Suggest Treatment For Cold And Cough In A Child

Posted on Thu, 8 Jun 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 8 Jun 2017 Answered on

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : My 7 year old daughter is having rapid breathing and complaining of a sore throat. She also has some cough. Her temperature seems normal. We are based in Lagos, Nigeria. I have given her 10ml of Fleming antibiotics already

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (33 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Can you please let me know the exact rate?

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone through your query carefully and understand your concerns.

A respiratory rate of more than 40 per minute in a child of this age counts as pneumonia. Please let me know if the rapid breathing constitutes of rate more than that. If yes, it counts as pneumonia and needs to be treated with an antibiotic. If not, antibiotics would not help. However, I do not think that pro-actively giving antibiotics is a good practice.

As her to gargle with lukewarm water. It will soothe the throat. Depending on the possible cause (bacterial or viral) treatment with antibiotics might be needed.

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee