Diet therapy for children's long-term cough

Spring is the peak season for diseases. The weather is warm and cold, and various pathogens grow rapidly. The spread of pollen makes it easy for children whose organs are not yet fully developed to get sick and develop coughs if they are not careful. In some severe cases, the cough lasts for a long time, and even taking a lot of medicine has no effect. Is it that the medicine is ineffective? Or are the bacteria or viruses too powerful? Or is it that the child's resistance is too weak?

The above factors are indeed important reasons why children’s cough cannot be cured for a long time. However, some children's long-term cough is closely related to their parents' lack of care and unreasonable diet. Today we will introduce to you some dietary therapies for children’s long-term cough. We believe it will be helpful to your child.

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As the saying goes, "Fish causes fire, meat causes phlegm, and rotten vegetables keep you safe." Traditional Chinese medicine believes that fish, crabs, shrimps, fatty meat and other meaty and greasy foods will produce dampness and phlegm, and some will even cause allergic reactions and worsen the condition. Spicy foods such as chili, pepper, raw onions, mustard, etc. can irritate children's respiratory tract and aggravate coughing and asthma. These foods should be eaten less or not during illness.

When coughing is accompanied by fever, children consume more physical energy and water, and have gastrointestinal dysfunction and loss of appetite. At this time, special attention should be paid to replenishing water. When sweating, you can drink more boiled water, herbal tea, cabbage soup, rice soup, fruit juice (such as watermelon juice, sugarcane juice, orange juice), etc. It is also necessary to pay attention to supplementing vitamins, inorganic salts and appropriate amounts of protein. You can let your child eat some milk, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, etc., and resume normal diet as soon as possible after the fever subsides.

If the cough is accompanied by hemoptysis, you can eat fruits rich in vitamin C, such as oranges, red dates, and strawberries. However, you should avoid overly sour fruit juices and spicy seasonings, and the food should not be too hot to avoid inducing hemoptysis. When a child's cough causes shortness of breath and breath holding, the beverages should be non-irritating, such as cold boiled water, rice soup, etc., and less spicy or carbonated beverages such as soda should be consumed, so as to avoid frequent heating that aggravates the symptoms of breathing difficulties. Young children should avoid eating fried broad beans, fried melon seeds and peanuts at this time to avoid choking on them.

In addition, gastrointestinal irritation can also aggravate coughing. Therefore, in addition to limiting the intake of spicy or cold foods, children with severe coughs should also avoid eating overly sweet fruits such as apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, etc. Among fruits, pears and watermelons are the most suitable. Eating rock sugar or stewing pears with Fritillaria and rock sugar is a common dietary therapy for treating cough, but it must be taken at the right time under the guidance of a doctor. Because overly sweet foods can increase heat and aggravate inflammation. As a diet therapy, you can also use foods that strengthen the spleen and nourish the lungs, such as japonica rice, white fungus, black fungus, white radish, lily, ginkgo, gecko, polygonatum, and coix seed.

When babies cough, they often lose their appetite, but not eating will weaken the child's resistance and the coughing condition will not improve at all. Therefore, when your child is coughing, try to let him eat more vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, etc. This can not only provide your child with a variety of vitamins, but also increase your child's resistance, allowing your child to better cope with cough symptoms.