Is laryngitis serious in children?

In our lives, many children suffer from pharyngitis. Most of them suffer from pharyngitis because of colds. Pharyngitis caused by colds is more serious, so patients must be treated in time. Sometimes coughing may also cause pharyngitis, because there is often phlegm in the throat when coughing. So is pharyngitis serious in children?

The main symptoms of laryngitis patients include hoarseness, throat discomfort, cough, etc. Some patients may also have systemic symptoms such as chills, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, and difficulty breathing (difficulty breathing).

1. Hoarseness: It is the main and most common symptom. The sound becomes less crisp and becomes deeper and rougher. The symptoms are more severe in the morning and can be relieved after coughing out some secretions; the hoarseness will be relieved after keeping silent, and will worsen when talking more. They are intermittent and will become persistent over time.

2. Discomfort in the throat: such as dryness, pain, burning sensation in the throat, always feeling like there is something in the throat, etc.

3. Cough: Due to the increase in throat secretions, some patients always feel that there is phlegm sticking to them, so they often have symptoms of itchy throat and coughing in an attempt to clear the sticky phlegm. Patients with chronic laryngitis often cough to temporarily relieve throat discomfort. Coughing without sputum, the so-called "useless cough", is a unique symptom of chronic laryngitis.

In addition, some patients may experience spasmodic cough. Crusting is the main cause of spasmodic cough, so scabs or sticky secretions are often discharged with coughing, sometimes with a small amount of blood.

4. Other symptoms: Severe cases may be accompanied by chills, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, and difficulty breathing (mainly manifested as difficulty in breathing). These symptoms are generally milder in adult patients and more severe in children. In addition, some patients may also have inflammatory symptoms of the nose and pharynx, as well as symptoms of lower respiratory tract infections such as the trachea, bronchi, and lungs.

It should be emphasized that children with acute laryngitis usually develop the disease very rapidly. They are suddenly awakened at night, become irritable, have fever, and have hoarse voices. At the same time, there are bursts of whistle-like sounds called "laryngitis." A cough that sounds like a puppy's cough is called a "barking cough." In severe cases, the nose will flare, the face, lips and nails will be bluish, and when inhaling, there will be significant depressions in the supraclavicular fossa, suprasternal fossa and upper abdomen of the chest, which is called the "three depressions sign." The child's breathing goes from slow to rapid and shallow.

The symptoms of this disease are similar to those of many diseases and need to be differentiated. For example, acute laryngitis needs to be differentiated from laryngeal tuberculosis, laryngeal leukoplakia, allergic laryngitis, etc.; chronic laryngitis needs to be differentiated from laryngeal tuberculosis, laryngeal syphilis, laryngeal leukoplakia, laryngeal cancer, etc.