Persistent cough at sleep only!

[Linda013]

Hello, My 2.5 year old daughter has a persistent dry cough at mainly sleep times only. Nap times and night time, also. It always starts with a simple cold, runny nose, fever, etc then all the other symptoms go but the cough stays for long weeks. She has the odd cough during the day which sounds chesty, but only a few coughs and the main coughing fits start when she goes to sleep, or when she wakes up in the morning and has her sippy cup of milk. The coughs at sleep times are dry! First time it happened last July and lasted for almost 6 weeks, and she was vomiting from the cough attacks. It started with a common cold. Then all symptoms were gone, but the cough stayed. Then she was put on antibiotics and it was gone. It started again in November after a simple cold..and keeps coming back after 1-2 weeks break. In December the doctor prescribed antihistamines, and it helped! However the cough came back again, and now the antihistamine did not help. Now she had a chest X-ray and the result came back as she has mucus on the right side of her lungs. She is on antibiotics, but it does not seem to help either. I am starting to think it might be asthma..it is so frustrating as she can't have a proper sleep and ends up vomiting from coughing on many occasions. She does not weigh a lot to start with, so I am also worried she will start losing weight because of this. I thought of reflux..but she has the coughing fit even if she falls asleep in her car seat, or if I hold her upright on my chest. I doubt now that it would be post nasal drip either. I am at loss. Of course I will take her back to the GP, but I am wondering if anyone had the same problem and has a solution! Thanks!

We had the same problem. Ds started with a persistent, dry cough exclusively at night( he was perhaps a bit older than your ds maybe 3.5). It was asthma and has been much, much better with using a preventor inhaler, he's 5 now.

Your dd, sorry.

Ds was eventually diagnosed with asthma but a window a tiny bit open made a massive difference. Regardless of the weather it was open!

Cut out milk.

So many people are barely tolerant of milk and I've seen a massive improvement in kids with asthma, eczema and other allergies when I recommend removing milk.

I absolutely wouldn't cut out milk/dairy without speaking to a doctor or dietician, they are such easy sources of calcium in young children and given that no allergies/asthma have even been diagnosed it could be entirely unnecessary. Gp would be the first stop op, they might then refer to a asthma nurse. They will often not 'officially' diagnose asthma until dc turn 5 but they may be able to get to the bottom of the coughing.

Thanks for all the replies. InDubiousBattle^ did your DS have any other symptoms apart from the dry cough at night?

Not of asthma specifically no. He didn't wheeze or anything like that, just a persistent, dry, nighttime cough. He tends to be chesty with other bugs more than my dd though, so a run of the mill, snotty cold will also make him cough. The inhalers were great though, we were all being kept up all night with him coughing and it was awful to hear, once he'd start he just couldn't stop.

My DD is similar, the cough just won't stop once it starts. It will only stop once she wakes up, or vomits from the cough attack. I am glad to hear that your DS is doing well now on inhalers. I will take my DD back to GP next week, and will see..