All You Need To Know About Causes And Remedies For Cough In Kids And Toddlers

Kids and toddlers are very prone to get sick. It can be troubling if your child seems to constantly cough all the time. A child’s cough is typically nothing to be worried about. Coughing is a necessary and healthy reaction that helps in safeguarding the throat and chest airways. It frequently arises from an everyday cold or perhaps allergies. However, there are additional explanations as well. 

The body of your child is typically trying to get rid of an irritant when they cough. They quickly catch coughs and colds, which affect their activities, giving them sleepless nights and discomfort.

Types Of Coughs And Their Causes

Generally, cough is classified into four categories.

1. Dry Cough

This is caused by an upper respiratory tract infection, like cold or influenza. Another cause may be asthma which is caused due to exposure to the smoking of cigarettes or similar irritants.

2. Wet Cough

A wet cough sounds wet while coughing, and it has mucus with a generally yellow or green colour. It can be caused by respiratory infection, allergies and asthma. Acute sinusitis and pneumonia can also cause a wet cough.

3. Croup Cough

Croup Cough in toddlers is caused by a viral infection which can lead to a swollen upper trachea. The croup cough makes the child’s voice high-pitched, known as stridor, while breathing.

4. Whooping Cough (pertussis)

It is similar to the common cold, which affects toddlers and worsens at night. It leads to breathing problems and changes the colour of the skin to blue or green.

Other Causes for Cough

1. Nasal allergies

It produces watery nasal drainage, which flows down to the back of the throat triggering the cough centre in the back of the throat.

 2. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Disgorging of stomach contents ought to be thought about when the more normal reasons for cough have been wiped out. This is more prevalent in young children and infants. During such episodes, children may not show any obvious spitting of liquids or solids; in any case, they become genuinely irritable during such occasions.

 3. Rare causes

These could be cystic fibrosis, inherent coronary illness, cardiovascular breakdown, innate deformities of the airway route, lungs or significant veins of the chest, and so forth.

Remedies

1. Avoid physical activity

A toddler with a dry cold should avoid exercise. Instead, please encourage them to rest and do relaxing activities with them, like watching a movie, reading or coloring.

 2. Get them vaccinated

Vaccines are one of the safest ways to keep toddlers away from coughing. Children should be vaccinated for pneumococcal, whooping cough, cold and influenza and covid-19.

3. Keep the baby hydrated.

Give babies lots of breast milk and older children plenty of water or juice mixed with water. It will help in  preventing the mucus from thickening.

4. Relieve Congestion

Give toddlers saline nose drops. Try to remove the mucus from the toddler’s nose using a suction bulb. You can also get your toddler a steamy shower and use a humidifier.

5. Honey

Honey has been shown to alleviate symptoms of coughing in toddlers. In a 2018 study it was shown that honey generally is  better than a placebo and other cough suppressants. It also proved to be as effective as two over-the-counter cough medications— diphenhydramine and dextromethorphan in three trials which were conducted with 568 children.

Honey has antiviral and antibacterial properties. Children above the age of 12 months can be given but not younger than that as it might cause infant botulism, a rare illness that can also prove to be fatal. Botulism can sometimes result in paralysis or death.

Wrapping Up!

This comprehensive guide will give you complete knowledge about some of the common causes and types of cough in kids. We have also compiled below a list of a few effective remedies to keep your kids safe and protected.