Introduction to cough:

Your home calms at night, the children are tucked into bed – but then loud coughing replaces the silence. It’s impressive that a body so small can cough so loud.

What is a cough?

Coughing is an important part of the body’s defense system. It forcefully propels unwanted invaders up and out of the body.

A cough signals some irritation in your child’s air passages. This irritation may be in the throat, the lungs, or in the passageways connecting them.

A cough often accompanies infections of the upper or lower respiratory tract, such as colds, flu, sinus infections, croup, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, measles, or pneumonia. Sometimes the cough will linger once the infection has cleared.

Hair cells, called cilia, normally move mucus along the respiratory tract to keep the area clean and moist. If these cilia are damaged during an infection, the body may use coughing to move this mucus along – even after the invading germs are gone. Thus, the cough sensors tend to be hypersensitive following an infection.

Whenever a child has a recurrent or persistent cough, it is important to consider a diagnosis of asthma. Many children with asthma have cough as their primary symptom. The diagnosis is often delayed in these children, and they fail to get the preventive medicines they need.

Other important causes of chronic cough include allergies, inhaled foreign bodies, GE reflux, pertussis, chronic sinusitis, tuberculosis, inhaled irritants (smoke or fumes), pressure on the respiratory tract from the outside (perhaps from lymph nodes or blood vessels), or habit.

Occasionally a cough can be caused by swimmer’s ear, which can trigger cough sensors in the ear canal.

Who gets a cough?

All children will cough occasionally as a part of their bodies’ way to fight infections and irritation. Nevertheless, cough is a symptom that deserves attention. While sneezing in a newborn is usually normal, a cough usually indicates that something needs to be addressed. In older children as well, the cough is a sign of irritation and it is important to discover the cause.

What are the symptoms of a cough?

The sound of the cough often depends on the location of the irritation. If an infection is in the voice box (croup), the cough may sound like a barking seal. If it is deeper in the bronchi (bronchitis), the cough will sound deeper as well.

A chronic nighttime cough might signal asthma, nasal allergies, or a chronic sinus infection. A habit cough disappears with sleep. A cough that is at its worst when your child first awakens might signal bronchitis.