What do children know about cough?
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As soon as the baby coughs, parents are very worried. Many parents use cough medicine as soon as their children cough, but some parents are afraid to give their children cough medicine because of the side effects of the medicine. Then, "Do children need to take medicine for coughing?" Take cough medicine or expectorant? How to choose is better? "
What is a cough?
First of all, parents should face up to cough and understand what cough is all about. Cough is really not a disease, but a defensive action of the human body and a protective reflex. When the respiratory tract and lungs are infected by some pathogenic microorganism, the function of sputum secretion of airway mucosa will be enhanced and the amount of sputum will increase.
Cough can cough up these sputum, which can bring out a certain amount of pathogenic microorganisms and inflammatory factors, thus reducing the invasion of pathogenic factors on the respiratory tract. Therefore, in a sense, cough is beneficial. However, strong and frequent cough, especially dry cough, can affect rest and sleep, and even aggravate the condition and cause other complications, then it loses its protective significance.
Therefore, for cough, we must identify what causes it, and then deal with it symptomatically. We must never blindly treat it with cough medicine as soon as we hear it.
The cause of cough
So what are the causes of cough?
Cold air stimulation, foreign body inhalation, colds, chronic inflammation of the upper respiratory tract such as chronic pharyngitis or rhinitis, allergies, reflux esophagitis, tracheitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, etc. can all cause cough, so the treatment principle of children's cough is to clarify the cause and treat it according to the cause.
For example, nasal mucus produced by rhinitis can cause cough when it flows to the throat or even trachea. At this time, it is necessary to treat rhinitis and reduce secretion production to relieve cough; For example, cough caused by acute bronchitis should be treated with anti-infection first.
In most cases, parents don't have to worry about a slight cough, such as a cough after a cold, and don't have to take cough medicine. They only need to use cough medicine for strong and frequent coughs, especially those that seriously affect their children's lives and even aggravate their illness and cause other complications.
Classification of cough drugs
Cough medicine can be divided into cough medicine and expectorant medicine.
The antitussive drugs mainly produce antitussive effect by directly inhibiting the cough center of medulla oblongata or any link of cough reflex arc receptor, afferent nerve, efferent nerve and effector. The common drugs include codeine, pholcodine, dextromethorphan, pentoverine, narcotine, benzoxazole, licorice fluid extract and so on.
Expectorants include irritating expectorants such as guaiacol glyceryl ether, ammonium chloride, potassium iodide, Radix Polygalae, Radix Platycodi, etc. Mucolytic agents such as acetylcysteine; Mucus regulator such as bromhexine and ambroxol.
At present, the common western medicines for relieving cough and resolving phlegm for children on the market and their main components are as follows:
Selection principle of cough medicine
Selection principle of children's cough medicine: In 20 18, the State Food and Drug Administration issued an announcement "18 years old children and adolescents are prohibited from using drugs containing opioids for cough caused by cold or allergy". These drugs include compound codeine phosphate oral solution, compound codeine phosphate oral solution, compound codeine phosphate oral solution, Qiangli loquat dew, Lingbei cough syrup, compound licorice oral solution, and Keyu syrup.
For irritating dry cough and frequent severe cough, central antitussive drugs with strong antitussive effect can be selected, such as compound pholcodine oral solution, dextromethorphan, guaifenesin syrup, etc. Such antitussive drugs are not recommended for chronic cough or cough with a large amount of secretions, but it should be noted that drugs containing dextromethorphan are prohibited under 1 year old, and drugs containing pentoverine are prohibited under 5 years old; For cough with excessive phlegm, antitussive drugs containing expectorants can be selected, such as ambroxol oral solution, neophenol oral solution and pseudoephedrine oral solution.
In addition, studies in Israel have found that honey can relieve children's cough at night and is almost absolutely safe for children over 1 year old, so 2 ~ 5ml honey can be given before going to bed to reduce the severity of cough and reduce secretions.
Selection of Chinese patent medicine for relieving cough
In addition to western medicine, there are many Chinese patent medicines used to treat children's cough, such as Zhenkening syrup, Baikening granules, Xiaoer Zhike syrup, Xiaoer Feire Kechuan oral liquid, etc. Traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to syndrome differentiation and treatment in the selection of such medicines, so parents had better not go to the pharmacy to buy them without authorization. Under the guidance of Chinese medicine theory, they should choose drugs based on syndrome differentiation, pay attention to the indications and contraindications of different drugs, and reasonably choose drugs according to the etiology and the children's own age and physiological characteristics, thus eliminating the hidden dangers of drug use.
Drug suggestion for children to relieve cough
To sum up, the drug suggestions for children to relieve cough are as follows:
1) Don't stop coughing, you need to find out the cause first and treat it symptomatically.
2) Generally, cough medicine should be used less, children with excessive phlegm or pulmonary congestion should be banned, and mild cough is generally not needed. A few children with severe cough or accompanied by chest pain and hypertonic pneumothorax can be given cough medicine, but it must be strictly controlled and used carefully, preferably under the guidance of a doctor.
3) 1 children under the age of 0 can be given 5 ~15ml of warm water every time, four times a day, and infants under 3 months should see a doctor in time when coughing. /kloc-children over 0/year-old can use 2 ~ 5ml honey each time to relieve cough, and children must ban addictive central antitussive drugs.
4) If children have no obvious effect after using cough-relieving and expectorant drugs for 3-7 days, they should be further examined to avoid missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis. When they encounter repeated cough, or cough accompanied by fever, dyspnea and yellow-green sputum, they must go to the hospital as soon as possible.
Produced by: Pharmacy Department of Beijing Tongren Hospital
Author: Shanshan Xu