🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Although there's no severe allergy triggered by spring pollen, autumn still requires vigilance against children's coughs. Children often develop coughs in autumn, which persist without end. If ignored or inadequately treated, conditions can worsen rapidly, potentially evolving into more difficult-to-manage illnesses, adding further distress.
Dr. Chen Kejing, Head of Pediatrics at Guangdong Provincial Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, notes that autumn is prone to pediatric coughs, including allergic coughs. Allergic coughs, due to repeated episodes, cause great suffering for both parents and children. Also known as cough-variant asthma, over half of chronic cough cases in children are due to allergic cough.
Misdiagnosed as Common Cold, Bronchitis, or Pneumonia
Bingbing has always been frail, so his mother must pay close attention to his health. Unexpectedly, even in the cool and comfortable autumn, Bingbing caught a cold—runny nose and cough together. After a week of torment, though the cold seemed gone, the cough remained stubbornly. Bingbing coughed repeatedly for a month, unresponsive to cough suppressants and antibiotics, despite not being severe, yet showing no improvement—how could anyone stay calm?
Dr. Chen Kejing points out Bingbing likely suffers from allergic cough. As the name suggests, allergic cough results from allergies, often linked to a child’s allergic constitution. Viral or bacterial infections may trigger it.
Allergic cough is a special type of asthma, a common clinical phenomenon in pediatrics, characterized by recurrent coughs often provoked by colds or respiratory infections. Thus, it is frequently misdiagnosed as common cold, bronchitis, or pneumonia. Treating it like these conditions yields no benefit and misses the optimal treatment window, allowing recurrent coughs to persist and increasing risk of progression to asthma. Statistics show about 42.9% of children with allergic cough may develop asthma symptoms due to incorrect treatment, even progressing to bronchial asthma.
Daytime Rare, Morning/Evening Brief Coughs
For children like Bingbing, Dr. Chen Kejing advises parents to observe carefully. Allergic cough typically features recurring cough lasting over a month, unresponsive to antibiotics. Doctors usually recommend chest X-rays and auscultation for wheezing. If no abnormal signs or wheezing are detected, pneumonia or bronchitis can be ruled out, suggesting consideration of allergic cough.
Another feature of allergic cough is brief coughing episodes before bedtime, upon waking at night, and upon waking in the morning, each lasting briefly. Daytime cough is rare or absent, but worsens during exercise or crying. This may be confused with whooping cough. However, allergic cough patients usually have family or personal allergy history. Symptoms improve with antiallergic medication—a useful diagnostic clue.
TCM Treatment Must Be Individualized for Children
Dr. Chen Kejing explains that in TCM, children are considered "pure yang" bodies, like the rising sun—naturally prone to heat, fever, and convulsions, rarely cold or deficient. Even if they catch wind-cold, it quickly transforms into heat. Therefore, most illnesses involve heat, requiring mostly cooling herbs and sparing use of warming ones.
Children are also "not fully developed," with the characteristics of "lungs often deficient, liver often exuberant, spleen often insufficient." "Lung deficiency" makes them prone to colds, "liver excess" leads to high fever and convulsions, and "spleen insufficiency" causes vomiting and diarrhea. Given these three physiological traits, diagnosis and treatment in children must differ from adults.
Currently, Western medicine treats allergic cough similarly to asthma, mainly using inhaled bronchodilators such as inhaled corticosteroids. Although TCM does not recognize "allergic cough" per se, it offers corresponding formulas for coughs with allergic features, but treatment must be tailored to individual constitution and dosage varies.
TCM Formulas for Allergic Cough
Acute Phase: Persistent cough, phlegm present: Fried Ephedra 5g, Apricot Kernel 6g, Licorice 6g, Peucedanum 7g, Platycodon 6g, Citrus Peel 6g, Mulberry Bark 8g, Purple Fleeceflower 10g, Cassia Seed 6g, Balloon Flower 6g, Perilla Seed 6g, Winter Helichrysum 10g
Remission Phase: Mild cough, phlegm present, excessive sweating: Astragalus 6g, Atractylodes 6g, Poria 10g, Mulberry Bark 8g, Schisandra 6g, Purple Fleeceflower 10g, Winter Helichrysum 10g, Raw Dragon Bone 10g, Raw Oyster Shell 10g, White Peony 10g