Defend your respiratory health
As soon as the child coughs, his throat is snoring and phlegm. And children don't spit, so many parents will buy expectorant medicine for their children.
Among all expectorants, Ambroxol Hydrochloride Oral Solution (Musultan) can be regarded as an essential expectorant drug, and in hospitals, many parents will take the initiative to ask doctors to prescribe this drug to their children.
Pharmaceutical Economic News.
And some parenting big V also recommend it, saying that there is no *** and there is a so-called "cough formula".
The "cough formula" of a certain parenting big V
But what parents don't know is that there is very little evidence-based evidence for ambroxol hydrochloride to be expectorant. That said, there isn't enough evidence to prove that ambroxol hydrochloride can help your child with expectorant.
So, can children use ambroxol hydrochloride?
To understand this question, we first have to figure out, phlegm, what is it?
Phlegm is a type of mucus produced by the respiratory tract.
These mucus fluids are important because they can wet the mucosal surfaces of the respiratory tract, humidify the air that enters the lungs, and can also stick to harmful particles and pathogens in the air.
Mucus also contains antibodies that recognize bacteria and viruses, as well as enzymes that kill pathogens, which means that phlegm actually has a protective effect on our respiratory tract.
Under normal circumstances, it is relatively thin and small, and it will be swallowed with actions such as swallowing saliva, and it may also be excreted in the form of nasal mucus.
In some special cases, it will become more and thicker, like sticking to the throat, making people very uncomfortable, and it needs to be excreted by coughing or sneezing.
For example, in the case of respiratory tract infections (usually viruses, a few bacteria, etc.), there will be a local inflammatory reaction, and the mucus secretion of the respiratory epithelium will increase, resulting in the production of sputum.
However, parents should pay attention to the fact that sometimes the child's respiratory tract sounds with phlegm sounds, not necessarily because of infection, but also due to respiratory allergies, tracheal sensitivity, laryngeal chondrodysplasia and other reasons.
Because if your child's trachea is very sensitive, affected by cold air, hot air, or irritants, or inhaled allergens such as pollen, it will shrink and cause coughing, and the mucus in the respiratory tract will increase.
There are also children who have phlegm when breathing due to laryngeal chondrodysplasia, which will be more obvious when ** and sleeping, but it is not caused by more phlegm.
The reason why it is necessary to give the child expectorant is because the child will not cough up phlegm, and a lot of phlegm accumulates in the child's throat, on the one hand, it may make parents feel that it will affect the child's breathing, on the other hand, some parents feel that the phlegm is gone, and the child's illness can be cured quickly, so they are in a hurry to remove phlegm.
But that's not the case.
Because phlegm is secreted all the time, it can't be dissolved.
Ambroxol hydrochloride can regulate mucus secretion, promote the synthesis of surfactant in the lungs, enhance cilia swing, thereby increasing the clearance capacity of the mucociliary transport system, and can also resist oxidation and reduce the release of inflammatory mediators.
To put it simply, it is to make the phlegm thinner and make it easier for the child to cough it up.
This mechanism sounds like no problem, but the mechanism belongs to the mechanism, as mentioned earlier, this drug lacks clinical results to confirm in terms of expectorant, which is why this drug has not yet been approved by the US FDA (the world's most authoritative food and drug testing agency).
Because the effectiveness of ambroxol hydrochloride is uncertain, there are also adverse reactions, such as allergic reactions such as rash and itching, neurological symptoms such as headache and dizziness, and severe allergic reactions.
In 2016, the European Medicines Agency also updated its safety information on severe allergic reactions and severe** damage reactions.
According to the evaluation of Ambroxol composition by the German Stiftung Warentest (the most authoritative testing organization in Germany and even in Europe).
The studies available to date are not sufficient to conclusively determine the value of ambroxol. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that cough resolves more quickly after ambroxol than without ambroxol. Although a lot of research has been done on this active ingredient, the results are inconsistent. ”
In fact, there is no authoritative proof of whether ambroxol is useful or not, some say that he is useful, and some say that he is useless.
But when you don't have something, the merchant will tell you it's useful.
In the opinion of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the United Kingdom, and Canada, ambroxol hydrochloride is not suitable for children under 4 to 6 years of age. The European Medicines Agency also recommends not using it in children under 2 years of age, and only on the advice of a doctor, children between 2 and 6 years of age should use it.
Another reason is that the phlegm is thinned, which does not clearly improve the child's own disease.
For example, if a child has Mycoplasma pneumoniae, taking Ambroxol hydrochloride will not increase Mycoplasma pneumoniae, but may increase it
Sometimes parents feel nervous when they hear their child's snoring, worried that their child's excessive phlegm will not be able to cough up, which will affect his breathing.
In fact, only when the child has respiratory failure, the respiratory muscles are too tired, or the central body is inhibited due to taking cough medicine, and there is no strong cough to remove the sputum in the respiratory tract, there is a risk of suffocation, so parents do not need to be too nervous.
Of course, it's not like parents can't do nothing.
First of all, parents should dig out the reason why the child has a lot of phlegm in the throat and solve the problem from the root, for example, if the child has a cold, then the symptomatic ** cold, and when the cold is better, the situation of more phlegm will disappear.
Secondly, let the child drink plenty of water, the air humidity is appropriate, especially in the winter when the heating is on and the air conditioning is turned on in the summer, try to use a humidifier to avoid dry air. The lungs are moist and good for phlegm.
In short, when a child has a cough with phlegm, parents should observe more and take precautions without being overly nervous. In the case of a child's respiratory tract infection, phlegm-reducing drugs do not work well and may even cause adverse reactions.
Therefore, parents should not give their children cough and phlegm medicines that may be ineffective or have *** because they are worried that they will be uncomfortable. Parents should take this issue seriously and try to avoid giving these drugs to their children.