<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"   Question My three and a half year old daughter suffers from a cough every two to three months, which lasts for weeks at a time.  It doesn&amp;#039;t cause her much distress or discomfort and is usually worse at night.  Apart from the coughing, she is well in herself. I don&amp;#039;t take her to the doctors, as I don&amp;#039;t see that there is anything they can do and because I&amp;#039;d be at the surgery all the time!  However, my husband worries that the coughs could turn into chest infections and left untreated could damage her lungs.  How do we know if it is a chest infection without taking her to the doctors and even if it is, isn&amp;#039;t it better to let her get over it on her own rather than constantly using antibiotics, considering the amount of times she gets these coughs?    Answer It&amp;#039;s quite common for young children to have frequent coughs and colds as they are continuously coming into contact with viruses to which they have no immunity.  If your daughter&amp;#039;s recurrent coughs are usually accompanied by a blocked or runny nose, at least for the first few days, it&amp;#039;s likely that her symptoms are caused by virus infections and there is no need to take her to the doctor for these.  If she developed a chest infection she would probably seem a great deal more unwell in herself.  As well as having a cough she might develop a high temperature, go off her food, become listless and even seem short of breath.  If a doctor confirmed that she had a chest infection, it would be worth giving her an antibiotic to reduce the length of the illness and to prevent the chest infection becoming worse and developing into a full-blown pneumonia.  Another diagnosis that has to be considered in a child who develops recurrent coughs is asthma.  Although asthma usually produces wheezing and some difficulty breathing, when it is mild the only obvious symptom may be a recurrent cough, which often occurs most frequently after exercise or at night.  This is more likely to be the cause of a child&amp;#039;s cough if one or both parents, or a brother or sister, have asthma, eczema or hayfever.  If you thought your daughter&amp;#039;s symptoms might be due to asthma it would be worth taking her to be checked by your GP.  Yours sincerely The NetDoctor Medical Team  Other Q&amp;amp;amp;As Alternative remedies for colds Are my daughters giving each other thrush in the bath? Childhood pneumonia Childhood shingles Children and meningococcal septicaemia Dealing with threadworm in children under two Does my child have thrush? Does my daughter have oral thrush? Does my daughter have vaginitis? Does my daughter need antibiotics for scarlet fever? Glandular fever and Coxsackie virus at the same time Has E. coli urinary tract infection scarred my daughter&amp;#039;s kidneys? How did my grandson catch E. coli? How likely is it that my children have caught scabies from my niece? Is my little girl suffering from thrush? Lack of appetite after meningitis My eight-year-old daughter has vulval vaginitis My child has worms My daughter has been diagnosed with shingles My daughter keeps getting urinary tract infections My son&amp;#039;s cold isn&amp;#039;t getting better My son has had five pneumonias My son keeps getting threadworm My son&amp;#039;s ringworm won&amp;#039;t go away No relief from threadworm Scalp ringworm Slap cheek disease Slapped cheek syndrome Tell me about pneumonia in children What is Cryptosporidium? What is scarlet fever? What is slapped cheek disease? What is Staph. saprophyticus?  Last updated 13.05.2014 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ask-the-expert/pregnancy-and-family/a9666/my-daughter-keeps-getting-coughs/>