Why Your Child Can't Stop Coughing

Doctors in Louisiana have identified three leading causes of chronic cough in children.

Those chronic cough causes are:

That's according to Dean Edell, M.D., MPH, and colleagues at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La.

They did thorough checkups on 40 children (average age: 9) with chronic cough (cough lasting more than eight weeks).

None of the children had been born prematurely or exposed to tobacco smoke.
The kids got chest X-rays and various medical tests, including allergy and lung function tests.

Edell's team concluded that allergy, GERD, or asthma "are likely to account" for chronic cough in 90 percent of the children with chronic cough that they studied.

Those three conditions -- allergy, GERD, and asthma -- may be a good starting point for treating children with chronic cough, according to Edell and colleagues.

They presented their findings today in Chicago at CHEST 2007, the annual international scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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