Diet taboos for babies with cough

There are only three types of foods that really need to be strictly avoided when babies are coughing - foods that are clearly allergic, highly irritating foods that are high in sugar and salt, and small food particles that are easy to choke into the airway. Other statements such as "cannot eat cold fruits" and "cannot touch eggs, seafood and other hairy substances" are not universal. They should be judged based on the child's specific constitution and reaction, and there is no need to blindly avoid food.

Not long ago, my baby had bronchitis and coughed for almost two weeks. My mother kept an eye on her and refused to let her eat eggs or touch watermelon, saying that these were "fatty" and "cooling" things that would aggravate her cough. We had a bit of a quarrel at home about this. I turned around, held the baby in my arms, and went to consult a pediatrician I knew well. By the way, I flipped through no less than five or six popular science materials from different factions, and then I sorted out all the twists and turns.

When it comes to the most controversial issue of "whether cold food can be eaten", different systems have different views: Traditional Chinese medicine divides coughs into different types such as wind-cold and wind-heat. If it is a wind-cold cough with runny nose, white phlegm, and cold sensitivity, it is generally recommended to avoid ice drinks and frozen fruits just taken out of the refrigerator to prevent the cold air from invading the body and aggravating the symptoms.； However, the view of modern evidence-based medicine is that as long as the child does not feel uncomfortable eating cold food, fruits at room temperature or even a small amount of iced yogurt can relieve the discomfort of sore throat. As long as eating does not significantly aggravate the cough, there is no need for dietary restrictions at all. It happened to be summer when my baby coughed, and he wanted to eat watermelon, so I gave him two or three spoons of room-temperature watermelon. The cough didn't get worse after eating it. On the contrary, because he ate something he liked, his mood improved a lot, and the medication went much more smoothly.

Then there is the issue of "fabrication" that everyone is most concerned about. Eggs, seafood, beef and mutton in the mouths of many elderly people are "eating substances", which is actually a summary of traditional experience for people with allergies - if the child is allergic to seafood, or has developed rashes and worsened coughs after eating eggs before, of course he should avoid them during the cough. ； But if your child has never had any adverse reactions to these foods before, they can eat them normally. Don’t believe it, last time my neighbor’s baby had a cough for ten days, and the old man didn’t dare to feed him anything meaty. When he went for a follow-up check-up, the doctor said that he had lost 1.2 pounds and his immunity could not keep up. On the contrary, he was three or four days slower than other babies with the same symptoms. These high-quality proteins can originally help children repair their respiratory mucosa, but blind taboos hinder recovery.

To be honest, the things that really need to be avoided are the categories that people often ignore.

First of all, let’s talk about the food you are allergic to. There is no need to emphasize this. If you eat something you are allergic to, the airway is already in a highly reactive state during a cough. If you touch it, it will only make things worse.

Then there are high-sugar and highly irritating foods. I have stepped into this pit before. When my baby coughed, he was greedy. I fed him a mouthful of mango cream cake. He woke up three times that night due to coughing and the sound of phlegm was so heavy that he snored. Later I learned that high sugar will increase the osmotic pressure of the respiratory mucosa. To put it bluntly, it will make the phlegm in the throat more and more sticky. If you can't cough it out, it will get stuck there, but the more you cough, the more violent it will be. Also, don't let your baby touch pickles that are too salty or heavy dishes with a lot of chili peppers. Salt and capsaicin will irritate the mucous membrane of the throat. The irritation of the already swollen throat will only make the cough worse.

There are also small particles of food that are most easily ignored, such as whole nuts, peanuts, melon seeds, and jelly. When a child coughs, the epiglottis cartilage reacts more slowly than usual. If the child chokes while eating, the particles fall into the trachea, which may cause aspiration pneumonia or become stuck in the airway and cause suffocation. Last year, a baby in our community choked on pistachios while coughing and had to go to the hospital for a bronchoscopy to remove them.

In fact, after all, there are not so many rigid rules, and every baby's body is different. If you are not sure whether something can be given to your baby, give it a few bites to try. If there is no reaction after eating, just eat it normally. If you cough significantly after eating it, stop it. It is better than not daring to give it to you at all. The baby will cry with hunger, and the nutrition will not keep up with him and he will be too weak. Don't you think so?