Dr. Jemaila Valles

𝙳𝚛. 𝙳𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚎'𝚜 𝙺𝚒𝚍𝚋𝚒𝚝𝚜
"The cough has moved to her chest!"
This is a phrase I literally hear every. single. day. Let's talk about it.
A deep wet chesty cough does not necessarily mean your kid has pneumonia.
Let's repeat that. It's actually normal, and supposed to happen with most colds!
A wet cough is usually a great thing.
If you didn't cough, you'd have pneumonia several times a year. There are children with different types of muscular and neurologic conditions who literally cannot cough - and they are hospitalized often.
COUGH IS OUR FRIEND.
When you get a cold, or allergies, there is mucus that builds up in your airways and lines them. It's pretty gross. Once you have defeated the virus (our friend the fever helps with that), your body has a clean-up process to do.
So your kid will cough. For days! And cough up those big globs of phlegm. And then guess what? No big deal if they don't spit it out.
Cause they're gonna swallow it! It goes down a different pipe! And then they p**p it out. And that's partly why they have weird, looser, mucus-y p**ps when they have colds. Goodbye mucus.
SO LET THE COUGH HAPPEN.
Wanna know something? My kids are 5 and 7, and i have never owned a bottle of cough syrup.
GASP!
Honey works better anyway. Plus I usually just really want that cough to happen.
So when do I worry about pneumonia?
- If a child has a new fever at the end of their cold, or a fever that lasts longer than 4 days. Or if a child has a fever that is going higher and higher.
- If the child appears to be becoming more sick - like not wanting to play, laying around more, or just looks more ill.
- I usually want to see any child coughing more than 10-14 days with the same cold.
- If a child starts to vomit here and there later in a cold.
- If the kiddo is breathing faster, or it seems harder for her to breathe sometimes.
- I definitely worry more about little people under 6 months.
- If you're just worried! Come in anytime!
❤JV

Let's talk coughs. 🤭
It seems to be all I'm talking about in the office this week.
And almost all of it is totally okay and totally NECESSARY coughing.
Coughs help.
Coughs are (usually) our friend.
You know how your throat hurts when you first get a cold? And the nose gets stuffy? There's mucus starting to drip down your throat and airway.
Cough keeps it out of your lungs.
Cough keeps us from getting lung infections.
Cough keeps us from choking.
When your kid has a virus, coughing kicks up all the mucus and phlegm up out of the chest, and then while we'd love them to spit that out, they usually just swallow it.
And where does it go when it's swallowed? The stomach. And then it gets p**ped out. That's why kids get loose and mucus-y stools sometimes with colds.
The cough is the "clean up process" for the body.
Without cough, you can get pneumonia. Some neurologically devastated children cannot cough well, and they are in the hospital with chest infections a lot.
Almost every cold gives kids a cough for about 10-14 days. Think about that. A week and a half to two weeks! It seems like so long. But it's normal.
Cough often worsens at night. This is because the mucus dripping down the back of the throat can pool up when you lay down, and triggers the cough more.
Kids in daycare can pick up 2-3 colds PER WEEK, especially the little ones who are crawling around and sharing all the teething toys!
Young kids in daycare seem to have a cough all the time, especially in the winter. It's usually phasic (worse then better then worse again) and it's often because kids in daycare and school get cold after cold.
When do I worry about a cough?
- If it lasts longer than 10-14 days
- If it seems to be only worsening over time
- If it comes with a high fever
- If there's any shortness of breath, or wheezing
- If a child is weak, or unable to drink much
- If coughing up blood
- If it comes with chest pain when not coughing
- If the child is using extra rib/chest muscles when breathing (these are called retractions).
If any of that is happening, best to call us!
I hope this helps you understand cough better!
Hugs,
Dr. Diane ❤️