Women who have small children and breastfeeding often face various diseases that cause coughing. In pharmacies, a huge number of effective medicines are sold. However, self-medication during lactation is unacceptable. How to treat coughing while breastfeeding?
Causes and classification of cough
Absolutely all people know such a symptom as a cough. Unfortunately, it is not a sign of any particular disease, since many factors can cause it:
- mechanical irritation by foreign bodies, dust, neoplasms;
- chemical irritation (inhalation of gases having a pungent and strong odor);
- thermal irritation (inhalation of very cold or too hot air);
- inflammatory reactions of the respiratory tract (with bronchiolitis, bronchitis, tracheitis, laryngitis) and alveoli (with lung abscess, pneumonia).
Regarding the types of cough, it is worth noting that in the medical literature its various classifications are used. One of them is presented to your attention. So, the described symptom may be:
- once (if a foreign body or dust enters the respiratory tract);
- paroxysmal (with bronchial asthma, cigarette abuse);
- acute (with acute bacterial or viral infection);
- chronic (with chronic respiratory diseases, cardiac pathology).
What drugs do doctors prescribe for coughing?
Cough is a protective reflex of the human body, therefore, in most cases, doctors prescribe to their patients such drugs that facilitate it. Drugs that eliminate cough may also be recommended. Such medications are necessary in cases where the symptom negatively affects a sick person (causes suffocation, provokes vomiting).
Specialists distinguish the following groups of medicines that help cough:
- mucolytic agents that dilute sputum and promote its excretion (Bromhexine, ACC, etc.);
- antitussive drugs that inhibit the cough reflex ("Bithiodin", "Codeine", etc.);
- mucoregulatory agents that normalize sputum viscosity (for example, carbocysteine);
- expectorants that remove accumulating sputum (Mukaltin, Broncholitin, etc.).
Cough Remedies for Lactating Women
What can I do for coughing while breastfeeding? During lactation, many experts recommend nursing mothers to use Mukaltin. This is an expectorant made on the basis of polysaccharides from the herb of the medicinal mallow. The drug has not so many contraindications. These include peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, as well as hypersensitivity to the components that make up the composition.
Sometimes doctors prescribe a breast elixir. This is an expectorant medicine that includes aqueous ammonia, aniseed oil and licorice extract. This drug has no absolute contraindications for use during lactation. The breast elixir can not only be taken with hypersensitivity.
Cough syrup (dry) is another herbal expectorant . Treatment of coughing during breastfeeding can be carried out with this tool. Its composition includes such effective components as dry extracts of licorice roots and thermopsis. Contraindications to the use of the drug are hypersensitivity, acute pyelonephritis, acute glomerulonephritis.
Drugs contraindicated during lactation
What can be done from coughing while breastfeeding is not the only issue that worries mothers. Women are also interested in which medicines can be harmful. One of these drugs is Tussamag syrup. This is a liquid alcoholic extract of thyme herb. The instructions for this drug indicate that Tussamag should not be taken during lactation. Other contraindications include:
- chronic heart failure;
- renal failure;
- liver failure;
- hypersensitivity to components;
- pregnancy.
Another example is Doctor Mom syrup, which has an expectorant effect. This is a combined drug from medicinal plants. Mothers are not recommended to take this medicine, since medicine does not know how syrup can affect a baby (experiments on pregnant and lactating women are not carried out for ethical reasons).
Many people also know medicines from the Vicks Asset line. The funds included in it are designed for the complex treatment of colds, the elimination of symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, cough. Vicks Active drugs are effective, but they are prohibited for nursing mothers.
Why is it necessary to see a doctor?
People with a cough should pay a visit to the doctor. This is especially necessary for women breastfeeding babies. If necessary, the specialist will prescribe an examination, make the correct diagnosis and prescribe the necessary medicines that will eliminate the cough and the identified disease.
Probably, it is no secret to anyone why it is impossible to use drugs chosen independently. Firstly, for each disease there is a treatment regimen. Complex drug therapy may be required, including the use of not only drugs aimed at eliminating the described symptom, but also other medications.
Secondly, some drugs can eliminate the cough of a nursing mother, but at the same time adversely affect the children's body.
Should breastfeeding be abolished?
Many mothers, when coughing and starting taking medications, cancel breastfeeding due to fear that pathogenic microorganisms and drug components will enter the baby’s body through milk. If you wish, you can’t stop feeding. Not all diseases are dangerous for the baby. For example, with an open form of tuberculosis, breastfeeding is canceled. In acute respiratory viral infections that occur without severe intoxication, breastfeeding is not contraindicated (pathogens are not transmitted through it).
Regarding drugs, it is worth noting that there is a list of drugs that you can drink from cough during lactation (some of them are mentioned above). The components of such medications, although they penetrate into milk, do not have a negative effect (when using drugs in accordance with the recommendations of the attending physician and instructions).
Negative means can affect the child with individual intolerance. Such drugs are immediately canceled and for a particular woman become contraindicated for the period of breastfeeding.
Toxicity of drug components present in milk
The components of those medicines that women take during lactation (as prescribed by the doctor), enter a certain amount in breast milk. Their concentration in it is quite low. It is less than the therapeutic dose for the child and, accordingly, cannot serve as a threat to his body. Toxic effects sometimes occur due to prolonged use of drugs (components enter the child’s body, accumulate, but are not eliminated so quickly).
Suspicious symptoms usually occur in infants under 5 months of age. At risk are newborns and premature babies. In older children, toxic phenomena are extremely rare, because at this age they already begin to receive complementary foods, eat additional mixtures (that is, "drug" milk is only part of the diet).
It is also worth remembering that the behavior of babies may not change due to the effects of a particular drug. The fact is that cough treatment for breastfeeding is reflected in milk. The drugs taken alter its taste. Children can cry because of this, refuse to breast.
Some folk recipes
Some mothers are interested in how to treat cough with breastfeeding folk remedies. Here are some safe options:
- daily take an apple decoction in a warm form;
- drink fresh cabbage juice with sugar;
- drink carrot juice mixed with milk in a ratio of 1: 1 (1 tbsp. l. 6 times a day).
With a strong cough that provokes attacks of suffocation, traditional healers recommend eating baked or boiled pears. Such a dish will benefit a nursing mother, because it contains a lot of various useful substances necessary for the human body.
There are many different useful substances necessary for the human body.
Additional tips
With the described symptom, nursing mothers should take care not only that the drugs they take do not negatively affect children. It is very important to protect babies from pathogens. So, treatment of cough with breastfeeding Komarovsky recommends taking into account the following rules:
- drip salt drops into the nose (normal saline solution);
- wear a gauze mask;
- drink more warm liquid;
- air the rooms in the house or apartment more often;
- for prophylaxis, saline is dripped into the nose of the baby.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the treatment of coughing during breastfeeding is an urgent problem for many mothers. The appearance of this symptom is an occasion to pay a visit to the doctor. Only a specialist can recommend effective medicines that will relieve cough in the shortest possible time and will not harm the child.