4 year old coughing

[voxnihili]

Hi

Just wondered if anyone has any advice …

My 4 year old suffers quite badly with coughs and has a cough most of the time. It gets worse when she has a cold but it then lingers for weeks, when she gets another cold or virus and it gets worse again.

She had a virus a couple of weeks ago that made it worse. Symptoms were relatively mild - slight temperature, complete loss of appetite and out of sorts but not what I’d classify as ill.

Last week we saw a doctor as she was still coughing up copious amounts of phlegm and she was prescribed an inhaler. The cough is improving but the phlegm is getting thicker and darker in colour.

Does it sound like an infection has set in that she needs to see a doctor for, or just the natural course of a viral infection? She’s quite well in herself (a bit tired as the cough is worse at night). I don’t want to leave her suffering if she needs antibiotics but equally don’t want to waste a doctor’s time as I know how pushed they are.

Thanks

I'd go back to check and I'd also Ask to be checked of asthma. Both ds and I don't wheeze but coughs linger/ cough after exercise.

It may be through the asthma nurse though iirc the Gp had to be involved

An infection would be easy to hear by Gp ; it's likely to be upper so no abs. However it could move down and would make her more tired.

If also asthma she will generally be tired too. Diagnosis and treatment made a big difference to my ds and also me.

Thanks.

The possibility of asthma has been mentioned and we have the blue inhaler to try and it has been effective when she’s had bad coughing fits. We’ve only had the inhaler a week though.

At the moment her cough is only really bad if she wakes in the night, or when she first gets up which is when she coughs up the phlegm. The darker colour is yellowy as opposed to green. She’s not been coughing too much during the day.

I’m inclined to think that she is fine and this it the tail end of something viral as she’s been improving and I would have thought if it was progressing to a chest infection she would be getting worse. I don’t trust my judgement at all though!

It's really hard. Both my boys had been poorly with coughs on and off all year. My 5 year old has had a bad cough for over a months now. Last night he had a temperature so I'm inclined to contact the GP today. When he had this before the GP didn't give antibIotics but an inhaler and it did eventually clear up. It's hard to know what To do and also it seems so many children are suffering from virus after virus at the mo. Driving us mad here!

She might need a brown inhaler for a couple of weeks to help shift it fully. Last year GP have one to mine as well as antibiotics as it just wasn't shifting. She was much better within a few days of treatments.

They won't diagnose asthma so young as respiratory issues are not uncommon. But they might still treat her as if she has it to see what happens

Yes I think ds was 5 and in year 1 when diagnosed. But it was me who queried it after yet another lingering cough and symptoms very like my own.

Keep up the blue inhaler which will help to clear it. Can be two every 4 hours or as needed when having a coughing fit. Especially helpful at night.