Don't rush treatment for child cold and cough

Children's coughs and colds can last up to two or three weeks and earaches may take a week to get better. Researchers said they hope the findings help reassure both doctors and parents that respiratory symptoms can last "longer than previously appreciated" but typically don't require treatment.

In studies of children with a respiratory tract infection were treated with over-the-counter medicines, drug-free placebo pills or nothing. Researchers followed them to see when their symptoms went away. Among children with earaches, 90% were better within seven to eight days of visiting a primary care doctor or the emergency room. Most kids with the common cold were better after 15 days, while it took 25 days for almost all children with a cough to be fully recovered. Sore throats typically lasted anywhere from two to seven days.

The duration of earaches and common colds in particular was "considerably longer" than parents in the U.S. and UK are generally told, the researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal.

Moreover, they stated that most children with coughs, colds and other respiratory tract infections don't need to see a doctor. With the exception of strep throat, those infections are typically caused by viruses. Viruses don't respond to antibiotics, and the drugs may cause diarrhea or other side effects among children.

There are still some situations when children with respiratory symptoms do need to see a doctor, they said. That's when their symptoms keep getting worse, or don't start slowly getting better over time as expected. Kids who are having trouble breathing or have other serious symptoms also need to go to the doctor.