These children, too, are sick and the parents need to know. If caregivers feel that a child in their care has one of these deep coughs, they should immediately call the parent. The parent may be well advised to contact their child's physician. Whooping cough is extremely serious. Fortunately, it is rare since it is preventable through immunization.
Whooping cough has a characteristic cough, which gives it the name.
There is a series of coughs, one right after another without any time to inhale between the coughs. Finally, after an exhausting series of coughs, the air-hungry child inhales mightily, so mightily, in fact, that it produces the telltale whoop. If a child has this cough, the parents should be immediately contacted and the child should be seen by a physician. The cough may be immediate and severe. On the other hand, if the airway is largely blocked, the cough may be muffled and ineffective, or the child may not even cough at all.