Please help me stop coughing!

[DontFuckingSayIt]

I've got a cold with a horrible constant cough that's driving me absolutely mad. Literally all day long I'm either coughing my guts up or trying to suppress it. My throat and chest hurt and I'm very concerned for my pelvic floor!

Does anyone have any remedies? I've had cold and flu tablets and some (childrens) cough syrup, I've had plenty of water/fluids and hot drinks and I've not been without something to sip, I've tried sucking chocolate and sweets like my dad used to recommend (apparently it coats your throat or something but it's just made it worse if anything... will keep trying though ). Haven't got any Vicks and can't get any tonight as DD in bed. I can't think of anything else!

not chocolate - that definitely makes it worse.

teaspoonful of honey neat can help - is it a dry cough or a phlegmy cough?

Hot honey and lemon I found best. You could try the broncostop range (taste of thyme). Just something to keep things lubricated. My MIL gets codeine from her GP for a cough (annoying cough but not bad cough). But I’ve broken a rib twice through coughing and my GPs won’t prescribe Codeine as suppressing the cough is more likely to lead to a chest infection. But having some water, hot honey and lemon and a lozenge or two helps (a bit). Sympathies....I hate coughs!

Covonia.

Or honey.

Or night nurse. A pharmacist told me by accident that it suppresses a cough, my eyes must have lit up when she said that as she did a bit of a backpeddle.

Have you tried an anti-histamine, can help with coughs.

Night nurse over night works for me. What also helps is a big bowl of hot water and breathing in the steam with a towel over my head - just take slow deep breaths. I feel for you though, I had a couple of nasty coughs last year and they wiped me out.

I find alcohol helps to suppress a cough.

Cocodamol will suppress it but I'd only use that as a last resort.

Onion poultice!
Cut up an onion into rings, wrap it up on a baby Muslim/ tea towel and put on a low heat oven for 15 minutes.
Take it out, use some tape to secure the parcel and put it down a tight T-shirt. Brilliant at stopping coughs.
Works well on babies.
But i must warn you , you’ll smell like a kebab shop in the morning

Honey, either a spoonful neat, or as a honey and lemon drink. Can't beat it. Most cough medicines are tested against it in clinical trials, but the honey has always, to my knowledge, done better (they obviously don't advertise that!)

Depends what's causing the cough but I always have Thyme tea at the first sign of a cough. It's an expectorant so helps to clear your chest. I always make sure I have a Thyme plant in my kitchen, you can get them from most supermarkets. Just snip a few sprigs off and brew the leaves in some boiling water. It doesn't taste great so you might want to sweeten it. Works a treat though!

Pholcodeine linctus. You can get it over the counter. Feel better soon

Codeine should do the trick, not ida but it works when your exhausted and desperate crom coughing

I'm seconding pp's recommendation of codeine cough syrup if it's a really annoying constant tickly cough. It works like a dream

Depends on the type of cough.

If it is a ‘productive’ cough and you are coughing up mucus then you have to ride it out. Expectorant cough medicines like Covonia can help to bring up phlegm. Drink plenty of fluids to thin the mucus and make it easier to cough up.

If it is a dry cough then you can take a cough suppressant. Pholcodeine linctus, bought OTC in the pharmacy, will do the trick.

See your GP if you cough up blood, or if it persists for more than three weeks.

Just one of many studies

More studies www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20618098
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18056558
People just believe the hype given out by companies promoting cough syrup, rather than reading facts given quietly in clinical study after clinical study, but honey is really better than any other cough syrup on the market.
I'll shut up now

I’ve got the same OP. Mine is a productive cough (which sounds so more useful than it is...), very chesty.

My only tip, discovered last night, is that if I keep my mouth shut and breathe through my nose I cough less.

Does honey work for productive coughs or just tickly ones?

Jackman's lozenges (Tesco's or Superdrug sell them)
Codeine linctus - you don't need a prescription but a lot of pharmacists are careful about selling it.

A good sized dram of neat whiskey often helps for me.

Also, a good teaspoonful (or three) in a mug of hot milk.

I've personally never found actual cough mixtures very effective.

I mean teaspoonful of honey. Grrrrrrr!

Sanderson's throat / cough solution. It's a gargle that tastes awful, but definitely works. It can also be used as many times a day as needed, rather than just the usual once or twice.

Do you feel very ill with it? Have you got a high temp? If so, please get checked by a doctor. And do not take any codeine linctus. I had pneumonia a few years ago and my gp had prescribed this to stop me coughing - the doctors at my local hospital were not impressed!

It's possibly too late for this but try a cold (very cold) pair of wet socks on your feet. Over top put on warm wooly socks. It will stop your coughing and draw the toxins out. In the morning your socks will be dry and you will feel better. I wasn't a believer of this until DS was coughing until he was sick. Did this and he stopped. The next day the cold wet socks were bone dry and he was soooo much better 😳

Doctors dont recommend cough medicines

I just got over a cough i had for a month, nearly every time i coughed i was sick, was awful.

Cooled boiled water with Honey and lemon is best

I have lots of sympathy