Productive cough?

Question

I was reading in What to Expect and it described a cough as being either productive or non productive, what do they mean by this? And how would you tell on a baby?

Answer 1

You listen to their breathing and coughing and if it sounds like something is coming up his throat, whether he spits it out or not because babies don't spit on purpose, then he has a productive cough. Usually they just swallow it and it gets reabsorbed in their systems.

Answer 2

Non productive cough is a dry cough. A productive cough is one in which someone is able to cough up sputum; it's a "wet" cough. A baby with a productive cough will be very congested, have sputum/secretions that are not clear colored(i.e white, clear)and will have difficulty breathing. A baby with a dry cough will just keep on coughing, without any sputum or secretions.

Answer 3

A cough is meant to clean out your lungs, a productive cough would mean that you are loosening the mucus build up in the lungs, where as a non-productive cough would mean nothing is coming up.