Can children sometimes just get a cough

[dinoice]

I'm putting this here at wits end.

I do have post natal anxiety relating to children.

I have three under five.

Every time we get a cough it's not a cough. It's antibiotics, croup, covid, whatever.

Today, a small party, birthday child coughing everywhere, parents barely noticed. We had seen them Tuesday.

I accept I am unreasonable with a fear of coughing, but sometimes is it just a cough. Mine started after seeing child Tuesday, odd cough, will they end up as bad as he was today?

Does every cough require antibiotics?

Yes I am getting help for anxiety and they don't have asthma so I'm just asking about coughing.

There is a cough virus going around. It was probably that. Young kids get worse sounding coughs because their airways are small. That’s why it can turn into an infection sometimes. Inhaling with hot water and Vicks or kids oil as oil really helps, as does a blue inhaler, with a spacer, which you don’t need to be diagnosed with asthma to get (in my experience). That helps avoid an infection.

Yes. The vast majority of coughs are viral in origin and usually resolve after 2-3 works. Croup is also caused by a virus.

You might find this helpful:

http://www.whenshouldiworry.com/resources/When%20should%20I%20worry-Booklet_England-with%20111%20service_2016.pdf

(I’m a GP)

Does every cough require antibiotics?

DS2 3.5 (covid baby) seems to spend every winter and spring coughing. He's only needed antibiotics for it once though

Asda does a great menthol baby wash which is great for snotty children.

Also, this time of year a cough could just be hay-fever.

Yes.
DS 4 has had a cough for about 90% of his life. Only rarely has it been anything more, he just picks up coughs absolutely constantly.

I'd have been that parent unbothered by coughing-everywhere child

4DC, mostly adults.
DC & me have had lots of coughs.
None of us has ever had antibiotics for a cough.

No one has ever had croup
We just get coughs that go away by selves
DC now 19yo may have intermittant asthma, he failed the asthma test, but he sometimes gets wheezy. Just wheezy, not wheezy with a cough.

afaik only one DC has had a +covid test, he didn't mention coughing with it.

DC's dad is a bit prone to turning out to have a chest infection (2x) or pneumonia (1x) when he gets a persistent cough. But most go away by self.

My DS has cough variant asthma. So yes sometimes he’ll be coughing a lot but it’s not because he’s ill.

Most coughs in otherwise healthy children are just coughs caused by viruses. The When should I worry document linked upthread is very useful. Essentially if they're not struggling for breath, eating and drinking 50% of normal, passing urine, alert and responsive, no non blanching rash, fever responding to meds- then whether it's a cough sore throat or ear infection, they don't need antibiotics. They need Calpol, fluids, rest, chest rub etc.
It's maybe worth unpicking what you're actually worried about. You ask if your children will be as bad as that coughing child today -but arguably that child is really not that bad at all. He was well enough to be at a party, moving around, enjoying his birthday. Perhaps you've never had the misfortune to see a genuinely sick child, sick as in needing admission, needing oxygen, needing intubation, as once you have you realise that the little coughs and colds they all get all the time are nothing.
It's a good thing you're seeking help for your anxiety OP, well done for recognising you need it.

My 5 year old has never needed antibiotics for anything and obviously has had plenty of coughs in her life. I’d assume coughs needing antibiotics were the exception rather than the rule, most are just viral surely?

I have three children and they have never needed antibiotics for a cough.

It’s almost always ‘just a cough’

DS gets a cough from post nasal drip on days when he's got allergy symptoms (hay fever/dust). But if it's that, he never seems bothered by it and it never causes pain.

He's a teenager, so he's had horrible coughs that are not allergy-related, but on those occasions the cough has bothered him.

It's really very very rare for a cough to need antibiotics to resolve.

Of those presenting in primary care with a productive cough, fever, reduced oxygen levels, shortness of breath and an abnormal lung exam only 4% would actually need antibiotics:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6193794/

With just a cough but none of the rest the probability drops to about 0.2%. Antibiotics are way overprescribed!

My eldest always needed antibiotics for every cough. Turns out he actually has asthma. As soon as he got a steroid inhaler, coughs are no longer the awful experience they once were.

Youngest (who doesn't have asthma) has always had 'just' a cough.

This says that 4% of cases were pneumonia, not only 4% required antibiotics. Other possibilities include a bacterial chest infection, which may also need antibiotics.

DD is almost 7 and has a tendency to get a lingering cough after a cold. She's never had antibiotics in her life.

Most coughs do not need antibiotics. My kids have had many many coughs and have never had an antibiotic for any of them.

Most coughs are just that and if the kid was at a birthday party how bad were they really?

It's just life with young kids tbh. Pretty sure my kids coughed 90% of the time for the first 7 years of their lives. They did sometimes need antibiotics but there was only once that either of them was very very unwell and that was when he got pneumonia from swine flu.

Thank you all.

I think it’s because I’ve never had just a cough. Everyone has resulted in hospital or doctor.

both are bright. Eating. Fighting. Just coughing. Just a cough. Just a cough.

dh, ds(19) and I have never been to a Dr's with a cough before. We've had some bad ones, the type where you end up with a sore head or muscle ache from coughing so much, some very deep very phlegmy ones, ds was prone to occasional bouts of croup, ones that linger for a few weeks but never to the extent they needed a Drs appointment or antibiotics.

For your average person, many, probably most, coughs are just that, unpleasant coughs caused by a viral infection that will go when your immune system kicks in. Some people genuinely do have other underlying issues such as asthma, or are more prone to them developing into infections and need a bit of help.

It's the pneumonia group that are targeted to treat with antibiotics as this is typically due to a bacterial infection and will need treatment to resolve well. Otherwise types of chest infection don't see much/any improvement with antibiotics so in most instances shouldn't be given. It should be vanishingly rare for a person to be prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection, these patients would either be particularly vulnerable or significantly unwell - so not just a productive cough/fever symptoms. But that's a good thing, antibiotics are not benign they cause a lot of harm to your microbiome the effects of which we're just scraping the surface in understanding - from obesity to depression are all associated. That's before you even get to antibiotic resistance. Whilst chest infections can feel awful/knock you for six your own immune system will do the trick in the huge majority of circumstances.