What causes children to cough and hold their breath?

In winter, due to the cold and dry climate, children are prone to respiratory infections, which will cause them to catch colds and cough. Adults will feel very uncomfortable when they cough. When a child coughs, the family must be very anxious. To treat a child's cough and breath holding, parents must first understand the cause and then prescribe the right medicine. So what are the causes of a child's cough? Let's take a look with the editor below.

1. Environmental pollution causes children to cough

Environmental pollution causes more allergens to be produced, which can also cause children with allergies to cough. Currently, the incidence of allergic cough in children is on the rise. But it is often misdiagnosed as an upper respiratory tract infection or bronchitis. This type of cough usually occurs at night or early in the morning and rarely occurs during the day.

Parents often mistakenly believe that their children have a cold and blindly feed them antibiotics and cough medicines, which naturally have little effect. Children with allergic coughs often spit out white foamy sputum, like to rub their eyes and noses, scratch their scalp, sweat while sleeping, and like to sleep in a curled up position. They often cough but don’t wheeze. Some children can cough for several months in a row. There are many allergens, the most common ones include formaldehyde, mites, dust, pollen and more than 30 other types. The formaldehyde content in the air exceeds the standard, and the child’s allergic symptom is coughing.

2. Indigestion causes children to cough

In addition to common coughs caused by bacteria or viruses, indigestion is also one of the main causes of children's coughs. Children's indigestion is mostly caused by lack of postnatal care, such as improper feeding by parents, uncontrolled eating, indigestion which turns into phlegm and causes cough; or children's picky eating habits, unbalanced nutrition, which damages the normal function of the spleen and stomach. If the disease is not treated in time, "food accumulation" will form, which will easily generate heat and turn into fire, which is often called "internal fire (getting angry)", which will also lead to coughing.

3. Inhalation of foreign matter causes children to cough

Some children may also cough due to inhaling foreign objects. According to statistics, about 50% of children inhale foreign objects without any witnesses, and 20% of children do not seek medical treatment until more than a week after inhaling foreign objects. Such children usually have a long-term continuous cough, which manifests as an irritating dry cough and occasional coughing up blood, but the cause cannot be found. At this time, it is necessary to eliminate the possibility of foreign body inhalation. If the foreign body is not removed in time, it may cause permanent airway damage.

When a child has a cough, parents must understand clearly what causes the child to cough, so that the treatment of the specific condition will be more effective. The treatment should be based on the patient's physical condition. Children's body resistance is relatively weak, and special attention needs to be paid during treatment. The editor hopes that the several phenomena introduced above can help you.