Coughing is one of the most common reasons parents bring their children to doctors. And it can be understood why as coughing is noisy and uncomfortable and gets kids dirty looks in schools. Even worse, coughing keeps kids and their parents awake. We’ve all been there, and no one likes to cough. Coughing has a purpose. It’s there to prevent an ordinary, mucousy cold from turning into something much worse.
There’s no medicine that stops a cough, and that’s a good thing. But coughing is there, usually, for a reason. Almost all coughs are from upper respiratory infections (that’s fancy talk for common, ordinary colds caused by common, ordinary viruses.) People cough because viral infections cause excess mucus to form throughout your “respiratory tree” — from your nose, down your throat, down the airways deep into your lungs. And that mucus isn’t good. If it just sits there, that warm sticky…
