DS night time cough, fine at my mums?

[ProfessorPickles]

Hello, my 2 year old son has had a cough mostly at night time for about 3 weeks now. It did ease off at one point for a few days then went back to normal.

It has been hell on earth some nights as he's woken up every 1-2 hours coughing and crying. I'm exhausted, he's a 12 hour straight sleeper normally and now I get woken up 2-8 times per night.
He's fine in the day time, maybe a bit grumpy because he's tired from being up all night too!

However, my mum has kindly had him a few nights to let me get more than 4 hours sleep! Every night he has stopped there I have felt awful thinking he's doing the same but then it turns out he barely coughed at all and has slept nicely. He has stopped three nights over the three weeks.

This has got me wondering if there's something wrong at home that could be causing this but I don't really know what it could be! Any ideas?

[Seeline]

Could be some sort of allergy/asthma triggered by something at your house.
Different bedding, dust, bathing stuff etc

[flanjabelle]

Any chance you have a mould problem? Hidden down behind a piece of furniture or something? Mould spores cause coughing.

[Mundelfall]

I'd wonder about an allergic reaction to something. I'd think of dust, feather bedding, mould spores, different washing powder... Are you living in the same type of house? For example I'm doing badly with asthma in our lovely Victorian house and can do pretty much without tablets and inhaler when we stay with my parents in their more modern house.
I'm not saying he may have asthma but night coughing was the first sign of me developing it (as an adult though). I'd take him to the GP for advice.

[ProfessorPickles]

Thanks for the replies! I have checked his room and there's no mould that I can see. His room isn't particularly dusty and his bedding gets changed every 1-2 weeks depending on if it's dirty.

Asthma does run in the family so it is always a possibility.
I also started using a different softener in my washing in the past month so maybe that could be at fault, it never crossed my mind!

I am thinking of giving his room an extra clean and rewashing his bedding so it hasn't got the new softener on to see if that makes a difference for him!

[Fuckymcdunky]

Do you have plug in air fresheners? These always make my DC cough at night for some reason

[Hufflepuffin]

Is your house quite dry? A humidifier helps my DS sleep when he has a cold.

[Sirzy]

Does he have soft toys in bed/his room at home?

[flanjabelle]

Just clean using soapy water, no harsh chemicals in case it's a reaction to a cleaning product. Hoover as much as you can and wipe down sides with a damp cloth. Definitely try without the softener.

I would want to get him checked at the gp too to rule out asthma.

[flanjabelle]

Hoover the bed too in case it's anything to do with dust mites.

[tobysmum77]

I would take him to the doctors and try him with inhalers, in my experience it helped. Fwiw dd is now 6 and has shown no signs of asthma for 18 months so fingers crossed...

[tobysmum77]

You don't have warm air heating or an electric fire do you? Dd had a phase of being worse at school in reception because I think of hot air heating. Once it was settled all was well again though.

[ThruUlikeAshortcut]

Same as toby my DD2 started with a dry hacking cough all night, we were both exhausted.

Get a quick test for asthma -

[user789653241]

My child has allergy/asthma and we don't use any fabric softener at all for his clothes and bedding, and double rinse as well.

[GloGirl]

Pull everything out, hoover every nook and hoover his mattress. Wash his bedding including the duvet and pillow. Wash the curtains, clean th light fittings ( before you hoover!)

Leave the window open to air out his room. Check the window seals for mould.