By Bjarne Lühr Hansen PhD, MD and Philipp Skafte-Holm MD, Mentor Institute
Cough cleans the child’s lungs for slime. Cough medicine is rarely necessary. The child sleeps better at night, if you raise the bedhead. If the child coughs and has trouble breathing, you must call the doctor immediately.
Cough is protection of the airways. When the child coughs, slime from the lungs come up which are thereby cleansed. Cough is good for children and should normally not be prevented with cough medicine. Cough arises, when the airways are irritated by infection (common cold, influenza, asthmatic bronchitis or pneumonia) or if food enters the trachea. The cough can be dry and barky (tickling cough) or loose with coughing up/vomiting of slime.
Prolonged cough can be caused by asthma. Consider whether the child has asthma if the child:
Coughs for more than two weeks
Coughs or has a hissing breathing when it laughs, plays or do sportshas trouble with participating in sports with children of the same age
