Allergic cough in a 5-year-old child

Young children generally have weaker immunity, so they are easily exploited by bacteria. When a child's trachea or throat is infected by a virus, coughing symptoms may occur. If a child has an allergic cough, parents should keep the child away from allergens and give the child medicine to relieve the cough. Parents must remind the child to drink more water and eat more vegetables. Let’s take a look at what to do if a five-year-old child has an allergic cough?

Cough caused by allergies in children is one of the common respiratory diseases in children. Because their bronchial mucosa is delicate and their ability to resist external pathogenic bacteria infection is low, it is easy to become inflamed and cause coughing. Children's coughing is an effective way to eliminate phlegm and foreign objects in the respiratory tract, but coughs caused by frequent and difficult-to-control airway allergies should be taken seriously.

The season change is the peak season for coughs caused by allergies in children. It often manifests as a lingering cough, even wheezing, and repeated attacks. Parents always think that this is due to the baby's poor physical constitution causing repeated colds. They have taken a lot of cold medicines, and some have even received a lot of anti-inflammatory injections, but the effects are not good. In fact, a large proportion of children who are believed by their parents to have repeated colds have coughs due to allergies. Cough caused by allergies in children, the most common of which is cough variant asthma, has a relatively complex cause and is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. Allergic constitution is closely related to the disease, which is in turn affected by environmental factors, such as contact or inhalation of dust mites, cockroaches, fur, pollen or cold air, seafood and other foods.

The clinical features of cough variant asthma in children are:

1. Cough persists or recurs for ≥ 1 month, often occurring at night and early morning, and worsening after exercise.

2. There are no clinical signs of infection (such as fever, etc.), or long-term use of antibiotics (anti-inflammatory drugs) is ineffective.

3. Using bronchodilators () can relieve cough symptoms.

4. Have a personal history of allergies (infant eczema, urticaria, allergies to certain foods) and a family history of allergies (parents and relatives have allergic rhinitis, etc.).

5. Eliminate other causes of cough.

Use cough suppressants with caution for children with coughs caused by allergies: From a physiological point of view, coughing is a protective reflex in children that plays a role in cleaning the respiratory tract and keeping it unobstructed. As long as the sputum is discharged, the cough will often resolve on its own. The reason why cough suppressants can relieve coughs is that they can act on the cough reflex. However, since children's respiratory system is not yet fully developed and their cough reflex is poor, coupled with the narrow bronchial lumen, abundant blood vessels, and poor ciliary motility, sputum is not easy to expel. If you take too many cough suppressants, it will easily cause a large amount of phlegm to accumulate in the respiratory tract, causing tracheal obstruction, chest tightness, difficulty breathing, rapid pulse, and even secondary bacterial infection.

Treatment of cough caused by allergies in children:

1. Avoid the abuse of antibiotics;

2. Correct use of inhaled hormone therapy. The allergens can be identified by searching for them and desensitization treatment can be performed. Anti-allergic drugs such as loratadine, cetirizine, etc. should be used, and bronchodilators such as meprobamate can also be used. Parents should fully understand the cough caused by children's allergies and avoid excessive use of cold medicines or antibiotics in babies, which may cause other adverse reactions.