COUGH children

The children can experience 6-12infeksi respiratory tract (ARI) in a year, usually accompanied by a cough. In most children, the coughing will stop by itself in 1-3 day although sometimes may take longer. In general, if a child has a cough every day for more than 3 weeks several other possible causes of respiratory infection should be considered:
*Children may have respiratory tract abnormalities, for example: tracheo-esophageal fistula (a connecting channel between the trachea / airway and esophagus / line feed).
*Foreign body lodged in the respiratory tract is another possible cause, especially in toddlers.
*Asthma or chronic rhinitis (nasal inflammation reaction constant progress).
*Smoking or psychological factors may be the cause of chronic cough in adolescents.
Keep in mind that a lot of coughing with sputum are not common in children and need to be investigated the cause.
Diagnosis
To determine the cause of cough, a few important things to note. The first is of course necessary to distinguish whether the cough was experienced continuously or recurrence after a recovery. Cough onset was also important to know, for example coughing very suddenly without other symptoms may indicate a foreign body lodged in the airway. The type and pattern of coughing can also provide guidance in determining the cause of cough. For example cough experienced in attacks that are not controlled (paroxysmal) may be due to pertussis, chlamydia, or a foreign object. Cough that disappeared during sleep may indicate that the cough was experienced by habit (habit cough). Other symptoms that accompany a cough is also very helpful in this effort because several diseases have symptoms typical enough, such as: sinusitis, chronic rhinitis, atopy, or asthma. In addition, exposure to cigarette smoke is also an important factor in children with symptoms of cough.
On physical examination, presence or absence of signs of oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) is in progress to chronic investigated, for example: failure to thrive and clubbing (hypoxia due to chronic conditions in which the boundaries of skin finger nails with a flat if dilamati from the side and fingers look more broadly). Besides of course other signs such as fever, rapid breathing, wheezing, and breathing sounds that are not symmetrical also be observed.
Further tests such as lab tests or X-ray is only required in certain cases.
Handling
If the child in good health and normal physical examination, which needs to be done hanyah avoid exposure to irritating substances like cigarette smoke. There is no evidence to show the role of cough suppressant medicines, decongestants, anti-allergy, or cough antibiotics in treatment in a case like this. The visit of follow-up to the doctor can be done in 2-3 weeks.
Children who do not look healthy or abnormal physical examination needs further investigation as can be seen in the flow chart below:
Children with a cough for more than 3 weeks
Is history / physical exam normal?Yes. Avoid irritants, follow-up.
No
Is history / physical examination leads to pertussis? ® Yes. Handling pertussis
No
Is history / physical examination lead to asthma? ® Yes. Handling asthma
No
Is history / physical examination lead to foreign object? ® Yes. Handling foreign body
No
Is history / physical examination lead to sinusitis? ® Yes. Handling sinusitis
No
Do chest X-ray and other tests required.