Take care of your child’s vocal health: Here’s how

Does your child keep coughing too often? Throat irritations are so common among kids that we rarely treat these beyond giving them cough lozenges and occasionally cough syrup. Untreated throat problems can grow to tonsillitis, patches of congestion and asthma. Here are our tips for ensuring better vocal health for kids; you can try to implement these on a daily basis.  

Proper level of voice 
Make sure your child is speaking rather than screaming. Many young kids have the habit of doing character voices and vehicle sounds while playing. Ensure they don’t overdo it. Constant loud voice or vocal effects pressurise vocal folds of children and damage them.  

Turn down TV and music volume 
If you notice your child using a louder voice so you can hear her over the radio, sound system or TV, turn the volume down. Loud car stereo should be avoided while travelling with children as it is harmful for their throat and ears.  

Limit caffeine intake and cold beverages 
Limit the number of caffeinated beverages for your child. It’s not just coffee, the list includes a lot of attractive soft drinks. Consuming very cold drinks and ice lollies too often damage the throat.  

Use toothpaste 
Encourage your child to brush teeth with toothpaste and not mouthwashes. Most mouthwashes contain alcohol, high degrees of menthol and irritating chemicals. All of these dry the vocal folds and cause throat irritations.   

Take care of nutrition 
Make sure your child consumes fruits and vegetables with vitamins A, E, and C, as they help in maintaining healthy mucous membranes. 

Get adequate sleep 
Ensure your pre-teen child gets 8 to 10 hours of sleep, and teenagers get 6 to 8 hours. Overall fatigue and stress can negatively affect the voice, making it rasp.  

Create a healthy atmosphere 
Keep your child’s environment free of smoke, dust and fumes from ammonia, paint thinners, disinfectants, strong insect repellents etc. All of these can damage throat, nose and lungs, especially for kids.  

Discourage continuous throat clearing 
Coughing to clear the throat needlessly ends up in creating more throat irritation and hoarseness. Encourage children to drink water instead and keep their throat hydrated.