A cough can bother a child at night, even if he only occasionally coughs during the day. Regardless of the root cause, coughing fits in a child at night are due to the fact that in a supine position, mucus comes out more difficult, lingers in the airways, and the child's weak muscles are unable to push it out. First of all, please note that this reflex does not always indicate illness - it may be a normal physiological response to irritation of the airway receptors. and young children may occur to clear the airways of dust, mucus, or if the child has slightly choked on saliva.
Children who have teething coughs especially often. This is usually harmless and the child clears his throat easily.
However, in cases where he often bothers with attacks that intensify during sleep, parents should pay attention to the child's health, as this may be a symptom of some diseases. This makes it difficult for children to sleep, which affects their mood, well-being and health in general.
Types of cough and its causes
Sleep coughs can be wet or dry. Wet, or wet, is called a cough with sputum, which distinguishes it from dry.
The most common cause of the symptom is a viral or bacterial infection.
In this case, dry or moist cough depending on the stage of the disease. usually appears at the very beginning of a cold or flu, may be accompanied by a sore throat and chest pain.
Due to the secretion of mucus during the first days of a cold, it is replaced by wet, but then the mucus can thicken again, as a result of the multiplication of bacteria and loss of moisture in the body.
A dry, wheezing cough can be a symptom of the flu. If, during the treatment of a dry cough, it is replaced by a wet cough, we can say that the child is recovering, and the reverse process (wet became dry) indicates complications.
Additional factors
The factors that cause dry cough can be both infectious and non-infectious.
Infectious causes:
Non-infectious causes:
- inhalation of a small object, or getting a piece of food, small parts of toys into airways... In this case, the child is simply trying to clear his throat, clear the airways. At the same time, the cough reflex begins abruptly, and in a severe case can lead to suffocation. It is urgent to put the child face down on his knees, and make several moderately intense blows in the area between the shoulder blades;
- dry and cold air in the children's room, tobacco smoke, dust.
A wet cough can be caused by allergies, tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis and even a runny nose. The reasons can be judged by the characteristics of the mucus separated during this:
- a large amount of sputum speaks of bronchitis, tracheitis;
- a rusty hue of mucus gives pneumonia;
- a large amount of liquid transparent mucus is typical for the first days of ARVI, influenza;
- vitreous sputum is a sure sign of bronchial asthma;
- sputum with blood occurs in the later stages of tuberculosis;
- purulent sputum - a symptom acute infection, abscess of the lungs or bronchi.
All of the above causes can cause coughing fits at night in a child. Thus, among the common reasons are the following:
But more often than not night cough cause all the same colds, however, at night in the supine position, the attacks are more pronounced, which worries attentive parents.
You should not try to diagnose the child on your own based on your observations - to accurately determine the reasons, the doctor uses different examination techniques, you may need a bacteriological culture of the separated sputum.
Revealing the true causes of the disease is the key to successful treatment.
If parents are worried about a child's cough at night, and they do not know what to do, the best option would be to seek help from a polyclinic, where they will conduct all the necessary research and give recommendations on the treatment and care of the child.