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Suggest Treatment For Dry Cough In A Child

Posted on Tue, 9 May 2017

Question: My 8 years old son started coughing suddenly since last Tuesday. It's a dry cough.For first couple of days coughing was in night after sleep. Kid could slept well with dose of Cherrycough syrup. But since Friday he has started coughing in day time also. This is kind a continuous coughing with no pain in chest and throat. Neither Throat has swelling inside nor chest congested. We had visited our pediatrician on Friday. He prescribed 5 ml Livoline. But it is not able to control coughing. Spoke to doctor he said to nebulize with beudocrt .5mg. Have been Nebulizing 2 hourly since last evening but no improvement. When kid is awake continuously coughing dry.

Need prescription to immediately stop the coughing. Afraid excessive coughing don't impact in any other way. Kids weight 37 kg. Otherwise healthy and no allergies.

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (24 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Cough suppressants are usually not encouraged

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone carefully through the details and understand your concern. Most often such symptoms are due to viral infections and antibiotics are ineffective in such cases. Antibiotics would not help and irrespective of treatment it usually spontaneously resolves in 5-7 days.

You can try giving Corex Syr (Codeine, a cough suppressant) 5ml thrice daily to your child. However it would not necessarily make the coughing stop immediately. You need to give it some time.

The medicines are proper but you would need to be patient. Excessive coughing will not leave a lasting impact.

Feel free to write back.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D

Follow up: Dr. Diptanshu Das (26 minutes later)

Thanks for your response and nice to see you. You have helped us couple of years back.

What is not clear to me from your explanation is:
Should I continue Cherrycough at bed time or shall restart using Livoline. Corex to be
given with these or to stop all other.
And what about Nebulizing with 0.5 mg beudocrt with what interval. If 3 hrs interval for Nebulizing is ok?

Regards

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Glad to serve you again

Detailed Answer:
Cherrycough or nebulization makes the cough productive by expectoration. Corex is a cough suppressant and works in reverse. Although Corex will make him cough less it is opposite to the way that the body functions. If you can be patient I will insist you to continue the ongoing treatment. If you cannot wait give Corex and not the others. Keboli needs to be given only if there is respiratory distress or wheezing. If you give nebulization a gap of 3 hours is ok.

Feel free to write back.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana