Coughing is normal — it’s your body’s way of keeping things like germs or dust or out of your throat and lungs or clear extra mucus from your airways.
Acute cough: A cough that lasts less than three weeks and goes away on its own.
Sub-acute cough: A cough that lasts more than three weeks, but less than eight weeks. This type of cough is also usually caused by an infection. It may go away by itself, however respiratory infections should be assessed by your healthcare provider and you may require treatment to get rid of your cough.
Chronic cough: A persistent cough lasting eight weeks or more. A chronic cough can affect you physically and socially and can disrupt your life.
It is estimated that chronic cough affects about 16% of Canadians between the ages of 45 and 85. Learn more about chronic cough in children.
Fewer than 8 weeks?
Even if your cough has not lasted more than eight weeks, you still may need to see a healthcare provider.
Chronic cough in children
It is possible for a child to have a chronic cough. If a child has a cough that lasts more than four weeks, they may be diagnosed with a chronic cough.
In children the most common causes of cough are asthma, bronchitis or postnasal drip. Environmental triggers, like pollution, smoke or allergens, something stuck in their airway, GERD or whooping cough can also trigger coughing in children.
Your child’s healthcare provider will start by asking you questions about your child’s cough. You may be asked to describe your child’s cough as “wet” (phlegmy) or “dry”. Other questions will include when the cough happens, for example, does your child cough when eating or drinking? Children may require different testing than is done for adults, depending on their age. For example, spirometry is not used for children under the age of six. Your child may be tested for whooping cough. To check if your child has asthma, they may be given different inhalers to test.
Psychiatric or psychological causes of cough in children
Some children may not respond to any treatment that their healthcare provider recommends. In some cases, a child may have a “tic”. Tics can be caused by conditions, like Tourette’s syndrome, an anxiety disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These are involuntary muscle spasms that your child cannot control.
There is also something called a “habit cough” or a psychogenic cough. Like a tic cough, this cough has no obvious cause and does not respond to usual treatments, but it is not considered a tic. If their healthcare provider suspects your child may have a tic or habit cough, they will refer you to someone who can evaluate and treat your child. It is also possible for an adult to have a tic cough or a habit cough.