persistent night time cough in toddler - any tips please

[ilovealgreen]

It started about a month ago with croup - and now is a chesty cough, keeping the little bugger up all night and me too!
Went to the drs today and they said it was prob a secondary virus after the croup and to keep the liquids up - but does any one actually have anything helpful to add to that please!!!!

I feel sorry not only for myself but for my little ds as well.

[SingleMum01]

Aw poor you and baby. I can relate to this very well! Put a pillow under the mattress to raise it up. Don't have the room too hot. I tend to leave the small window open in my DS room and keep the heating really low. I also have a bowl of water in the room to stop the air drying out. And a cool air humidifier (although I don't think that does too much - but makes me feel I'm doing everything I can). Could also put a damp cloth on the radiator to keep the air moist.

Fingers x'd for you.

[DJAngel]

Night coughing is grim..

I bumped into a friend at the GP on friday whilst there with dd2 getting 2nd lot of anti-biotics for chest infection.. No sleep for ages due to coughing mostly.. She said her grandmother advised putting vick on your childs feet then put socks on..
She said it worked so we thought we'd try it having nothing to lose! Bloody hell it worked.. so far she has had 3 nights of sleeping through ( which she never does normally anyway! ) and just the odd cough here and there but nothing like as bad as it had been for weeks.. Try it! Hope it works for you too!!

Other than that everything the SM01 said.. I also try and cut down on mucousy foods e.g milk based foods and I also put a bit of olbas oil on the towel on the radiator..

Good luck!

[gigglewitch]

so definitely not asthma? maybe another opinion...

as the others said prop up matress / the head-end feet of the bed/cot. mine respond well to the carvol/menthol type stuff somewhere in the room.

[follygirl]

My dd is prone to night time coughing and we bought her a humidifier which seems to do the trick. I use it for about 3 nights and by then she is normally fine. I try not to over use it.
Another tip I was given was to give them Piriton as it has an antihistamine. You can give it from 1 year old. I seem to find that it helps, but again I only use it if she is not sleeping due to coughing.
As the other posters said, raising the pillow and giving them plenty of fluids is also helpful.