes appear. The coughing attack ends only when the viscous mucus comes out. At this moment, the child feels nauseous and vomits. A wet cough occurs with influenza, acute respiratory diseases. A wet cough is the main indicator of infection.

When treating wet cough it is prescribed:

1. Mucolytics, which dilute accumulated mucus in the lungs and promote its elimination.
2. Expectorant medications increase the amount of mucus, thereby thinning the phlegm.
3. Drugs with a secretomotor effect increase the irritant function of cough receptors.

You need to know that children under 3 years of age should not be given cough suppressants, expectorants, and phlegm thinners at the same time. Such treatment will slow down the discharge of sputum and provoke complications.

Night cough in a child: causes

Respiratory infections are common problem both in children and adults. One of the symptoms of the disease is cough. Physically, a cough occurs during forced exhalation through the mouth while contracting the muscles of the diaphragm and chest.

Depending on the symptoms, cough can be divided into:

• Dry;
• Wet;
• Cough with whooping cough;
• Cough while eating;
• Cough during intense physical activity;
• Night cough;
• Post-infectious cough;
• Bitonal cough;
• Barking cough;
• Cough caused by emotional stress.

A cough appears if the nerve endings located in the upper and lower respiratory tract are irritated. Nerve endings (receptors) are irritated due to accumulated mucus, cold or hot air, or foreign body entry. The body perceives coughing as a protective reflex that clears the airways. Receptors that respond to irritation are located in the larynx, trachea and bronchi, which stimulate the cough process.

Coughing occurs in several stages, this is a rapid capture of air by the lungs, a sharp increase in pressure in the trachea due to muscle contraction, when exhaling, the glottis opens and the contents of the trachea are released into the surrounding space.

According to physiology, children aged 8 to 12 years can feel rare cough points, which occur on average 10 times a day, however, frequent and paroxysmal coughing attacks can be a sign of pathology. At this age, bouts of intense and prolonged coughing can cause problems heart rate, loss of consciousness. If a cough appears in infants, it is necessary to consult a doctor and make a differential diagnosis. A prolonged cough may be a sign of congenital heart failure due to stagnation of blood in the pulmonary circulation.

A persistent and lingering cough in schoolchildren may be due to tobacco smoking, bronchial asthma, rheumatic diseases, or laryngeal papillomatosis. In most cases, a night cough is a sign of an inflammatory process in the nasopharynx, which can cause sinusitis, rhinitis or allergic reactions; it is accompanied by an increase in temperature. However, if a child coughs at night, this may be due to bronchial asthma, heart failure, sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, or whooping cough.

With colds and flu at night, the child may experience severe coughing attacks, this is due to the fact that the nose is clogged and is forced to breathe through the mouth. Because of this, the baby’s throat becomes dry, dry air gets directly to the lungs, and a cough occurs. To relieve cough, give your child more warm liquid, this could be milk with honey, warm boiled water with jam. Try covering your child warmly to allow him to sweat and follow the recommendations of your doctor. Be attentive to the child’s behavior, most often when there is a cold or other infection, the child begins to cry, be lethargic, disobey, be capricious, and eat poorly.

A child coughs at night: how to determine the diagnosis

The occurrence of a dry cough at night is manifested by gastroesophageal reflux. Its cause is irritation of the bronchial mucosa due to the flow of acidic gastric contents directly into the respiratory tract. The child may complain of pain in the abdomen.

When examining a child, you should:

• Do a blood test;
• Bacteriological examination of sputum;
• X-ray examination of the lungs;
• Examination by an ENT specialist and follow his recommendations;
• X-ray examination of the paranasal sinuses;
• Examination by a phthisiatrician.

And remember, timely consultation with a doctor and proper treatment will preserve the child’s health.

Allergic cough in a child: symptoms and treatment

A child’s cough is not an independent disease, but one that arises as a result of a pathological process. One of the pathologies is allergic or bronchial asthma. Children with asthma are most often susceptible to viral infections due to genetic feature and disorders of the innate and adaptive immune system.

Signs of an allergic cough:

1. An allergic cough most often has a paroxysmal nature and occurs suddenly, without increasing the child’s body temperature.
2. Most often, attacks of allergic cough torment children during sleep, accompanied by slight suffocation and inability to clear their throat.
3. During the day this cough almost never occurs. During this period, the child may develop a slight discharge of snot.

If an allergic cough appears, carefully inspect the room in which the child sleeps. Did they change the washing powder, perhaps they got a pet, or a flower bloomed. Pollen, fur, dust, small carpet fluff, even food can cause an allergic cough.

Analyze what the child was recently fed, whether the toys he plays with have been washed.

If you have a cough that lasts three days, consult an allergist who will prescribe adequate and effective treatment. Under no circumstances follow the advice of your neighbor, mother, or articles you read on the Internet. For development, you can read the articles that Dr. Komarovsky writes, but the analysis and treatment should be carried out by a doctor who has not only medical education, but also experience.

Treatment of dry cough in a child

Based on the nature of the presence of pathological secretions, there are wet (productive) and dry (non-productive) coughs. Treatment of nonproductive cough is aimed at increasing the production of sputum, which releases antigenic structures from the surface of the mucous membrane.

Treatment:

1. For bronchial asthma, to reduce dry cough, inhalation therapy with the use of bronchodilators and steroid drugs.
2. With laryngitis, children develop a dry whistling cough, which is treated with inhalation and medication.
3. Drug treatment of dry cough is carried out with mucoactive drugs.

Spasmodic dry cough occurs when bronchial obstruction and is usually caused by bronchitis, but can be caused by congenital or acquired pathology.

If the cough is dry and does not clear the throat

A prolonged cough (2 months or more) is a sign of whooping cough. Children of any age are susceptible to such diseases.

Whooping cough cough varies from time to time:

1. After a week, the cough becomes paroxysmal - at the moment of coughing, the child closes his eyes, sticks out his tongue, blushes, and tenses.
2. A spasmodic coughing attack can last up to a minute and stops only after vomiting with the discharge of mucus.
3. Over the course of 4 weeks, coughing attacks become less frequent and intensify with decreased immunity and acute respiratory viral infections.

When bronchial asthma appears in both children and adults, a dry, obsessive cough occurs. During attacks, a viscous, viscous mass may be released. This cough is characterized by: accompanied by shortness of breath and wheezing, difficulty breathing. After bronchospasm is relieved, the cough becomes wet and moist. However, from time to time the child coughs.

With pneumonia, in the first couple of days of the disease, a characteristic symptom is a dry cough, which must be treated by increasing sputum production.

There is an algorithm for choosing medications for coughs in children. If the cough is dry, obsessive, painful for the child and most often painful, then antitussives will help relieve the attack. If the cough is accompanied by thick, difficult to separate sputum, then mucolytics can help. The cough is unproductive, but unobtrusive, does not disturb the child’s appetite and sleep, and expectorants can relieve medicines. A strong, long and frequent cough can have various causes.

How to help a child cough up sputum Komarovsky (video)

Long lasting, continuous expectorant cough, especially more than a week, should alert you. You need to find out why it occurred and give medicine as prescribed by the doctor. Adequate treatment and all information on the treatment of the child must be clarified with the treating pediatrician. The child must be taken care of. Self-medication is not acceptable here.

Young parents always closely monitor the baby’s condition, so any deviations from the expected norm are taken seriously. So, even a slight muffled cough in a child without fever can cause panic, and if it is wet and strong, it repeats for several days, a runny nose is connected to it, and the search for the cause of such symptoms becomes even more active. When should you see a doctor?

What is a child's cough?

If a foreign object enters the respiratory tract, the body immediately tries to get rid of it by pushing it out with a stream of air and compressing the walls. This process is a physiological reaction - it is a reflex inherent in nature. General mechanism the same for children and adults. The defensive reaction itself can be observed not only to large foreign body, which is often swallowed Small child, exploring the environment: even because of the flow of air that gets into the “wrong throat”, the baby is able to cough.

Cough without fever in a child

According to pediatricians, baby coughs up to 10 times a day: the very sensitive mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, as dust particles, microorganisms and other foreign bodies accumulate on it, tries to cleanse itself, which results in such a reflex. The frequency, intensity and nature of the attack may vary depending on:

• congenital characteristics of the body;
• humidity and cleanliness of the room;
• sensitivity to chemicals.

Experts say that there is no need to worry children's cough, which is not accompanied by fever, runny nose and other symptoms of serious viral or viral diseases bacterial etiology, young parents should not. Even if it exceeds the indicated 10 times per day, the most common cause cannot be ruled out - an allergic reaction, which in infancy literally anything can happen. In a child older than one year, this is also a common case, but here we are no longer talking about situational manifestations of allergies caused by the body getting used to the environment, but about permanent ones.

Causes

A small child is characterized by allergic coughing (in severe cases, a strong “barking” cough, which may even make the baby cry), and simple physiological coughing – when any irritating elements enter the respiratory tract. However, it is possible to say exactly why a child coughs for a long time without fever only after studying the nature of the process - wet or dry, how intense, when it appears, whether it is permanent.

A child can cough without fever or other symptoms of ARVI, regardless of age:

• after nervous shock, prolonged stress;
• as a response to contact with an allergen;
• during the development of tuberculosis;
• for nonspecific infectious diseases;
• due to congenital bronchial asthma.

Dry cough

If the child does not spit out mucus, or you hear a wheezing sound coming from the throat, this cough is called dry. According to doctors, it occurs more often than wet, mainly caused by external factors, although it may be accompanied by acute inflammation of the trachea at the initial stage. If a dry barking sound comes from the baby, it turns into attacks of suffocation, there is no temperature, general state normal, there is a risk that a foreign object has entered the throat.

However, the situation can be more complicated:

• Colds are a common cause of dry cough, which is characterized by frequent attacks but low intensity. The baby may complain of “itch” in the throat, a feeling of “sand”. When listening to the chest, there is no wheezing; the attack does not interfere with normal breathing. As the cold progresses, sputum begins to be produced.
• Infection in the body. The temperature will appear in a day or a little later, and the child will become lethargic and capricious.
• Gastroenterological pathologies (mainly reflux disease) can also provoke a dry cough that occurs after eating. Vomiting is possible.
• A paroxysmal dry cough with signs of suffocation can occur in a baby suffering from whooping cough. Its characteristic feature is the appearance of tears in the eyes due to the intensity of the attack, protrusion of the tongue.

Lingering

If the attack lasts for a long time, the child cannot calm down, the eyes begin to water, but there is no temperature, there is a high probability that this is a reaction to the chemical composition of the air. Tobacco smoke, heavy metals, exhaust gases and even an abundance of perfume aromas in a child provoke a paroxysmal dry cough more actively than in an adult, since the sensitivity of the laryngeal mucosa in a child is higher. However, if the child is at home, the state of the environment has not changed, but he suddenly began to cough, and the attack is severe, these may be:

• symptoms of bronchitis;
• asthma attacks;
• manifestations of individual sensitivity to dry/cold air.

Special attention to a lingering cough, which is caused by a foreign body entering the larynx: it is active, can be observed for several weeks or even months, accompanied by wheezing, but does not progress - there will be no sputum production, no additional complications (fever, weakness, runny nose). In such a situation, you need to show the child to the doctor and take an x-ray.

Wet

In a small child who is at the stage of the appearance of his first teeth, young parents may notice a strong wet cough, even accompanied by salivation. If not high temperature, there is no need to be afraid of this symptom - it is typical for most children. Among the normal physiological reactions of a small child’s body is coughing attacks after crying or eating: this often happens in infants. However, it is possible that a cough with sputum without fever in a child will indicate:

• inflammation of the respiratory tract;
• viral disease;
• remission of pneumonia;
• bronchitis;
• pulmonary tuberculosis;
• development of asthma.

At night

If your child has frequent seizures while he sleeps, see if they reoccur if he just stays awake. horizontal position. If the answer is positive, the cause may lie in the presence of reflux, but the child will also complain of heartburn. If a baby has a strong cough at night, it is possible that the moment of teething is approaching - in such a situation, attacks will last no more than a few days. A child's prolonged cough at night without fever is a sign of residual or developing bronchitis.

No fever or runny nose

If the disease has affected only the mucous membrane of the bronchi, trachea or lungs, the child may look healthy. The cough is not accompanied by a runny nose, there is no fever, but the onset of attacks is mostly sudden, and they themselves are long and almost always characterized by sputum production, there is a risk that the development of dangerous diseases organs of the respiratory system. They can accompany acute and chronic inflammation, and be a complication of frequent colds and reduced immunity.

Even if there is no fever, parents should be wary if sputum is released:

• abundant and has a rusty color - this is a symptom of pneumonia;
• contains pus – a lung abscess is possible;
• comes with blood - a characteristic sign of tuberculosis;
• has a watery consistency - this is characteristic of acute inflammation in the respiratory tract.

Cough and runny nose

The appearance of discharge from the nasal passages, in contrast to coughing attacks, in most cases is a symptom of an inflammatory process, so even the absence of temperature does not cast doubt on the activity of a virus or bacteria. In such a situation, treatment is prescribed not so much symptomatically, but with an emphasis on the source of the disease, since both a mild cold and a more dangerous flu can occur with these symptoms.

Rough cough

Heavy breathing, barking sounds when trying to clear your throat, frequent attacks are obvious symptoms of laryngitis or laryngotracheitis. These diseases are predominantly accompanied by swelling of the larynx, which, as they progress, provokes shortness of breath and increased coughing attacks closer to the morning, which requires calling a doctor. Fever and other symptoms of respiratory system diseases may be absent.

Diagnostics

Most of the causes of cough are associated with diseases of the ENT organs, so to make a diagnosis, the child must first be shown to a pediatrician, and then to an otolaryngologist. The latter will definitely conduct a classical examination, examining the mucous membrane of the throat. Additionally:

• If an allergic cough occurs, you will need to take a detailed blood test and carefully describe the picture of the events that preceded the attacks.
• If you suspect the presence of a foreign body, you need to do an X-ray.
• If the cough is not a symptom of bronchial asthma, a sign of a cold or its residual phenomenon, is not associated with an allergy, and there is no runny nose with it, but it is wet and severe, lasts several weeks, you need to be examined by a phthisiatrician and a pulmonologist.

How to treat

If you observe a dry cough in children without fever, but with characteristic symptoms of a cold (runny nose, weakness, lethargy, loss of appetite), there is a chance of preventing the disease from starting. The baby should be provided with plenty of warm drinks: from tea and broth to herbal decoctions. For infectious diseases, drugs are prescribed that strengthen the immune system and kill the virus, but additionally symptomatic therapy is needed.

Medicines

There is no point in using antitussive drugs for treatment, since they only suppress the symptom. The only reason why doctors can prescribe them is to relieve coughing attacks at night. The basis drug therapy means aimed at influencing the source of the problem become:

• Reception antihistamines(Tavegil, Suprastin) is a mandatory measure for the treatment of cough caused by allergies. This way you can achieve relief from attacks and relieve swelling that occurs when the larynx is inflamed due to contact of the mucous membrane with an allergen.
• It is recommended to treat only acute infectious diseases with antibiotics, if they cannot be eliminated otherwise. These are mainly drugs of the penicillin group and cephalosporins.
• The doctor prescribes mucolytics (Bromhexine, Ambrobene) for the treatment of chronic diseases accompanied by an unproductive cough. They are effective for pneumonia, bronchitis, laryngitis.
• The prescription of expectorant drugs is practiced in the absence of thick sputum. The most effective are Gedelix, Mucaltin.

Procedures

Doctors call massage with honey, which is applied to the child’s back, followed by light tapping, an effective method for treating wet cough. Additionally, you can use the following tips:

• Inhalations.
• If there is strong sputum production, pediatricians recommend rubbing the baby's back and chest with warming ointments at night.
• Active gargling is recommended for heavy phlegm: they are carried out at intervals of an hour.
• In the presence of normal temperature Hot foot baths (duration 15-20 minutes) make sense.

Folk remedies

Decoctions of herbs - sage, linden, oregano, which are drunk as immunity-strengthening agents, will also help the child's body. They will also help soothe the lining of the respiratory tract during inflammation, and mint and eucalyptus will relieve acute attacks. For the purpose of separating sputum, you can use fees that include:

• marshmallow root;
• licorice;
• plantain leaf.

Features of treatment of infants

In a baby under one year of age, coughing attacks are normal if they occur in the morning. If this is an infectious disease, you should entrust the preparation of a course of therapy to a doctor and not take risks with traditional medicine. For medicines, it is possible to use syrups with natural composition:

• Lazozvan;
• Ambrobene;
• Ambroxol;
• Bronchicum.

Prevention

In order to prevent the development of infectious diseases, the baby’s contact with virus carriers should be reduced to zero, especially if the child is under 7 years old. Additionally, doctors advise:

• take care of the child’s hardening;
• take immunostimulants;
• maintain moderate humidity in the apartment.

Video

The famous Russian pediatrician Dr. Evgeny Komarovsky is a specialist who has repeatedly shared his experience on many issues related to the treatment of diseases childhood. In cold weather, problems caused by colds and viral diseases become especially relevant.

In winter, cough in a child is a common phenomenon, which has variable etiology, symptoms, and manifestations. Dry and with sputum, paroxysmal and periodic with single coughs, with an increase in body temperature and without fever - all this gives rise to many problems, causes for concern, worries for parents who do not know how to treat a specific phenomenon and how to cope with it, if it becomes prolonged and threatening.

Dr. Komarovsky has repeatedly said that a child’s cough is not a general and abstract concept, but a symptomatic manifestation of pathology. By his character and associated symptoms It is possible to judge not only the disease, but also its stage of development.

A cough, like a cold, with the production of phlegm, is the body’s way of getting rid of toxins that are produced in it.

The same reflex, but without temperature and non-productive, may be a manifestation of an allergy, a consequence of unfavorable external conditions, or the initial stage of the same disease. The difference is how to treat a specific manifestation. Incorrect therapy can only aggravate the condition, and then stronger remedies will be required, which could easily be dispensed with if the problem had been initially dealt with by a professional with special medical knowledge.

Incorrect therapy can only worsen the child’s condition

Cough is a reflex defense reaction of the body, which is used by the body at any age. Nature has provided not only this phenomenon, but also a special cough center in the brain. Irritation of the vagus and pharyngeal nerves, the sensitive endings of which are located in the respiratory tract and its mucosa, leads to nerve impulses, which are transmitted to the medulla oblongata. It sends response signals that arrive at muscle tissue, involving the respiratory system and diaphragm in the reflex reaction.

The essence of the protective cough reflex is the release of the pathways into which air enters along with oxygen, which is vital for the functioning of the human body. It works great when there is intense production of sputum, foreign bodies or irritants entering the respiratory tract.

The essence of the protective cough reflex is to clear the passages

Reasons for triggering defense mechanism several, sometimes it occurs from mechanical irritation - smoke, gas pollution, dry air, allergic components, thermal effects.

In medicine, neither an adult’s cough nor a child’s cough is in itself a characteristic symptom that indicates the presence of a disease.

In determining what to treat, the doctor pays attention to the characteristics accompanying the cough reflex:

• duration, or short duration;
• paroxysmal or single cough;
• productive or unproductive (with or without coughing up sputum);
• sounds that accompany it (reminiscent of barking, whistling, booming tones);
• time of day at which it most often appears (morning, evening, night);
• that arises briefly or becomes protracted;
• accompanied by other symptoms of pathology, or not.

Traditional methods of treatment, as well as methods of traditional medicine, recommend remedies for wet coughs that promote the separation of sputum, especially if it is difficult to clear and causes difficulties in the process. These include mucolytics and expectorants. The tactical mistake of some parents, concerned that the child has a dry cough and no fever, is that they try to alleviate the condition of the nasopharynx and give the child mucolytics in order to transform the dry cough into a wet one and alleviate the condition of the throat.

But with a dry cough, according to Dr. Komarovsky, mucolytics are contraindicated, because it should not be provoked, but calmed. And before using folk remedies, and generally looking for something to treat, it is necessary to find out the main reasons that provoke it without fever. If the cause is dry air, potential allergens like dust and fur, take care of them.

Causes of dry cough for no apparent reason and fever

The mechanism of occurrence of a dry cough in a child, according to pediatricians, can be provoked by three main reasons - viral infection, bacterial, and allergic components. Statistical studies show that approximately 28-30% of children suffer from a prolonged cough, and this number increases significantly with the onset of cold weather.

However, this is a very approximate division that does not take into account the whole group of provocateurs. Proceeding without fever does not mean that the disease is not dangerous and cannot develop into a complicated course.

Here it is very important to correctly determine the main cause, which will dictate the choice of how to treat it:

A cough without fever does not mean that the disease is not dangerous.

Despite the fact that a wet cough is considered less dangerous than a dry cough, it is equally likely to indicate serious complications and a protracted course of the disease, and the post-infectious period, when it is - residual effects. In the first case, the body cannot cope with the infection and needs medical help, in the second, this is the body’s way of getting rid of the consequences of an already cured process.

Dr. Komarovsky advises parents not to treat the child themselves, but to contact their local pediatrician or family doctor to receive reliable diagnosis and correct treatment tactics. But if this is not yet possible, or you need to wait for the doctor’s arrival, parents can act according to a predetermined algorithm.

Correct parenting tactics

The correct behavior of parents in the case of cough is to stimulate the body’s natural defenses and strengthen them. Coughing is a mechanism developed by nature, and is so necessary that there is a special center in the brain that responds to nerves located in respiratory system. Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to suppress its development, just as it is wrong to reduce any temperature, including those that arise when the body is fighting an infection.

According to Dr. Komarovsky, the prevailing cause of the appearance of a protective mechanism in children is an acute respiratory viral infection.

Virus infection cannot be stopped instantly, which means it is impossible to instantly eliminate a cough. But with the right tactics, a negative factor can be turned to benefit. By influencing the quality and quantity of sputum, it is possible to help clear the respiratory tract of virus waste products.

The first thing you need for this is moist and cool air and plenty of fluids.

Improve air quality and drink as much as possible

By optimizing the air condition, parents make it easier for the child’s body to perform its main task - developing local immunity to viral infection. Airways The baby will immediately receive air in the required condition, rather than spending effort on heating, cooling or humidifying it.

The baby's airways must receive air

When sick, the nose is stuffy, the activity of the epithelium drops several times, the need for oxygen increases significantly, so the sick baby should stay indoors:

• with a temperature not lower and not higher than 18 ⁰;
• after regular wet cleaning;
• with a minimum amount of sources of dust and pollution;
• without strong foreign odors (no air fresheners, cosmetics, deodorants or disinfectants);
• with a humidifier that maintains 60-70% moisture level in the air (if it is not there, use improvised means, such as wet towels and containers of water);
• with the categorical elimination of exhaust gases from the street, smoke from cooking food and tobacco smoke.

Both at night and during the day - this effective method avoid debilitating coughing attacks that can occur at any time of the day. Drinks can be given in any quantity, using not only rehydration solutions, but also proven folk remedies, such as dried fruit compote, fruit juice, unsweetened lemonade, juice without preservatives and mineral water without gas.

During illness, infants need to be given additional fluids, because due to dehydration, the body will not have enough of what is contained in breast milk.

Medications

They should be used with caution, and preferably on the advice of a doctor. For dry coughs, drugs are used that activate the work cough center, but it is better to refrain from them at first. If, in parallel with this, therapy is carried out to improve the quality of sputum, you can miss the moment when such activation is no longer required and the condition of the body worsens.

These include:

• Ambrobene;
• Bromhexine and Doctor Mom in syrup;
• ACC and Lazolvan.

Reasonable Precautions

Just in case, for especially concerned parents, Dr. Komarovsky reminds several useful truths: parental love should have reasonable limits:

• a one-time night coughing attack is not a reason to immediately give your child the entire set of home medications;
• 10-12 coughs a day is the norm, especially if the baby is cheerful, cheerful and feels great;
• no medications until the cause of a severe attack is determined - it could be a small foreign body or a potential allergen;
• at the time of the first attack you need to give a warm drink and drop it into the nose saline solution, and not stuff you with medicine until the doctor comes.

Coughs are treated with inhalations, aromatic oils, rinses and herbal decoctions, and these are excellent folk remedies. But they should be used selectively, combinations of mutually exclusive drugs and procedures should not be allowed, the possibility of allergic reactions should be taken into account, and you should always know for what purpose the child is given the medicine.