Amongst the most common health problems that affect young children are cold and cough. A cough usually caused by an inflammation of the child's respiratory tract or by the presence of excess mucous in the tract. Your child could also develop cough as a response to allergies. These allergies could be food, dust, smoke related. It is important that you treat a cough quickly because this condition usually affects a child's energy levels, making her lethargic and irritable. A cough could also affect her food intake and her sleep patterns.
You should ensure that your child drinks plenty of liquids. Juice, water, and clear soups and broths promote expectoration and help loosen up a dry cough. This in turn will lead to removing the phlegm from the body. In addition, drinking lots of liquids will also keep the mouth and throat moist and help decrease the coughing. You can give your child hot drinks as well to speed up expectoration. You can also wrap some aniseed (ajwaain) in a cloth and heat it up gently. You can then rub this on your child's chest. Just before bedtime, you can also rub some Vicks Vaporub on your child's feet and cover them with socks. This remedy has not been scientifically proved but it has worked for a number of people. Finally, if your child has developed this cough during the winter, you should consider turning the temperature in the house down because a hot and dry environment will only irritate the cough further.
answered by G M