Toddler’s never ending cough now got worse with a cold - HELP

[Reesewithafork]

Toddler 2yo has had a cough for a month, after a three week break from it (previously had a virus with a cough). It was starting to get a bit better but now he is full of cold, hoarse throat, and the cough is back with a vengeance and sounds productive sometimes and dry other times.

he had his chest checked last week and all clear, his glands were up a bit in his throat but no sign of infection so most likely viral again.

I’ve tried vicks on his chest, calpol plug in, spoonful of honey, honey and lemon before bed (I swear this kid is living off honey at the moment), broncho stop. Nothing helps.

it only seems to bother him when he’s coughing up gunk which is usually when he’s got so blocked up over night as he doesn’t know how to blow his nose yet.

DH and I are exhausted as we wake whenever he coughs and even when he goes back to sleep It takes us ages and then he starts again.

any tips gratefully received. I am cursing nursery at this point. He’s “been there” nearly two months but has probably attended only half the time.

As long as asthma has been ruled out I find Piriton really good for a bad cough, it was a tip from a GP.

Its not hayfever is it if he is otherwise well and not bothering him? Timelines would work?

No DS main symptom that age was a constant cough for post nasal drip caused by hayfever. He would miraculously stop coughing for a few hours if we went to the
Coast. No pollen on the beach!

asthma hasn’t been mentioned and he’s had his chest listened to 3/4 times. He’s not wheezing or anything.

it could be hayfever - he has eczema and I have eczema and hayfever, his dad has hayfever as well.

ive tried piriton previously and it doesn’t seem to have had an effect unfortunately. It seems so much worse now because he’s obviously full of cold!

My DS suffered terribly. I was offered certain advice by gp. Hat to ensure pollen didnt get in hair, or wash daily. Vaseline round nose to try and catch pollen and not line dry his bedding or clothes. Allergy inhaler too.

Im not sure how much good any of those things did. And i totally understand the bone tiredness from it effecting sleep. It almost irritated me to the point i wanted to scream 'shut up shut up just stop it!!!!!'. (I didnt).

I got a new gp and he said the best thing for it was desensitisation. He was right. We have 2-3 summers like this and then it stopped. He said just let him be normal and get on with everything. DS also had excema too.

He still has hayfever now but is nowhere near as bad.

If he is otherwise well and you believe it to be allergies nursery need to be told to crack on like you are and it will pass.

The thing is, what starts as viral can easily turn into an infection as all the gunk on their chest is a breeding ground for germs. It took some super strength antibiotics to finally shift the cough that DC2 had off and on for 3 months.

he has eczema and I have eczema and hayfever, his dad has hayfever as well.

All indications that asthma should be considered.

Could it be silent reflux? Worse at night to the point of making himself sick? Worse when laying down? Worse around food times? Seems like a never ending cold?
My DD suffers with reflux and is 2 and is what she's like all the time

@Dilbertian how do they test for asthma? Would they hear it listening to his chest? He had a chest X-ray last year when he was in hospital too for something else and nothing was flagged on that.

@HiKelsey he did suffer with silent reflux and reflux as a baby was very sicky and would cough and splutter a lot with feeding but didnt seem to persist after about 1 ish… but seems to have started again this year. He had Covid in feb and I’m wondering if that’s what triggered it all! It was worse at night for a while but since this new cold and sore throat it’s much worse all the time, coughing fits and retching and brining up sticky mucus.

I’ll try piriton again tonight and see what happens.

Sorry, I don't know how it's tested for in toddlers. Though I do know that asthma does not show anything on an x-ray. The chest x-ray is to rule out other causes, such as pneumonia, TB or an inhaled object. But mixture of dry and productive coughing + triggered/made worse by a virus + worse at night + atopic family, all of these are pointers towards asthma.

Reflux is also plausible, and often goes with atopy and night-time cough, but I don't think it is triggered by viral infection.

It could even be both! If it might be asthma, the treatment with an inhaler is easy, safe and worth trying.

My youngest used to cough like this, without wheezing. It was asthma and apparently a cough can be the only sign in youngsters. It's only when the tubes start closing up, or the child gets an infection, that there's an audible wheeze. I felt sure my child had asthma, yet the useless GP kept saying it wasn't. It was only when we changed GPs that my son was diagnosed and given an inhaler. The GP we went to said that if the coughing reduces with an inhaler, then it's probably asthma. He currently has a blue inhaler and a brown inhaler.

www.thoracic.org/patients/patient-resources/resources/pbb-in-children.pdf

could be protracted bacterial bronchitis if mostly wet sounding - common and under- diagnosed. Needs at least 2 weeks strong antibiotics to clear

When my daughter was 18m she developed a constant cough, worse at night. No other symptoms but made much worse when she had a cold.

After about a year of going to the docs and trying various antibiotics and 'tricks', we were eventually referred to the hospital for an asthma consultation.

We tried the blue inhaler but that didn't do anything and eventually got put on the brown inhaler. After about 10 days her cough disappeared.

After a couple months she came off it and her cough came back. So the brown inhaler definitely was the solution.

Hmm seems like there are a few things it could be. Every time I take him in the doctors just say it’s one of those things and coughs can last this long in toddlers, especially after being locked down in Covid :(

My daughter has this along with recurring ear infections/tonsillitis. Turns out she needs her tonsils and adenoids removed. We were given a blue inhaler to use when required for the cough, and worked within a week or so, she was mainly just taking it at night before bed or when she had a big coughing fit during the day. She doesn't have asthma just enlarged adenoids allll the time.

I might have to go back to the GP and push harder to see if we can try and inhaler to see if it makes any difference. How on earth do you get toddlers to use one?!

everything does seem to go to his throat (gets hoarse with every cold) but he’s not had tonsillitis - touch wood - yet

I’m just listening to him coughing on the monitor :( wish there was a magic something that would make it stop

I’ve put Vicks on his feet which bizarrely seems to have helped a bit.

we’ve realised the cough gets really bad when he’s particularly snotty/blocked up (had a wake up earlier where he just kept coughing but he was absolutely full of gunk and once we cleared his nose and propped him up, he dropped back off to sleep immediately with no coughing) so it’s definitely being irritated by the cold symptoms.

im going to give it another few days (unless he takes a turn obviously) then I’ll take him back, get his chest listened to again and speak to the doctor about asthma.

it jusy doesn’t seem normal to me for a cough to linger this long with only a short break in between (and it hasn’t been this bad the whole time, but it hasn’t gone away completely either)

Poor little guy. (And poor parents being woken so much!)

If he does end up with an inhaler, he'll have a space with a little mask. You don't go straight in using it on him, but make it a game: use it on teddy, on other toys, on each other, chat and sing songs with it on his face, whatever he needs to feel at ease with it, before actually taking the medicine. Or he might not even be bothered and just go straight into using it. You can also give it to him while he is asleep. And there's always bribery, of course - showing the Smartie he'll get after the inhaler, before it even occurrs to him to be bothered, can be marvellously effective.

Have you got any pets?

Our daughter had an inhaler for her coughing but the doctor advised getting rid of our cat.

After rehiring him, our daughters cough vanished. Apparently cat fur can really trigger allergies/asthma.

*rehoming not rehiring

My son (a bit older, age 6) had coughed for at least 6 weeks recently, checked with GP, chest clear etc. I mentioned that he is constantly snotty, cold symptoms never really leave. GP said the cough could be linked to post nasal drip (I think that's what he said) so prescribed my wee one a nasal spray (I think it's used for hay fever or 'perennial rhinitis') and it's helped loads, both with the constant snottiness and the cough

Definitely push for Asthma check as it quite often goes hand in hand with eczema. On a practical level have you got a humidifier for his room at night? It could make breathing easier.

We don’t have any pets but we do have a really dusty house which is impossible to keep dust free so I doubt that helps

It doesn’t sound like asthma, he is full of an illness and has what sounds like viral illnesses repeatedly. An inhaler may be useful to open his airways if struggling to breathe but it doesn’t mean he has asthma if he is given one it just helps his breathing.

Previous poster made a valid point about post nasal drip. Irritated coughs can last for ages. But sound like he now has a new cold on top. Some children just seem to catch everything when young and there is so much around to catch atm. is his diet ok? Does he need a daily vitamin ok to help?

If he is coughing up gunk though it could mean it’s becoming a chest infection, Is he will in himself in the day? Temps or anything?