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!

Another vote for ENT referral. DC2 had all those symptoms for months and was back and forward at GP constantly. After about 4 lots of failed antibiotics, inhaler etc finally got referred to ENT. They suspected adenoids and turned out to be correct. Huge adenoids removed and hey presto problem solved!
Hope you get some answers soon.

Tiredfeet. You got there first. I find montelukast can be amazing. Use it quite often. Would also 2nd an antibiotic (whatever the guidelines say.. They are guidelines, not rules)

whatadrama - I just wanted to agree with what you said about Clarithromycin! I agree it is an absolutely miracle drug for chest infections. I kept being prescribed Amoxicillin which either didn't work at all or only had a temporary improving effect before the infection returned. Now I ask for Clarithromycin straight away and it has never let me down. I believe it's one of the "second tier" antibiotics which are usually only prescribed after Amoxicillin has been tried first (and failed) but some people need it as their first choice as Amoxicillin never works for them!

Try a referral to the allergy clinic, the consultant there took one look at dd and advised she had rhinitis. Daily meds has made a massive difference

Another one here suggesting allergies. My daughters dr recommended trying a dose of Benadryl to see if the cough went away. if it does then start giving 24h allergy medicine (claritin which is loratidizone or something). Hope you get some answers soon.

And of course try to limit exposure to allergens. Dd seems to have seasonal allergies so that is why we trying the medicine.

I was going to suggest asthma, night time and early morning cough can be asthma with no other symptoms.

But it would be virtually impossible to get a 3 year old to do a spirometry and it sound like he is already on the drugs they would prescribe anyway (ventolin and a preventer)

What about his sleeping position? My morning cough is worse if my head has slipped off the pillow, and I can't think why, it would make sense with an infection but not with asthma.

You could try sloping his bed a bit, make the head higher than the foot.

What helps my children with coughs is to soak a facecloth with water and place on their radiator to give off a wet heat rather than a dry one.

You don't have any pets do you? A friend's son it turned out had become allergic to their cats and they had to rehome them and rip up the carpets and really clean the furniture. Their son has been fine since.

Also have a good walk round your house looking for allergens. Any cut flowers in the house, or flowers in pots inside? Air fresheners and cleaning products - there's a couple of bathroom cleaners which trigger my asthma and, if they've been used in a bathroom, will have me coughing and struggling all night. Someone's already mentioned pets.

Maybe also consider an ioniser for his room?

We had issues with Monteluklast. D's turned from a placid, content and easy going little boy into a sullen, anxious, and withdrawn little boy literally overnight, he also began to hit, something he had never done before. He was also suffering from night terrors and hallucinations. A quick search found that these side effects were more common than we thought. We stopped the singulair and we had our calm, sweet little boy back. When we told the pead, he agreed that this can happen. (Although rare).

Do you have radiators in his bedroom , i would turn it off , having heating on in the bedroom always seemed to exacerbate coughs when DS1 was little .

I'd push for a chest x-ray as a priority and then an ENT referral. Have you tried giving him claratyne? The antihistamine can help if there is an allergy trigger.

My DS was like this for years, he would start a cough in October and it would eventually subside in the summer. It was worse at night and I frequently would steam his room to offer relief. The doctor always said it was viral. He was given an inhaler but that did not really help. He also was a mouth breather at night. I used to be beside myself with worry, I washed things for dust mites, tried him in different sleep positions, pillows etc.

It has now stopped whether it is the fact at 10 he catches less colds or maybe his trumpet playing has strengthened his lungs - from 7 when he took up playing his coughing subsided hugely.

I hope you find an answer - I remember how desperate my DS used to feel with coughing.

Hmm sounds like asthma to me and from what you are saying doesn't sound well controlled. Stronger steroid might help but perhaps other asthma medication too. There used to be a support thread for asthma sufferers and it might be worth posting on there for advice too?

Thankyou for keeping the advice and support coming - I am reading and absorbing each reply! Trying to get a GP appt atm to ask about allergies, asthma and push for an ENT referral/chest x-ray.