Whooping Cough (Pertussis)

Home Treatment

If your child has whooping cough (pertussis), the coughing spells can be scary. To help manage the symptoms, you can:

• Create a quiet, calm, restful environment. Keeping stimulation to a minimum can help reduce the number of coughing spells.
• Control possible triggers of a coughing episode, such as smoke, dust, sudden noises or lights, or changes in temperature.
• Give your child frequent, small sips of fluids and nutritious foods to provide needed energy that coughing uses up.
• Use a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room. But watch closely to see its effect. Sometimes humidity makes coughing spells worse, in which case it should be avoided. Dry, hot, or polluted air may make coughing spells worse.
• Hold your child in a calming manner.
• Have your child lie on his or her side or stomach rather than the back. Lying on the back could trigger a coughing spell.

Over-the-counter medicines, such as cough suppressants and antihistamines, have not been shown to help relieve symptoms.

Frequent hand-washing is important to help prevent the spread of infection. Keep children away from people who have a bad cough, especially if it may be related to whooping cough. People who have whooping cough should take antibiotics for at least 5 days before being near young children. Also, they should not return to work in schools, day care centers, or health facilities until after 5 days of antibiotics.

If your child is infected, he or she should take antibiotics for 5 days before going back to school or day care. If he or she is not treated with antibiotics, your child should wait until 21 days after the start of symptoms.

Immunizations are critical to preventing diseases such as pertussis from becoming widespread (epidemic) problems. Children start getting their immunizations against pertussis(What is a PDF document?) at age 2 months. A total of 5 shots (injections) are given at different times until ages 4 to 6 years. The vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis are all in one shot called DTaP.

A tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) booster shot(What is a PDF document?) is needed for continued protection. This shot is usually given between the ages of 11 and 12. Adults ages 19 to 64 who never got the Tdap shot should get it in place of a Td (tetanus and diphtheria) shot. For more information, see the topic Immunizations.

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Author:	Debby Golonka, MPH	Last Updated: January 4, 2008
Medical Review:	Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics Christine Hahn, MD - Epidemiology
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