To despair that my child's 8-month cough cannot be cured?

[puntasticusername]

DS1 is age 3. He is generally very fit and healthy. Last October he had the flu vaccination and soon after, caught the first in the usual winter procession of endless coughs and colds. Since then, I don't think he's had longer than a week or so at a time without a cold.

The worst thing, however, is the cough. Since October he has regularly coughed during the night and when he first gets up in the morning. Sometimes better and sometimes worse, but it never entirely goes away. It seems to have worsened just lately - twice now he's woke up coughing uncontrollably for several minutes, before vomiting mucus everywhere. The mucus is thin and clear (doesn't look infected).

He's been seen by two GPs and a consultant paediatrician (most recently, just a couple of weeks ago). Paed ordered blood tests, which came back clear except for low iron, so DS has now been on iron supplements for two months. These seem to have helped his energy levels, but the cough remains.

Every time they listen to his chest, they say it is clear and that the only thing to do is wait for him to stop catching all these winter colds. He also has inhalers - Ventolin and a steroid - which he takes morning and night, with more Ventolin during the night if he wakes coughing. This seems to help for a few hours, but in the long run the fucking cough just.won't.go. It doesn't seem to be a wheezy sort of cough - they said if it was then stronger steroids might help, but me and DH don't think it is.

Is this right? Is there anything else that could be done for him or do we really just have to wait this out for however long it might take? I have no idea what the answer is, but surely the might of Western medicine must be able to come up with more than this to help my poor little boy?

Thanks for reading - any advice, opinions and ideas would be appreciated!

If it's only happening at night then it could be worth having a think about his room. I'm not trying to say it's not clean so please don't think I am, but dust can cause coughs, as can mould spores and dustmites. Sleeping propped up can help. Is his room very dry? Maybe adding a little moisture in the air by placing a damp towel on his radiator can help. Does any of this ring a bell?

sybil That's a fair point, and no I'm not offended but our house is only two years old so unlikely to harbour too much mould, and we like it clean, particularly DH, so there isn't too much dust around either. The moisture thing is an idea, I'll talk to DH about perhaps humidifying DS's room. He might mutter a bit about it being bad for the house, but won't really mind if it's the best thing for DS. Thanks!

I'm allergic to dust too - was going to be my first suggestion

It doesn't have to be very dusty at all to set me off. Second the moisture and propping up the cot.

Sympathies op, it's very annoying to hear and to do.

My dd was suffering the same with a night time cough but the ventolin did the trick and stopped it so it may be worth trying stronger steroids.

I would start by damp dusting his room and getting rid of as many soft toys from his room as possible.

Try keeping a food diary incase there is some sort of intolerance?

Also it may be worth trying a slightly higher dose of steroid inhaler, for DS the low dose brown inhaler did nothing but different meds helped a lot.

My Ds1 has a similar cough but he does have cough variant, atypical asthma. Stronger steroids have helped. When he has an attack he doesn't have an audible wheeze but coughs and coughs until he vomits and struggles to speak this usually ends in a trip to hospital and a nebuliser. Have they tested for allergies? Ds has a high RAST result to house dust mites and peanuts. Changing his bedding to anti allergy, hoovering with a hepa filtered vacum and damp dusting his room daily have also helped, so much so we haven't (touch wood) had to use his reliever or needed oral prednisalone in a while and his night cough has improved.

Also soft toys harbour dust. You can freeze them once a month then peg them on the line on a sunny day to keep dust mites at bay. It isn't the actual site that causes the reaction but the build up of their poo.

We found becotide did nothing, flixotide has definitely helped.

Ooh, I hadn't even thought about allergies. Can we get him tested via the GP...?

What kind of bedding does he have? My brother can't use a feather quilt as natural bedding makes him cough and wheeze. He has to use polyester quilts and pillows. You can also buy anti allergy covers to reduce the chances of it being dust mites or similar in the bedding.

I know this sounds really daft, but has anyone looked at your son's adenoids?

You can, RAST is a blood test, it tests for specific antigens. We only found out about house dust mites after a nasty reaction to peanut butter, the pead heard his cough and added dust mites to the request.

Polyester bedding, pillows laundered every three months or so and duvets twice a year (when we swap winter for summer). We just put his summer duvet on a few weeks ago actually, didn't notice any great improvement in the cough.

ReallyTired no, don't think so, the paed had a good look down his throat and said his tonsils were inflamed, but didn't mention the adenoids.

Now that you mention it, however...

...he sometimes froths at the mouth while he sleeps - noisy mouth breather. I remember DH Googled it and said that can sometimes be a sign of adenoid problems?

Thanks Bunny, I'll follow up the allergy tests with our GP.

Do you have pets? Looking at his adeniods is a very good idea. They can block the airway if they are too large and children can cough in order to try to clear their airways. You can give him the ventolin before he goes to bed too. Ds is asthmatic and it helps if he uses his inhaler before he does PE rather than when he's wheezy as it stops him getting wheezy in the first place.

I'm allergic to dust but I get a tight chest and sneezing. It doesn't take a lot. I'm also allergic to cats and dogs. Are you opening his bedroom windows during the day to allow the air to circulate?

Have you tried the old trick of Vicks vapour rub on soles of feet (with socks on) at night? Stopped my lo coughing.... although he's only had run-of-the-mill coughs. Also i second (third?) trying the humidifier. Good luck.

We have a matress cover, anti allergy duvet and pillow, we also use 100% cotton bedding that can be washed at 60.

Adenoids are inside the nose so you won't be able to see them without a tiny endoscope. Signs of them being enlarged are mouth breathing, coughing and snoring. Children with enlarged ones tend to not sleep well, so will be knackered during the day.

Do you have an asthma nurse? I wonder if a bit of dose tweaking of the steroid/technique check would help?

I know you say you are clean freaks but do consider lifting bedroom carpet and laying a wooden floor or laminate floor

Has he had a chest xray?

We went through a similar pattern over 7 months with our Ds and were repeatedly told by different GPs his chest was clear even though we knew he was incredibly poorly and constantly worn out.

To cut a very long story short we finally got an xray which showed he had pneumonia and blood tests showed EBV.

Could it possibly be a lung infection that they haven't detected? A persistent cough can sometimes be indicative of this. Just a thought.

No pets, no. I'll follow up re the adenoids as well, then - he does snore dreadfully! We probably don't open the bedroom windows as much as we might do - particularly over the winter, of course.

Today, I can strip his bed and hoover his mattress, and do the towel on the radiator. Then I shall get some anti-allergenic bedding. Then consult the GP. Then think about how to persuade him towards life without his basket of beloved cuddlies

Thankyou very much everyone, all these replies are so useful and give me lots of things to try!

You can pop them in the freezer, pun. It will kill off any dustmites. I stick ds's in the washing machine.

I hope you find some answers, it sounds really stressful for you all. I remember having a barking cough for years when I was small. It was down to my father smoking though as it went when I moved to university . I don't think the penny dropped at home.

drama, evans - see, this is what I'm wondering. Whether we are reasonably entitled to get stroppy and demand an x-ray. I will have to keep pushing it all I guess.