The child ate ice cream and coughed

The common cause of children's coughing is inhalation of foreign objects, which causes respiratory problems and constant coughing. Some children may cough because the ice cream is too cold and causes gastric tube contraction. It depends on whether it is the first time for the child to eat it or if there is foreign object on the ice cream.

Foreign body inhalation may occur in children. About 50% of children have no witnesses when they inhale foreign bodies, and 20% of children do not seek medical treatment until more than a week after foreign body inhalation. Therefore, for every child with unexplained persistent cough, the possibility of foreign body aspiration must be ruled out. If the foreign body is not removed in time, it may cause permanent airway damage. If there is a history of respiratory distress, wheezing, or coughing after transient breath holding, foreign body aspiration should be suspected even if the chest X-ray is normal, and bronchoscopy should be considered. Children who have inhaled foreign objects usually begin to experience an irritating dry cough. If a lung infection occurs, the cough will turn into a cough with sputum. Expiratory phase chest X-ray can help improve the diagnosis rate of foreign body aspiration in children.

People with abnormal medullary function may suffer from repeated pulmonary aspiration due to primary or secondary gastroesophageal reflux, coughing due to irritation of the throat by foreign objects, or coughing due to the accumulation of inhaled matter in the lungs. Most clinical manifestations are irritating dry coughs.

Tracheomalacia is the most common congenital airway disorder that presents primarily with a cough, usually a barking, dry cough that parents report their children have consistently exhibited because the trachea collapses when the positive chest pressure reaches a high enough pressure to induce a cough. The collapse of the trachea itself can irritate the airway mucosa and cause coughing, and because secretions are trapped in the distal part of the collapsed airway, the patient will produce more coughing. The severity of tracheomalacia correlated with respiratory distress, whereas the severity of cough did not completely parallel the severity of the disease. When the patient only presents with cough but no other symptoms, diagnosis is very difficult. Even bronchoscopy often fails to reveal any abnormalities, so in most patients the diagnosis of tracheomalacia cough is based on clinical signs.

3. Gastroesophageal reflux (GER)

In infancy, regurgitation is common and the clinical course is self-limited, usually without cough. It is not common for healthy children to have reflux. Domestic scholars have reported that among children with persistent cough for more than 4 weeks, only 2% of the cough is caused by primary gastroesophageal reflux. In children, reflux is mainly seen in those with low medullary regulation function and low tension. Patients experience primary or secondary aspiration-related cough due to gastroesophageal reflux. Therefore, for most children with cough, routine gastroesophageal reflux examination and treatment are not required.

CVA is one of the main causes of chronic cough in children, accounting for approximately 34%-41.8% of chronic cough in children. CVA is currently considered a clinical subtype of asthma, with cough being the only or main clinical manifestation. Without intervention, about one-third of CVA patients will develop into typical asthma. CVA patients have airway hyperresponsiveness, and effective bronchodilator treatment is the basic condition for diagnosis.

The clinical manifestations of AC in children are similar to those of CVA, and the diagnosis of the two is easily confused. However, AC patients have allergic characteristics and are unresponsive to bronchodilator treatment, while antihistamines and/or glucocorticoids are effective.