colds,coughs and wheezing in a child

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Hello Dr,

I’m really happy to find your forum easybabycare and your explanations are quite promising. I’m much relieved and eager to reach out to you.
My son is close to 3 years and he had continuous cough last week which triggered to slight wheeze. Dr suggested to give nebulizer to relieve his cough and congestion momentarily, I did continue to nebulize him for another 3 times the same day which helped him a lot and could sleep better.
Also Dr prescribed a syrup Ascoril LS to him. At night, he asked us to give Relent along with Ascoril LS.
Its been 4 days I’m giving him Ascroil LS. Cough is much better, so I’m just giving only night time dose from 2 days. But I can still hear a kinda noise(very slight) when paid high attention to hear his breathe.Does this seem to be infection or due to bad weather it is affected ?
Is Ascoril LS and Relent both are okay to use? If yes how long is it good to continue?
And does nebulization make the child vomit? as he has been throwing couple of times when he was nebulized.
I’m very particular on his food intake and ensure to have a constant watch on what he is eating. Avoid junk food like cold food, ice creams, chocs.
He loves to eat all fruits and eat unlimited. Many a times as observed more of papaya, banana and Guava led to cough for him. So I prefer to give him papaya in a limited manner. Do you think these fruits are cough inducing?
Is nebulizer addiction in anyway? if once given should we have to keep on continuing usage of it?

Awaiting on your valuable response.

Thanks you!
Apoorva

Dear Apoorva

I am glad that you like easybabycare. It gives me great satisfaction in reaching out to parents through this.

Your question has several issues.
When you use any medicines, it is important that you should know what are the actions and side effects of these medicines. In fact it is the duty of prescribing doctor to do so. However in busy clinics, doctors seldom do so.
Ascoril LS Contains
1.Levosalbutamal, this is beta agonist; this relaxes the muscles lining the air passages, thus helps in relieving the wheezing,( the sound that you hear when child is breathing)
2. Ambroxol and guaifenesin. These 2 medicines loosen the phlegm that is present in air passages and thus it becomes easier for the patient to bring out the phlegm. Remember that no medicine can bring out the phlegm; it is only when we cough that we can bring out the phlegm, so we do not give any medicines to children to suppress the cough. We only give medicines that help in bringing out the phlegm by relaxing the air passages, and loosening the phlegm.
So you can use these medicines as long as your child seems to have phlegm and wheezing. Once child does not have these you can stop it.
Relent contains cetrizine.
This is anti allergy. Although wheezing is due to allergy, but anti allergy medicines do not help. However if child has running nose along with wheezing these may help. Beside that anti allergy medicines cause slight drowsiness, so it is useful to give it to an ill child, if he cannot sleep at night due to cough. So again you can use it as long as your child needs it. Once he is ok you can stop it.
With nebulizer 2 drugs are given, 1. Beta agonist, usually salbutamol 2. Budecort which is a steroid.
Salbutamol helps in relaxing the muscles lining the air passages, while budecort gets rid of the inflammatory materials which block the air passages. Thus by using these it becomes easy to breath. Both of these drugs have side effects when given orally, but not when given via nebulizer.
When a child has difficulty in breathing, one can hear a sound which we call wheezing. In that case giving salbutamol and budecort via nebulizer help. So you have to keep on using nebulizer as long as your child wheezes or has a dry cough. Once he is better you can stop this.
Just because one has given nebulizer, does not mean that child will need nebulizer all the time. It is not addictive. For how long this need to be used depends on child’s condition. Most of the children need intermittently, whenever they have a viral infection. Very few children may need this continuously. Usually those who have a family history of asthma, may need for a longer time.
Fruits or any other food products do not cause cold, coughs or wheezing. These problems are caused by allergens in the air, like dust, especially house dust, pollens, perfumes, fur and dander from dogs and cats. You can get further information in chapter of asthma in my book on child care, at easybabycare.net.
You can give any fruit to your child. A child should be given 2 fruits a day. If you give more he will take less of other food products and thus will not get a well balanced diet, see the chapter on diet in my book on child care, at easybabycare.net
Lastly you mentioned that your child vomits when given nebulizer. He probably gets upset and frightened by the procedure and thus vomits. Try to relax him by talking to him softly and give nebulizer on empty stomach.
If you have any further queries, or if you did not understand some of what have written, please let me know.
TC