Child coughing and wheezing

Some parents may find that their children often cough and wheeze. This is not a good sign. The clinical manifestation of pediatric bronchial asthma is breathing accompanied by wheezing and repeated coughing. Once a child is found to have such a condition, parents must pay attention, as this may be a precursor to bronchial asthma. Clinically, there is no specific onset stage for asthma and it can occur in all age groups. However, many asthmas begin in infancy, so parents must pay close attention.

Asthma can be divided into three categories based on the causes of asthma: exogenous, endogenous and mixed asthma. However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish clinically and has no guiding significance for judging the prognosis.

1. Exogenous asthma

The disease usually occurs before the age of 6 years, with a clear personal and/or family history of allergic diseases; it has obvious seasonal and regional characteristics; skin tests to inhaled allergens are often positive; and bronchial provocation tests may also be positive. The main symptoms of foreplay in older children are allergic rhinitis, without fever, continuous sneezing, clear runny nose, pale nasal mucosa, nasal secretions and end-nitrate blood both show increased eosinophils, serum IgE is also elevated, and airway hyperresponsiveness is higher than that of normal children.

2. Endogenous asthma

It was previously believed that it was more common in adult-onset asthma, with severe and stubborn symptoms, often with perennial or chronic recurring attacks, no obvious personal or family allergy history, mostly negative skin tests, and no obvious seasonality. In the past, infectious asthma was considered endogenous asthma, but in recent years, it has been confirmed that infants with recurrent wheezing due to RSV-induced bronchiolitis have specific RSV IgE in their airway secretions.

3. Mixed asthma

Asthma is a complex disease caused by multiple factors. The pathogenesis is still unclear, and the currently recognized mechanisms are as follows. Onset may be acute or gradual

Before infants and young children become ill, they often have an upper respiratory tract infection for 1 to 2 days, which is similar to general bronchitis. The onset of illness in older children is more acute and often occurs at night, which may be related to climate changes at night, the accumulation of more allergens such as mites and house dust indoors, and the decrease in adrenaline secretion in the blood at night. Most attacks subside gradually after a few hours to a day. In particularly severe cases, the onset of the disease may be critical asthma, or it may last for a long time, even for several days, which is called status asthmaticus.