What to do when you have a cough?

A persistent cough can be a sign of serious illnesses, so it should not be ignored. What to do when you have a cough? Find out the cause and fight it.

There is probably no person in the world who does not know what a cough is. Cough is a symptom of a large number of diseases: colds, respiratory, cardiac pathologies, allergies. Some people, especially heavy smokers, are used to "living" with a cough and do not pay much attention to it.

What to do if your child has a cough?

If you find that your baby is coughing, you need to do the following:

• measure the baby's temperature;
• Observe the child and determine the nature of the cough (wet, dry, how often it occurs and after what, deep cough or coughing).

A child may cough for many reasons. He may choke, or simply inhale crumbs or small objects. He may catch a cold, bronchitis, pneumonia, or other illnesses.

If, in addition to coughing, the baby has a fever, a runny nose, or is lethargic and sleepy, call a doctor. The baby could have caught a cold, because children who attend preschool and school institutions often suffer from respiratory diseases and acute respiratory viral infections. Self-treatment in such a situation can lead to a worsening of the situation and the development of complications; it is better to call a doctor.

What to do if your baby has a cough?

Breastfed babies cough quite often. This is usually associated with the fact that when feeding, particles of milk or formula can get into the respiratory tract and provoke a reflex cough. Breastfed babies can also cough when they cry: this is caused by tear fluid getting into the trachea and does not pose a danger to the baby. Such a cough quickly passes and should not worry parents. If the baby has a fever and the cough does not go away or even gets worse, immediately contact a pediatrician.

When teething, coughing may be associated with excessive salivation. Don't worry - the teeth will come through, and with them the cough will go away.

What to do if a newborn has a cough?

Coughing in newborn babies can be due to the fact that the baby, who is lying on his back, sometimes inhales mucus that comes out of the nose. In such a situation, the child needs to be placed on his side, patted on the back, and given a light massage.

How to do a massage for cough?

Drainage massage sessions can be performed on your child by a medical professional or by mom and dad. Massage is not recommended if the child has a fever.

Choose the right position for the baby: lower the head as low as possible so that the phlegm from the bronchi comes out freely. Sometimes infants are massaged while being held by the legs. The procedure lasts no more than 10 minutes, with a total duration of several days. It is better to lubricate the baby's skin with massage cream or talc.

• Warm up the bronchi: massage the back with the palm of the hand, moving from the bottom to the shoulders, then in the opposite direction, until the skin turns red.
• Using your fingers, lightly pinch the skin, thus moving over the baby’s entire back.
• Pat the back with your fingertips.
• With widely spaced fingers, tap on the surface of the back.
• Older children can also be beaten with the edge of the palm and fists.

The movements should not be rough, but active, the skin should become pink. After the massage, you need to ask the child to cough up particles of separated sputum.

A similar massage can be performed by turning the baby over onto the chest. However, a back procedure is often sufficient.

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Can you do the Mantoux test if you have a cough?

The Mantoux test is not a vaccination or an inoculation, as many people think. It is a diagnostic procedure that allows you to determine whether your child has tuberculosis. Redness after this injection of the drug is nothing more than the body's reaction to tuberculin. The more pronounced this reaction, the greater the likelihood of the presence of the tuberculosis bacillus in the body. Although sometimes redness can be caused by some external factors, for example, failure to follow the nurse's recommendations: the injection site should not be subject to mechanical impacts, it should not be wet or touched with dirty hands, and it should not be covered with a band-aid.

Contraindications to such a test are considered to be chronic, inflammatory, allergic and somatic diseases, bronchial asthma; Mantoux is not recommended to be carried out immediately after an inflammatory disease or allergy. After such a disease, 20-30 days should pass.

There will be no exacerbation of the disease after the test, as many believe. However, the obtained reaction result may be unreliable.

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What to do if you have a dry cough?

The appearance of a dry cough in a child is usually associated with inflammation of the upper respiratory tract.

When a baby develops a dry cough, paroxysmal, at regular intervals and more often at night, it may be whooping cough. With this disease, the cough can be so strong that it even causes a gag reflex. In such a situation, infants are necessarily hospitalized and undergo therapy under the supervision of specialists.

If the cause of your child's cough has been diagnosed as a cold, use the following tips:

• the temperature in the room where the child is located should be from 21 to 25 C, the air should be humid, especially in winter;
• the room should be ventilated, especially at night;
• until the cough goes away, it is not recommended to bathe the baby;
• A baby should be breastfed more often, and older children should be given warm tea with honey or lemon or raspberry jam.

Medicinal treatment, that is, cough pills, should be prescribed by a doctor, because it depends on the type of cough and the general condition of the baby.

Think carefully before offering expectorants to a newborn: the baby cannot yet cough up the secreted phlegm on his own.

Move your child more often to avoid congestion in the lungs, give him a light massage. Do not experiment on small children - let an experienced pediatrician prescribe treatment, who will assess the general condition of your child and prescribe the necessary medications.

How to make a compress for a cough?

A compress is an effective remedy. It can be cold, hot, dry, wet, alcohol or oil. Let's consider the most effective of them.

• Vinegar compress. A simple and almost ideal compress. It consists of only water and apple or other vinegar in a 3:1 ratio, you can add a spoonful of natural honey. Mix all the ingredients, soak a piece of cloth in the mixture and apply to the area of the bronchial projection. Put a piece of polyethylene on top and wrap it up. The compress should be on the chest for at least 20 minutes.
• Honey compress. Simple, fast and effective: rub the chest area with honey, cover with film and wrap. After the procedure, wash off the honey with warm water, wipe and lubricate with baby cream or warming ointment (eucalyptus, fir, menthol).
• Potato compress. Prepare mashed potatoes, add vodka instead of butter and milk. Put the resulting mixture in a plastic bag, wrap it in cloth, apply to the chest and wrap it up. Keep it until it cools.

You can also make a popular cough cake.

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How to make a cough cake?

• Make a mixture of equal amounts of sunflower oil, mustard powder, vodka and honey, take as much flour as the dough will take. Heat the mixture, spread it out in the form of a flat cake on gauze and apply it to the chest. Cover with film on top and wrap it up.

You can do two cakes at the same time - on the chest and on the back, then the effect of the procedure will be much greater.

What to do if you have a cough during pregnancy?

It is not recommended to get sick during pregnancy, but anything can happen. The easiest thing is to catch a cold or acute respiratory infection: in this case, a cough may be accompanied by a runny nose, fever, and a sore throat.

Coughing during pregnancy is doubly unpleasant, as it provokes tension in the abdominal muscles. This not only causes discomfort, but can also be dangerous if the placenta is low or presents.

Cough medicines that a pregnant woman chooses should not contain morphine or codeine. It is even better not to take any medicine at all, but to use folk remedies. You can make herbal teas:

• pour a spoonful of pine buds into a thermos and pour in just boiled water; after 40 minutes you can drink 1-2 sips when a cough starts;
• prepare a mixture of plantain leaves, primrose grass, chamomile flowers and rose hips. Steep a tablespoon of the mixture in a glass of boiling water, drink 1/3 cup three times a day;
• Grind poppy seeds in a mortar and dilute it with warm milk. Drink 50 g of this mixture to relieve bronchitis;
• bananas are good for coughs, especially if you mash them with honey;
• It is good to drink linden blossom and thyme tea at night. This tea soothes not only the cough, but also the nervous system;
• To quickly turn a dry cough into a wet one, you can use an express method. Add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda and a little honey to a cup of hot milk. Drink several times a day and always at night.

What to do if you have a barking cough?

You can use gargling. This is done as often as possible, immediately after eating or an hour before. This procedure helps reduce inflammation in the throat, moisturizes the respiratory tract, and relieves sore throats:

• a glass of warm water with half a teaspoon of soda added;
• decoction of calendula, sage, eucalyptus;
• infusion of raspberry leaves, currants, mint, lemon balm, marshmallow, chamomile.

If the cough is quite severe, you can try the following recipe: add a full tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to 0.5 liters of warm water, gargle as often as possible.

Dry cough needs to be softened, and for this purpose it is recommended to drink more warm liquid and maintain sufficient humidity in the room. Ventilate more often, wipe dust and clean.

For what kind of cough do you do inhalations?

Inhalations are used to alleviate dry cough and stimulate the production of sputum. Such procedures can quickly alleviate the patient's condition and soothe attacks of dry cough.

For example, people often practice inhaling the vapors of boiled potatoes, herbal infusions of chamomile and linden blossom, sage, and St. John's wort.

A special device, a nebulizer, is perfect for inhalations. However, if you don’t have one, you can use other methods, such as a teapot or a funnel.

The most common old proven method is to inhale steam over a saucepan, covering the patient with a towel, as they say, with the head. Children should use such inhalations with caution, so as not to burn the mucous membranes. The most popular way of such a procedure is to boil water, cover yourself with a towel and add baking soda to the saucepan little by little. You should inhale the resulting steam for 10-15 minutes.

Inhalations are not recommended for hypertension. It is permissible to add essential oil to the procedure liquid, preferably eucalyptus.

What to do if you have a wet cough?

A wet cough is accompanied by the release of a mucous substance – sputum. Its consistency can be different: liquid, thick, with an admixture of pus or streaks of blood.

A wet cough helps to remove from the body the microbial flora that parasitizes the respiratory tract: this is the most favorable moment for a complete cure of the cough.

Folk remedies include drinking herbal teas, hot milk with jam or honey, and tea with lemon. Grated black radish with honey has a good effect: eat several spoons of this freshly prepared mixture per day.

Drug treatment of wet cough is initially aimed at getting rid of accumulated phlegm in the bronchi. This can be done with the help of drugs that improve secretion and expectoration.

One of such drugs is Gerbion syrup. It contains extracts of thyme, primrose root and levomenthol - an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory agent. Gerbion can be used by all family members over 2 years old. Children are given one spoon (which is included with the medicine) three times a day, and adults are given two such spoons up to 4 times a day. The syrup is not recommended for use in the first trimester of pregnancy and during lactation, since its use during these periods has not yet been sufficiently studied.

In case of a wet cough, you cannot use conventional antitussive drugs (tusuprex, pectusin, oxeladin), as they suppress the cough reflex, thereby preventing the removal of phlegm.

What to do during a coughing fit?

What to do if you have a cough and there are no medications nearby or you don’t want to take medications?

There are folk recipes that will help you stop a coughing fit and allow you to sleep peacefully at night.

• Nettle. Pour 2 tablespoons of dried nettle leaves with a bottle of vodka, leave for 10 days. Drink this tincture during an attack in the amount of 1 tablespoon, the cough will subside instantly.
• Burnt sugar. Pour a tablespoon of sugar into an iron container, fry until dark brown, then add 2 tablespoons of water and a little aloe juice. Drink after cooling.
• Burnt sugar #2. Fry half a glass of sugar in a frying pan until dark, pour a glass of boiling water and stir. If you take this syrup one spoon at a time during an attack, the cough goes away almost immediately. This recipe can be used by both adults and children.
• Sage. Boil a tablespoon of dry sage in a glass of milk, leave for half an hour and filter. Drink 1 glass hot just before bed. A peaceful sleep is guaranteed.

Of the medications, we can recommend the following: Tusuprex (0.2-0.4 g three times a day), Libexin (1 tablet up to 4 times a day), Tussin Plus (2 teaspoons every four hours).

What to do if you have a severe cough?

A good effective remedy is to rub your chest and back with freshly squeezed black radish juice. To enhance the effect, you can take a tablespoon of juice orally, adding a little honey to it first.

It is useful to chew a leaf of aloe or golden mustache when coughing.

Chamomile tea, milk with soda, or warm alkaline mineral water without gas are good for a strong cough.

If you don't have any medications or herbs at hand, you can simply mix honey and butter in equal proportions. Keep this mixture in your mouth until it dissolves completely, and you can wash it down with hot milk.

What to do if the cough does not go away?

It is necessary to provide the patient with rest and an elevated position of the head (to facilitate the discharge of mucus).

A painful dry cough requires the use of antitussives: codeine 0.02 g or dionine. To activate the discharge of sputum, expectorants are used: dry extract of thermopsis 0.5 g, bromhexine 0.8 g, inhalations with alkaline agents.

Signs of bronchospasm (in bronchial asthma) are relieved by bronchodilators: euphyllin or ephedrine.

Local methods of treatment also alleviate the condition - mustard plasters, cupping. In case of pneumonia and purulent lung diseases, inpatient treatment with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory (sulfanilamide) drugs is necessary.

What to do if you have a persistent cough?

The most common cause of cough is an inflammatory process in the upper respiratory tract caused by a viral or bacterial infection. If, despite fighting the existing infection, the cough does not go away, there may be several explanations:

• weak immunity;
• influence of additional factors (smoking, dry indoor air);
• the addition of another infection or a complication of the first (inflammation of the lungs, bronchi, trachea).

Therefore, treatment should be prescribed based on these reasons. It is necessary to restore immunity by taking vitamin supplements and eating right. If possible, it is better to exclude smoking from your life altogether. Spend more time outdoors, ventilate the apartment, do wet cleaning and dust more often.

Additionally, a sputum culture can be performed to determine the bacterial flora, which will allow the doctor to prescribe specific effective antibiotics.

What to do if the cough lasts more than a month?

We need to urgently find the cause.

• Atypical pneumonia. A prolonged cough can be caused by mycoplasma and chlamydia. To determine these pathogens, it is necessary to donate blood using the ELISA method.
• Signs of measles, whooping cough, false croup. Childhood diseases that adults can also suffer from. In this case, the cough is quite pronounced, tearing, to the point of vomiting. Libexin, Sinekod, and Bronholitin can help with whooping cough.
• Tuberculosis pathology. When the immune system is weakened, the tuberculosis bacillus can penetrate the body. The disease is diagnosed using an X-ray and a tuberculin test.
• Oncology of the respiratory organs. Such diseases include malignant tumors of the lungs, bronchi, and mediastinal organs. For diagnosis, an X-ray of the lungs, MRI, and bronchoscopic examination should be done.
• Allergic reaction. Coughing can be one of the manifestations of allergy to dust, insects, pollen, animal hair, etc. Visit an allergist, he will prescribe you a blood test for the presence of antibodies.
• Chronic bronchial asthma. If along with coughing there are also attacks of suffocation, be sure to visit a pulmonologist. Perhaps the use of inhalations of corticosteroid drugs, taking antihistamines and antispasmodics will alleviate your condition.
• Parasitic diseases. Ascaris live not only in the intestines: sometimes they settle in the lungs, irritate cough receptors, causing a dry barking cough. Diagnosis of ascariasis - in the analysis of sputum for the presence of larvae, precipitation reaction, indirect agglutination, latex agglutination.
• Taking ACE inhibitors. Some medications used to treat hypertension and heart disease can cause dry cough. These include captopril, fosinopril, enalapril, quinapril, etc. However, after discontinuing the drug, the cough goes away.
• Heart disease. Cough can also be caused by heart problems. In this case, you should undergo an electrocardiogram and consult a cardiologist.

What to do if you have a cough from cigarettes?

Cough from smoking is associated with the deposition of a tarry substance on the walls of the bronchi. Without getting rid of this plaque, you will not get rid of the cough.

Therefore, the only effective remedy for such a cough is to completely quit smoking in any form. Smoking pills can help with this.

One of the most effective means of cleansing the lungs is considered to be running through a pine forest. You should run daily, from 30 minutes to an hour. In this case, the lungs are cleansed of tar, but on one condition - you must quit smoking.

What to do if you cough up blood?

Coughing up blood is a dangerous condition that can indicate many serious pathologies in the body. It may simply be a ruptured capillary, but it may also be more dangerous pathologies.

Irregular discharge of sputum with rare blood streaks is not scary. However, if this is repeated constantly over a long period of time, it is time to sound the alarm. The reasons may be:

• inflammatory process in the respiratory tract – pneumonia, bronchi, tuberculosis, abscess;
• oncological diseases – carcinoma, lung cancer;
• Cardiac and vascular pathologies – signs of mitral valve stenosis, pulmonary embolism, respiratory system trauma, amyloidosis.

In order to determine what to do when coughing with bloody sputum, it is necessary to find out the cause of the symptom. Therefore, you should consult a doctor, undergo an X-ray, bronchoscopy, cardiogram, and do a sputum analysis. All subsequent treatment should be aimed, first of all, at eliminating the cause of this condition.

It should be remembered that cough treatment requires caution. Self-treatment is only permissible for acute forms of cough, while prolonged or subacute course may require a number of additional examinations. You cannot treat a cough without knowing the cause of its occurrence.

What to do if you have a cough? Try folk remedies, massage, physiotherapy. If the cough lingers and your treatment hasn't helped, consult a doctor, especially if it concerns your child's health.