Symposium: immunity and infectionChronic cough in children

All children cough. Despite the ubiquity of this common symptom, it remains a concern for many parents and results in a significant number of health consultations. Nearly every child in the UK will present to their family doctor with cough as the predominant symptom in early childhood. Some children will present recurrently and the presence of persistent moist cough is a common cause for referral onwards. This article describes the scale of the problem and offers a framework for assessment of cough and describes the principles of treatment.