How Long Will My Kid Be Sick? (Does science have the answer?)

Feb 11
2 min read

If you’re a parent, you’ve asked this question. If you work in healthcare, you’ve been asked this question. Often at 2 a.m. 😅

“How long will my child’s symptoms last?”

Good news: a large, high-quality study set out to answer this exact question.

The Study (In Plain English)

Researchers reviewed nearly 50 studies looking at common respiratory infections in almost 9000 otherwise healthy children with non-severe illness in high-income countries who did not receive antibiotics.

So this applies to most healthy kids with everyday coughs, colds, sore throats, and ear pain.

So… How Long Does It Take for Respiratory Infections to get better?

**Remember, the vast majority of respiratory illnesses are viral, which means antibiotics won't help your child get better any faster. Some children who develop bacterial respiratory infections do require antibiotics, and those children were excluded from this study.

Illness	Days to Symptom Resolution in 50% of Children	Days to Symptom Resolution in 90% of Children
Croup	1	2
Ear infection	3	7-8
Sore throat/tonsillitis (including strep throat)*	n/a	2-7
Common cold	10	15
Cough	10	25
Bronchiolitis	13	21

*Time to complete resolution did not seem to be related to whether or not the child was positive for group A β haemolytic streptococcal infection (strep throat).

When Should I Worry?

A small proportion of children with the above symptoms will require medications such as antibiotics. You should see a doctor if:

Your child is less than 3 months old
Your child has medical conditions that predispose them to more severe illness (asthma, chronic diseases, prematurity, unvaccinated, immunocompromised, etc.)
Your child's symptoms are lasting longer than expected
Your child's symptoms are getting worse, especially if they had started improving and then worsened again
You are concerned (the above is not an exhaustive list!)

Seek EMERGENCY CARE if:

Your child has a fever and any of the red flag symptoms (click here!!)
Your child is having trouble breathing, including noisy or fast breathing
Your child is having severe pain despite Tylenol and Advil
Your child is inconsolable or lethargic, or otherwise acting abnormally
Your child is not drinking/you are concerned about dehydration
Your child has a sore throat and is drooling or can't swallow
Your caregiver intuition is telling you your child needs emergent care (the above is not an exhaustive list!)

👉 Bottom Line:

Most childhood respiratory infections:

Follow a predictable course of initial worsening (first 1-3 days) followed by slow, gradual improvement.
Get better on their own (without antibiotics)
Last longer than we expect (especially coughs!)

Sometimes the most powerful medicine is time, reassurance, and knowing what’s normal ❤️

Reference:

Thompson MA, Vodicka TA, Blair PS, Buckley DI, Heneghan C, Hay AD, et al.

Duration of symptoms of respiratory tract infections in children: systematic review. BMJ. 2013 Dec 11;347:f7027. PMID: 24335668