Chronic cough in children

The physician faced with a child with a chronic and relatively non-specific symptom.

 While we are assessing the etiology of cough first needs to decide into which of five categories to place the child:

1. Normal child (the diagnosis which requires the most skill and experience).

2. A child with a serious illness such as cystic fibrosis,

tuberculosis etc. (rare, but essential to get right).

3. A child with non-serious, but treatable causes of cough and wheeze, for example gastrooesophageal

reflux or postnasal drip.

4. A child with an asthma syndrome.

5. Overestimation of symptoms for psychological or other reasons by either or both of child or family.

Initial assessment is with a careful history and physical examination. It should be noted that the

likelihood of a child having a serious condition depends on the setting; in a community context,

isolated cough rarely betokens anything serious, but in a tertiary level hospital, selection ensures

that many more coughers have a serious underlying cause.



for more detail see the attached review