Not all children's coughs are caused by colds. Dust, cold air, or food entering the respiratory tract can also cause irritation. If a child has cough with symptoms such as expectoration and uncomfortable coughing, it is necessary to use expectorant medication for treatment. Pure Chinese herbal expectorants have ideal effects and minimal side effects, and they are recognized by many doctors and patients. When choosing Chinese herbal expectorants, it is crucial to distinguish the color of the phlegm.
Generally, in the early stages of a cold, the phlegm coughed up is mostly white, but as the disease progresses, it can transform into yellow phlegm. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that these manifestations belong to the categories of heat syndrome and fire syndrome. Children have a delicate yang constitution, and when the respiratory system is invaded by external pathogenic factors such as wind, cold, and dryness, it will affect the lungs, leading to the transformation of lung heat. Symptoms such as fever, sore throat, and wheezing appear due to the inability of lung qi to spread. If lung heat is not effectively vented, the disease will continue to develop, causing severe damage to body fluids and transforming them into phlegm. This leads to the formation of phlegm-heat obstructing the lungs. Consequently, there will be excessive phlegm, coughing up yellow phlegm, and nasal discharge.
In the course of the disease, when symptoms of lung heat appear, treating it by clearing lung heat can effectively relieve symptoms and reduce body temperature. When phlegm-heat obstructing the lungs is formed, not only lung heat needs to be cleared, but also phlegm needs to be transformed and expelled. Phlegm is both the pathological product of coughing diseases and the pathological factor that exacerbates the development of coughing diseases. If phlegm is not removed, the cough will persist. Clearing lung heat, transforming phlegm, and stopping coughing are the three important aspects of treating lung heat cough. They are interconnected and indispensable. Only when these three aspects are combined can lung heat cough be treated quickly and thoroughly.
