[Fever, coughing and/or wheezing in young children: consider the possibility of foreign body aspiration].

Three children, 2 girls aged 1.5 and 3 years and a 2-year-old boy, experienced coughing, wheezing and/or fever for several days or weeks. The first girl was treated for asthma, the other two children for pneumonia. Because the symptoms persisted in all three children after treatment was started, the diagnosis of foreign body aspiration was suggested and confirmed by bronchoscopy. The foreign body was removed during the bronchoscopy and in the boy, a mucosal lesion in the piriform fossa was sutured. Thereafter, all the children recovered completely. In children with persistent coughing, wheezing or fever despite treatment for pneumonia or asthma and in absence of a characteristic acute incident, foreign body aspiration should be considered.