pox HOME CARE • Give the child plenty of liquids. • Use a vaporizer or humidifier to add moisture to the air. • Ask your doctor if cough medicine should be given for the illness your child has. If so, ask what type of cough medicine should be used. • Treat the whole illness, not just the cough. PRECAUTIONS • Do not give cough medicine if the child has croup. • Do not give cough medicine if the child has any breathing difficulty. • Do not give cough medicine if the child may have inhaled a foreign body. • For some illnesses (especially asthma and pneumonia), coughing is useful and should not always be suppressed.? Coughing is a valuable defense mechanism of the body. It is the body's way of removing any foreign material that enters the respiratory tract (the throat, larynx, trachea, bronchial tubes, and lungs). Coughing is not a disease itself-it is an automatic reflex that is set off by any irritation of the lining of the respiratory tract. In most cases, coughing helps remove unwanted materials from the body, although sometimes coughing does not succeed. The only harm in a cough is that it may keep a person from sleeping, or it may cause soreness of muscles and exhaustion if the cough is hard and frequent. Coughing may also lead to vomiting. A cough is only as serious as the disease or condition that causes it. As with a fever, a child with a cough is no less ill if you lessen or stop the cough. A child with a mild illness and a cough is still only mildly ill. To correct the cough, cure the disease. SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS A vaporizer or a humidifier will add moisture to the air and help relieve COUghs. Coughing is itself a symptom of a disease or an indication that an irritating substance is present in the respiratory tract. Most coughs are caused by viral infections (common colds, croup, bronchitis, bronchiolitis). Some are caused by bacterial infections (sinusitis, epiglottitis, bacterial pneumonia, whooping cough). Other coughs are caused by allergies (asthma) or by inhaling irritating particles. ? HOME CARE Since coughing is only one symptom of an illness, you must treat the whole illness-not just the cough. When the illness is cured, coughing and other symptoms will be relieved. There are, however, steps you can take to help relieve coughing. Give the child plenty of liquids. Use a vaporizer or humidifier to add moisture to the air. (Be sure to keep it meticulously clean, however. Otherwise, it can actually become a source of infection if microorganisms are allowed to grow in it.) Cough medicines are sometimes useful. You should be aware, however. that there are various types of cough medicines, which differ in their usefulness in the treatment of specific illnesses or kinds of coughs: Cough suppressants are used to reduce the frequency of the cough by suppressing the cough reflex. They may contain a narcotic (codeine, dihydrocodeinone, or hydromorphone) or a nonnarcotic (dextrometh orphan or benzonatate). foot and mouth