When to see your healthcare provider A cough that lasts less than eight weeks is usually caused by a respiratory infection and will go away on its own. How Is Chronic Cough Diagnosed?

Questions about Your Chronic Cough Talk with our experts at the American Lung Association Lung HelpLine. Our service is free and we are here to help you by phone, web chat or email.

Medical history Your healthcare provider will most likely ask you several questions about your cough, overall health and activities:. Cough When did your cough start? Does your cough bring up mucus? If there is mucus, what's the consistency and color?

Is there any blood? Are there any specific triggers to your cough? weather, air quality, meal times, bedtimes, exposures. Overall Health Have you been in close contact with anyone who has similar symptoms or a known respiratory infection such as common cold, tuberculosis, pneumonia or whooping cough?

Do you have any medical illnesses or chronic diseases? Do you have trouble swallowing? Do you have trouble with indigestion or heartburn? Have you been started on any new medications recently? Activities Have you had any change in your home environment new carpeting, heating or air conditioning system, new pets, etc.

Do you have any allergies or experience post nasal drip? What do you do for a living? What's your workplace like? dusty, damp, cold, etc. What do you do in your time off? Have you recently traveled?

Do you use tobacco products cigarettes, cigars, pipes or e-cigarettes or marijuana? Do you use recreational drugs? Physical exam At the doctor's office, they will take your vital signs including your temperature.

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Conditions Treated A-Z. Definition Coughing is an important way to keep your throat and airways clear.

Coughing Coughing is a sudden expulsion of air from the lungs through the epiglottis at an amazingly fast speed estimated at miles per hour. References Chung KF, Mazzone SB. Harron, Jr. Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

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Wheezing also can happen if the lower airway is blocked by a foreign object. A child who starts to cough after inhaling something such as food or a small toy should see a doctor.

Lots of coughs get worse at night. When your child has a cold, the mucus from the nose and sinuses can drain down the throat and trigger a cough during sleep.

This is only a problem if the cough won't let your child sleep. Asthma also can trigger nighttime coughs because the airways tend to be more sensitive and irritable at night. Cold air or activity can make coughs worse during the daytime. Try to make sure that nothing in your house — like air freshener, pets, or smoke especially tobacco smoke — is making your child cough.

A child who has a cough, mild fever, and runny nose probably has a common cold. But coughs with a fever of °F 39°C or higher can sometimes be due to pneumonia , especially if a child is weak and breathing fast.

In this case, call your doctor right away. Kids often cough so much that it triggers their gag reflex, making them throw up.

Also, a child who has a cough with a cold or an asthma flare-up might vomit if lots of mucus drains into the stomach and causes nausea. Usually, this is not cause for alarm unless the vomiting doesn't stop. Coughs caused by colds due to viruses can last weeks, especially if a child has one cold right after another.

Asthma, allergies , or a chronic infection in the sinuses or airways also might cause lasting coughs. If your child still has a cough after 3 weeks, call your doctor.

If you're concerned about your child's cough, call your doctor. Depending on the type of cough, other symptoms, and how long it's lasting, the doctor might want to see your child.

Many health care providers now offer telehealth visits, which can save parents a trip to the office especially for a nighttime cough. Hearing the cough will help the doctor decide whether and how to treat it. Most coughs are caused by viruses and have to just run their course.

Sometimes, this can take up to 2 weeks. Doctors usually don't prescribe antibiotics because these only work against bacteria. Unless a cough won't let your child sleep, cough medicines are not needed. They might help a child stop coughing, but they don't treat the cause of the cough.

If you do use an over-the-counter OTC cough medicine, call the doctor to be sure of the correct dose and to make sure it's safe for your child.

Do not use OTC combination medicines like "Tylenol Cold" — they have more than one medicine in them, and kids can have more side effects than adults and are more likely to get an overdose of the medicine. KidsHealth Parents Coughing.

en español: Tos. Medically reviewed by: Patricia Solo-Josephson, MD. Primary Care Pediatrics at Nemours Children's Health. Listen Play Stop Volume mp3 Settings Close Player.

Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Are Coughs? What Are the Different Types of Coughs? The most common types of coughs are: "barky" cough whooping cough cough with wheezing nighttime cough daytime cough cough with a fever cough with vomiting lasting persistent cough "Barky" Cough Barky coughs are usually caused by swelling in the upper airway.

Whooping Cough Whooping cough pertussis is an infection of the airways caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. Cough With Wheezing If your child makes a wheezing whistling sound when breathing out exhaling , this could mean that the lower airways in the lungs are swollen.

Nighttime Cough Lots of coughs get worse at night. Daytime Cough Cold air or activity can make coughs worse during the daytime. Coughing may also be used for social reasons, and as such is not always involuntary.

A voluntary cough, often written as "ahem", can be used to attract attention or express displeasure, as a form of nonverbal , paralingual metacommunication.

Coughing, and huffing are important ways of removing mucus as sputum in many conditions such as cystic fibrosis , and chronic bronchitis.

A cough is a protective reflex in healthy individuals which is influenced by psychological factors. The type of cough may help in the diagnosis. For instance, an inspiratory "whooping" sound on coughing almost doubles the likelihood that the illness is pertussis.

Blood may occur in small amounts with severe cough of many causes, but larger amounts suggests bronchitis , bronchiectasis , tuberculosis , or primary lung cancer.

Further workup may include labs, x-rays , and spirometry. A cough can be classified by its duration, character, quality, and timing. It may occur only at night then called nocturnal cough , during both night and day, or just during the day.

A number of characteristic coughs exist. While these have not been found to be diagnostically useful in adults, they are of use in children. The treatment of a cough in children is based on the underlying cause.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics the use of cough medicine to relieve cough symptoms is supported by little evidence and thus not recommended for treating cough symptoms in children.

Because coughing can spread disease through infectious aerosol droplets, it is recommended to cover one's mouth and nose with the forearm, the inside of the elbow, a tissue or a handkerchief while coughing. A cough is the most common reason for visiting a primary care physician in the United States.

Marine mammals such as dolphins and whales cannot cough. Domestic animals and vertebrates such as dogs and cats can cough, because of diseases, allergies, dust or choking. In other domestic animals, horses can cough because of infections, or due to poor ventilation and dust in enclosed spaces.

Deer can cough similarly to humans as a result of respiratory tract infections, such as parasitic bronchitis caused by a species of Dictyocaulus. As of this edit , this article uses content from "Acute cough: a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge" , which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.

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Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons. Sudden expulsion of air from the lungs as a reflex to clear irritants. For the Pokémon, see Koffing.

Medical condition. Problems playing this file? See media help. Further information: Airway clearance therapy. This section is missing information about treatment in adults. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. December doi : PMID S2CID Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Retrieved European Respiratory Journal. PMC In the vast majority of cases, acute cough is due to acute viral upper respiratory tract infection URTI , i. Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews.

Mayo Clinic. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. Extracted from the book Clinical Methods, 3rd edition The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. Edited by H Kenneth Walker, MD, W Dallas Hall, MD, and J Willis Hurst, MD. Boston: Butterworths; Chronic Cough".

Archived from the original on Chronic Cough] The Snowdrift Pulmonary Foundation, Inc. Onomatopoeia List. August 10, Archived from the original on April 4, Retrieved April 11, Form Miming Meaning: Iconicity in Language and Literature.

John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN Retrieved 25 July Physiological Reviews. ISSN Merck Manuals. Paediatr Child Health. Am Fam Physician. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. ISSN X. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pathologia Veterinaria. Pet Health Network. Your Horse Magazine. In Wild Ruminants with Morphological Description of Dictyocaulus cervin. Nematoda: Trichostrongyloidea from Red Deer,Cervus elaphus".

Journal of Parasitology. Classification D. ICD - 10 : R05 ICD - 9-CM : Cough at Wikipedia's sister projects.

Official websites use. gov A. gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Coughing is a reflex that keeps your throat and airways clear.

Although it can be annoying, coughing helps your body heal or protect itself. Coughs can be either acute or chronic. Acute coughs begin suddenly and usually last no more than 2 to 3 weeks.

Acute coughs are the kind you most often get with a cold , flu , or acute bronchitis. Chronic coughs last longer than 2 to 3 weeks.

Causes of chronic cough include:. Water can help ease your cough - whether you drink it or add it to the air with a steamy shower or vaporizer. If you have a cold or the flu, antihistamines may work better than non-prescription cough medicines.

Children under four should not have cough medicine. For children over four, use caution and read labels carefully. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice.

Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. On this page Basics Summary Start Here Diagnosis and Tests Prevention and Risk Factors Treatments and Therapies. Learn More Related Issues Specifics. See, Play and Learn Health Check Tools.

Research Journal Articles. Resources Find an Expert. For You Children Patient Handouts. These tests could include:. In cases where the previous tests are either not possible or extremely unlikely to be successful, or your cough is expected to resolve without treatment, doctors may prescribe cough suppressants.

In most cases, a cough will disappear naturally within 1 or 2 weeks after it first develops. If left untreated, the condition could worsen and cause other symptoms. Infrequent coughing is necessary to clear your airways. But there are ways you can prevent other coughs.

Smoking is a common contributor to a chronic cough. There are a wide variety of methods available to help you if you decide to quit smoking, from gadgets to advice groups and support networks.

According to a case study , a diet high in fiber-rich fruits may help relieve chronic respiratory symptoms, such as a cough with phlegm. In addition, guidelines from the American College of Chest Physicians suggest that adults with GERD may reduce their cough by avoiding eating within 3 hours of their bedtime.

If you need help adjusting your diet, a doctor may be able to advise you or refer you to a dietitian. If you can, avoid anyone with a contagious illness such as bronchitis.

This will reduce your chances of coming into contact with germs. If you have existing medical conditions that increase your chances of developing a cough, such as GERD or asthma, ask a doctor about different management strategies. Once you manage your condition, you may find that your cough disappears or becomes much less frequent.

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available. VIEW ALL HISTORY. Learn about the differences between types of coughs, such as wet and dry coughs, croup coughs, and violent coughing fits.

The average cough lasts 18 days. If you have a cough that won't go away, it may be time to see a doctor. Learn why your cough is worse at night and get 20 tips on natural remedies, lifestyle options, and medication types to help relieve it.

Post-infectious coughs are common after a respiratory infection. Cold-like symptoms can be caused by several illnesses and can linger for a while. A maternal RSV vaccine, given during RSV season to people who are 32—36 weeks pregnant, can help protect babies once they are born.

Recent child pneumonia outbreaks around the world and in the United States have been attributed to Mycoplasma pnemoniae, a bacteria that many doctors…. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. What You Need to Know About Coughing. Medically reviewed by Angelica Balingit, MD — By Kati Blake — Updated on May 9, What causes coughing?

When is coughing an emergency? Which treatments are available for a cough? Which tests can help with diagnosis? Can you prevent a cough? How we reviewed this article: Sources. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations.

We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. May 9, Written By Kati Blake. Jan 24, Medically Reviewed By Angelica Balingit, MD. Share this article.

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