Hi there -- I'm wondering if anyone has experienced something similar to this as I am about at my wit's end trying to figure out how to resolve my child's chronic congestion!
My daughter (born 6.5 weeks early) just turned 1 at the end of August. For about 5 (almost 6) months now, she has been congested and had a cough that varies from mild to quite bad, every single day. I have taken her to the GP/paediatrician over 10 times now. Nothing we have done/been told to do has helped, other than maybe some steroid nose drops a paediatrician recently recommended. However, you cannot use them for more than a week, and the improvement was very mild.
She had suspected CMPA when she was very young (we are actually doing the dairy ladder now and she seems OK!) but until recently she has never had any dairy. This all also started around the time she started weaning, but the only allergen she has had regularly since is eggs, which we do not feel she is allergic to. She did a skin prick test for food allergies, and everything came back negative. We're now waiting on a blood test that will supposedly tell us if she's allergic to something in her immediate environment, but we're doubtful as we were away from home for 5 weeks in the summer and it didn't improve. The paediatrician thinks it's rhinitis, perhaps a hangover from Covid she had when this all started. But I don't understand why it's lasted so long if that is the case. I'm worried it may be something like enlarged adenoids or a deviated septum. Has anyone had a similar experience? What was the cause and what did you do about it? I hate hearing her congestion crackle with every breath or her hacking cough every day :(
I should also note she has had a chest x-ray that supposedly came back clear as well.