•Early stage
At first there is often a sore throat. Within a day or so a mild, dry ordinary cough develops. At this stage you may feel mildly unwell and have a mild fever (high temperature). You may also have a runny nose. Over a few days the cough may become more productive with some sputum (phlegm). At first it still seems to be an ordinary cough.
Main coughing stage
After several days, often as many as 10-14 days from the start of the illness, the cough gets worse and worse. They are sometimes called choking coughs.
• During a bout of coughing, you repeatedly cough over and over again. The face often goes red and the body becomes tense. Eventually, there is a desperate attempt to breathe in, which may cause a whooping sound.
• Some children may stop breathing at the end of a bout of coughing and go blue for a short time. This looks worse than it actually is, as breathing usually quickly resumes. Sometimes, it they can’t breathe in, they will died.
• It is common to vomit at the end of a bout of coughing.
• The number of coughing bouts per day varies from case to case. You may only have a few bouts each day but some people have up to 100 bouts per day. The average is about 12-15 bouts per day.