Very often, at a pediatrician’s appointment, parents complain of coughing at night in a child who torments the baby and keeps him awake. But during the consultation with the pediatrician, no diseases are detected. The doctor claims that everything is normal. Maybe the doctor just missed the presence of the disease?
Cough is a protective reaction of the body, with the help of which it gets rid, for example, of mucus accumulated in the respiratory tract, and, accordingly, of pathogenic microorganisms. Thanks to this “sharp exhalation”, the bronchi, trachea and pharynx are cleaned.
Is it always necessary to treat a paroxysmal cough in a child at night? First, let's look at the reasons that cause its appearance. It occurs as a result of irritation of some receptors, which are very sensitive to a certain kind of stimuli, in particular, to mucus. Such receptors are called "fast". But there are also “slow” ones that are sensitive to inflammatory processes. In the aggregate of their interaction, a cough appears at night in a child.
An exacerbation of any cough occurs precisely at night. The thing is that in the nasopharynx of the child is mucus, which cannot be absorbed independently. This leads to the formation of “plugs” that block the nasopharynx and cause irritation of the “fast” receptors, which leads to bouts of reflex cough. Parents should remember that a cough at night in a child can occur under the influence of too dry air in the room.
Many note that children cough from time to time from time to time, but at night attacks become more frequent and intense. After waking up, the baby sputters expectoration, coughs, and everything falls into place. The thing is that a child cannot completely get rid of accumulated mucus at night, because this makes it difficult to lie down.
Above we talked about the so-called physiological cough. In this case, no specific treatment is required.
But sometimes a cough at night in a child can be a sign of the development of the disease. In this case, you should immediately establish the cause of its appearance and treat it.
It turns out that this phenomenon is characteristic in the presence of gastro-food reflux, the essence of which is that the contents of the stomach return back to the esophagus, or even to the oral cavity, which causes coughing attacks. If the child has a similar diagnosis, heartburn is also a characteristic symptom.
If you notice a coughing attack at night in a child, you must definitely find out its cause in order to exclude the risk of developing some diseases. Preventive measures in this case are lowering the temperature in the room and increasing humidity (if we are talking about the period of the heating season).
Children up to six months can not rub their chest, take antihistamines, and also do steam inhalation to avoid the accumulation of sputum. At night it is advisable to periodically change the position of the child's body. Sometimes this is enough to prevent his cough at all.