To ask what I can do for a 4yo with a hideous cough?

[2kidsnopets]

My 4 yo has a horrible cough but is mostly fine in himself apart from being snotty. But the cough is making him miserable and it's exhausting him as it's constant and he keeps coughing himself sick too.

I've tried steam inhalation and it didn't make any difference, have tried vicks on feet, honey and the pointless ineffective kids cough linctus. All failed.

Is there anything else I can do? I feel rubbish that I can't do anything to make it better.

We have cool humidifiers in the bedrooms at home as the heating makes the air too dry and my brood all cough constantly. Ideally it should be around 55% and without it the kids rooms are around 35. The right humidity helps kill off cold bugs (apparently) according to our GP as the germs can't survive.

Will he let you use a saline spray to break up the mucus and make it easier to shift?

If it keeps on maybe a trip to the GP to rule out anything more than a winter cold xx

I know there is this "milk creates mucus" thing, but a spoonful of yoghurt can stop the tickle. When DS had it I was careful to try and keep the house the same temperature as going from cold to hot ot vice versa set off a coughing fit. Does't help outside I know. No running around, not a lot of anything really.

It's painful to hear them isn't it OP. :(

Vicks on the feet with socks at night really helps. Coughs have been a lot shorter since discovering this on MN.

How long has he had the cough for? If he's ok in himself otherwise, but coughing until he is sick then that makes me think of Whooping Cough. A pharmacist should be able to help identify if it's that (and to help with anything else), although it needs a GP to treat. I had it a few years ago, didn't realise I'd had it for about 2 weeks until I started throwing up with coughing as I thought it was a mild cold until that point. There's a fairly distinctive rasping wheeze on the in breath but I didn't always have that, it was mostly towards the end of a coughing fit that I'd "whoop" and wheeze. Antibiotics and a couple of weeks of a steroid inhaler helped.

I've been using saline spray, it's helped the snot a bit but made no difference for the cough.

I don't think it merits gp, he's only been coughing since Tues night, and it's definitely a coldy type thing rather than anything long term. He's not wheezy and not having trouble breathing.

We've not been outside today, so house is at constant 19degrees. Little sister has cabin fever and is desperate to get out (me too frankly) but I suspect the cold air and certainly running about would trigger a coughing fit.

Pretty sure it's not whooping cough, he's not making th whoop noise. he's being sick because he has massive tonsils and coughing makes them meet in the middle, so then he gags and is sick.

It happens every time he has a cough. Gp helpfully tells me that this is normal
For small kids.

It sounds like your doing everything. Littlest ones coughs sound worse as they just can't get the mucus up effectively themselves yet.

If he gets a temp or mucus goes orange green or brown then docs
But carry on with the steam and the Vicks. He should be ok in a week.

Mine is the same at the moment, sympathies. A big spoon of Manuka honey seems to help. We also have some homeopathic cough medicine which I doubt does much but she likes them and they seem to soothe a little.

Vick's on feet does nothing here either and I even tried a cut onion in desperation once..

Lots of vitamins too...

Make sure his room is as dust free as possible, especially around husband bed. So I used to wash and tumble dry their bedding plus wet dust around the bed and clean all soft toys.

My dd has big tonsils and gets bad coughs at night. I also make sure she is propped up at night and move the teddies away from her. Makes quite a difference.

*husband bed I mean his bed!

MN always makes my phone auto correct in the most ridiculous way.

I tried the onion in honey thing last time he had a cough. He was far from keen on the taste so didn't swallow enough to find out if it works.

I don't think it's dust, he's coughing far more today than overnight and downstairs is all hard floors which get hoovered twice a day due to toddler carnage.

I've been giving multivitamin and minerals for a few months in a desperate attempt to end a run of him catching every single preschool germ going, but apparently it failed

Warm honey and lemon! My GP once prescribed this for me as I'd tried everything to get rid of a cough, I had 3 a day for 5 days and it totally went. Wonderful natural stuff. Don't use any cough mixture it's pointless.

I know this sounds crazy but it worked on my DD the last time she had a terrible cough...cover the soles of his feet with a thick layer of Vicks Vaporub and then cover with socks.

sorry I've just seen that you've tried the Vicks on feet thing.