Coughing is a common symptom associated with cold, flu, or viral infection. Coughs may sound miserable and awful for a small child, but it is not usually a sign of a serious illness. Cough helps clearance of mucus secretion that may block the airway and throat. Parents should not give a child younger than 6 years old any counter medication to relieve the congestion and cough. The better medicine for a child is no medicine. Food and Drug Administration has recommended no use of cough and cold medicine for children under the age of 2 in 2007 because of serious and potential life-threatening side effects (CNN News). A CDC report showed a link between cold medicines and emergency room visits in infants and toddlers (1,519 children in 2004-2005). Drug makers had changed the labels since then that cough medications are not recommended for children younger than 4 or 6 years old.
Studies have shown that cold and cough medications are not effective for treating cold symptoms in children and they are among the top ten reasons for toxic ingestions in children under 6. Parents should read labels carefully before they administrate any medication to a child and never ever give your child more medicine than recommended.
Toxicity, cough and cold preparation (e-medicine)
- Cough medicine poisoning in children (mnpoison.org)
- Before you buy children's cold medicines (about.com)
- Steam: Have a pot of hot water on the table, and let the child breath the warm steam for 10 minutes. The warm stream can help relieve congestion. Just be careful, keep hands off the hot pot and no spill of hot water.
- Lots of fluids: chicken soup, broth, or water.
- Humidifier: humidifier helps with the discomfort of congestion but make sure to change filter and clean it frequently according to the manufacturer's instructions. Dirty humidifier is a culture ground for molds.
- Saline nasal wash or spray: suction bulb can be used for pull mucus out of the nose in a little child or infant who cannot blow their own noses. Gentle salt water wash can help cleaning out the mucus.
- Honey: Buckwheat honey has been shown to be an effective cough suppressant (ABC news). Honey can be given to children older than a year old. Honey may contain bacterial spores that produce clostridium botulinum and cause infant food poisoning. Infant younger than 1 year old cannot be given any honey.
- Get plenty of rest.
- Application of menthol or camphor to throat and chest topically.
