The period of bearing and breastfeeding is the most joyful, but also the most responsible in the life of a woman. Her health and excellent health already ceases to be a personal matter, it directly affects the baby's health and well-being. During lactation, the mother’s body is particularly susceptible to infections. Cold, infectious, chronic diseases can easily develop against the background of a weakened immunity.
Further in the article we will tell you what to do if a cough appears during breastfeeding. How to treat this scourge, if most medicines are prohibited?
To treat or not to treat?
How to treat a cough during breastfeeding depends, first of all, on the cause of its occurrence. Or maybe not treat him at all? Let it go by itself and not harm the child. It is necessary to treat, as a slight malaise threatens to turn into a serious illness - this is, firstly.
The second reason: a sudden attack during feeding can seriously scare the baby, who can cry and stop eating. Just before you run to the pharmacy or sit down at the computer, trying to find out how and how to treat cough during breastfeeding, do not forget to consult a doctor. Each organism is individual, as is the reaction of each child to various ingredients of medicines.
Stop feeding or not?
The simplest solution to a sick mother: stop feeding and do not think much about how to treat a cough with breastfeeding. Those who choose this path are doing very wrong. Wise nature created its laws perfectly, without errors. Mother's milk for the child is the most powerful means of strengthening immunity. It is with its use during maternal illness that the baby's body intensively produces antibodies and receives the most stable immunity.
Isolation from the child
Mom began to cough, she wears a gauze bandage, tries not to breathe, and approaches the child as little as possible. This is the usual behavior of a caring mother, but completely useless. The fact is that infectious bacteria in the body of any person go through an incubation period of up to three days. If the baby is infected by the mother, it will fall ill much earlier than her. Throughout this period, he receives milk from his mother - the carrier of the virus and fights the disease. So bandages and other isolation are completely useless. It is better not to waste time, but to find for yourself than to treat a cough during breastfeeding. The only thing you need to temporarily move your mother away from her baby is to give her time to relax and procedures.
Cough Reasons
The choice of funds and drugs depends on the factors that triggered the cough during breastfeeding. What to treat, the doctor will advise after the examination and depending on the diagnosis. The reasons most often causing a dry cough may be several. These include:
- cold;
- viral infection;
- bacterial infection;
- allergic reaction;
- exacerbation of chronic diseases (asthma, bronchitis and others).
Cold
Diseases commonly referred to by the common cold are called acute respiratory infections (acute respiratory illness) or acute respiratory viral infections (acute respiratory viral infection). It usually begins with a runny nose, slight chills, sore throat, which causes a dry cough. In this case, how to treat a cough during breastfeeding?
Komarovsky, a children's doctor, author of popular books about children, advises, at the first sign of illness, not to grab medication immediately, but not to hesitate. According to him, you should immediately rinse your nose profusely with saline. For the prevention of saline, you can drip in the nose and the child. A slight fever and a cough that begins is not a cause for panic. In this case, warming, compresses, inhalations are useful.
Unlike respiratory diseases, the flu causes a higher temperature and is also dangerous for its complications. To reduce the temperature, mom can take medications that the doctor will recommend. For cough, syrups, herbal tablets, and chest ointments are usually prescribed.
Bacterial infections
Unfortunately, Mummy can become infected with a bacterial infection. Sore throats, bronchitis, pneumonia cause a severe cough. With breastfeeding, how to treat it, because in this case, without an antibiotic, a woman's condition can worsen?
In especially difficult situations, lactating women use new-generation antibiotics, which are sometimes prescribed even for infants, but only under the supervision of a doctor. In parallel, the patient needs a full range of procedures.
Allergic cough
A suffocating coughing fit may be the result of an allergic reaction. How to treat dry cough with breastfeeding, if it is caused by intolerance to any component? First of all, it is necessary to eliminate, if possible, the source of allergies, excluding products that cause a negative reaction from the mother’s diet.
Such a cough will pass after cleansing the body. Absolutely harmless method of cleaning with activated carbon. If the allergy is severe, you can take "Loratadine", "Loridine", "Alcedin". And the popular antihistamines "Diazolin", "Suprastin", "Theophylline" during pregnancy and lactation are prohibited.
Chronic asthma
Coughing, causing breathing difficulties and suffocation, asthma patients have learned to control and stop using modern drugs. Asthma is a chronic disease, but you can learn how to live with it. The problem of pregnant and lactating mothers with asmatics is that most drugs that relieve seizures are prohibited in their case.
If there is such a cough during breastfeeding, how to treat it? Most likely, a woman suffering from asthma was observed by a doctor before pregnancy. It is he who will tell what is possible in her case, and what is strictly prohibited. Usually, nursing mothers are recommended to use topical preparations in an inhaled form.
General medication guidelines
How can I treat a cough during breastfeeding, it is better to ask a pediatrician. No need to self-medicate, the health of the baby depends on this. In addition, certain rules should be observed:
- Do not stop breastfeeding, even if the baby is sick, breast milk for him will be the best medicine.
- It is forbidden to take medicine with bromhexine, analgesics, "Aspirin".
- When buying any drug, you need to familiarize yourself with the instructions, paying particular attention to the possibility of taking it during feeding and dosage.
- In no case do not exceed the dose indicated by your doctor.
- Treatment of cough should be started in the initial stage in order to be able to get by with folk remedies and procedures.
ethnoscience
How can I treat dry cough with breastfeeding without drugs harmful to the baby? The gifts of nature, which have long been used in practice, are no less effective when used correctly. But you should remember, choosing herbs and other components for natural treatment, that they can also cause allergic reactions in mothers or babies.
Common methods of relieving cough have long been inhalations. The simplest and most familiar procedure: breathe over boiled potatoes. Enhances sputum separation and a pinch of baking soda added to the pan.
Inhalation may also be with the use of essential oils. A good way to breathe steam from a pinch of Doctor Mom ointment, a Chinese Zvezdochka balm , dissolved in boiling water. The same "Doctor Mom" is effective in a compress.
Such a proven compress works perfectly: mix in equal proportions (usually one tablespoon each) dry mustard powder, honey and sunflower oil. Add flour - enough to make a soft “pancake”. Put this pancake on the body, cover with compress paper, and wrap yourself in a scarf or scarf. After a night with such a compress, sputum begins to separate.
A compress from a cabbage leaf lubricated with honey has the same effect. Before use, the sheet needs to be slightly softened.
To stop an attack of dry cough, foot baths with the addition of mustard or sea salt help.
Herbal Cough Teas
Dry cough is treated with infusions and decoctions of plantain, coltsfoot, oregano, mint, St. John's wort, ledum, thyme, nine-strength, licorice root.
Onion broth. In a liter of water with a glass of sugar, two medium brown peels are boiled for an hour. Take this drug 4-5 times a day.
Cream (1 tbsp.spoon), honey (one teaspoon) and one egg yolk are added to milk (half a liter). Mix this mixture and bring to a boil, but do not boil! Take half a glass 5-6 times a day.
But the next drink can replace the usual coffee, while getting rid of cough. Mix ground rye, chicory, oats and barley in a tablespoon, add 2 g of bitter almonds - a healthy “coffee” is ready.