How to Stop a Cough in a Child

If your child is coughing, and it is a non-specific cough, then the treatment is just simple measures such as:

• ensure your child is not exposed to tobacco smoke. If you can't give up smoking, at least ensure you smoke outside the house and you might want to consider wearing a particular smoking jacket that you remove once you've finished your cigarette as the smoke and its ill effects will linger on clothing
• if your child has a tickle in her throat, give her:
  • a sip of water
  • a sip of honey water
  • honey lozenges
• your child probably has a viral upper respiratory tract infection (read more) so keep her fluids up so she doesn't get dehydrated

If your child has a specific cause of cough, the answer to "how to stop a cough" will depend on that cause. For example, antibiotics will be necessary for a pneumonia - read more.

Back to list

Should I use over-the-counter cough medicine for my child's cough?

The short answer is "no".

The research evidence shows no benefit from over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicines over that you get from dummy medication (placebo). So any benefit you may see is probably unrelated to the medicine.

Not only that, over-the-counter cough medicines are commonly involved in childhood poisonings and are potentially dangerous.

There have been reported deaths in young children from over-the-counter cough and cold medications. There are strong recommendations from evidence from the CDC (Center for Disease Control, US) that children under 2 years of age should not be given over-the-counter cough and cold medications because there is no evidence that they work and they have caused death in young children.

So when I'm asked "how to stop a cough in a child", I say that it's best to save your money and just try simple measures for cough in your child. Non-specific cough will eventually improve by itself.

Back to list

---