How do I treat my child's cough?
There's no good remedy for treating cough. It's usually just waiting it out and waiting for the virus to go away. Some viral coughs can last three to four weeks at a time. Of course you want to see your paediatrician if the cough is related to fever, or if the cough is causing your child problems breathing, or they really have had a persistent cough for a long time because you want the doctor to listen to their lungs and make sure they're not having a secondary infection. There are over-the-counter remedies. We've all seen the over-the-counter cough and cold medicines; Dimetapp, Robitussin, Triaminic. The truth is that these have never been proven to work well in children. The original ingredient that was in a lot of these, which is pseudoepinephrine, which helps with the runny nose and the congestion, they took out, and now they use an ingredient called phenylephrine, which is never proven in kids to be helpful. So, what I tell families is that there's really no proof that these medicines help. The best thing is really supportive care; maybe elevating their head at night to help that post-nasal drip, running a vaporizer or humidifier in the room to loosen up the mucus, going into a steamed up shower and, unfortunately, just riding it out.
