To ask for a cough medicine recommendation

[diamonddandelions]

I can't have lemsip or anything with pseudoephedrine due to allergies and the pharmacist didn't know of anything other then ibuprofen which I'm also allergic too.
Had anybody found anything more effective other than hot squash and a paracetamol?

Not sure about an alternative cough medicine, unless you could try a kids one?
But instead of a hot squash I would recommend hot water with honey, lemon and ginger - I used to drink this for a cold when I was pregnant and it was quite effective.

Vinegar and honey, gargle then swallow. Revolting but effective. DH’s nan recommended it when I was pregnant.

Is it a dry cough that keeps you awake, a productive one, or is your throat sort of itchy and yuck? For number 1, I recommend codeine taken just before bed (it's addictive if taken repeatedly but I've never had any problem taking it just in the evening). For number 2, guaifenesin containing cough syrup or tablets can loosen the gunk and make it easier to cough stuff up. For number 3, check you don't have strep throat (white spots on the back of the throat plus fever and it needs seen by a GP, if you do have a sore throat and a fever though I think you probably need to call 111 these days!) and then really it probably is just hot drinks and paracetamol. My chemist recommended sage tea, no idea if it does anything, it's convincingly disgusting though!

What about Covonia? I did a quick search and I can't see that it has pseudoephedrine in it, but sometimes ingredients are just named differently. I copied this from one of the websites: Covonia cold and flu formula contains four active ingredients, the painkiller paracetamol (1000mg per 20ml), a cough expectorant called guaifenesin (200mg per 20ml), a decongestant called phenylephrine hydrochloride (12.18mg per 20ml) and an antiseptic called cetylpyridinium chloride.

Failing that, as kids, my mum always made us a hot drink with glycerine, lemon, honey and a tot of whisky or brandy. Soothed the throat and helped us to sleep... . Still make it now if I don't have Lemsip in.

Codeine linctus. About £2 is great.
I’d tried everything else but this worked great at stopping the tickle.
Simple old fashioned cough med but worked a treat when all the fancy pocket busting meds hadn’t.

I always have acacia honey at home for coughs. The only thing that works for us.

Chocolate.
I'm honestly not joking. I can't link just now, but medical research has shown that chocolate is better for a cough than cough medicine, as cough medicine is ineffective.

Spoon of honey with pinch of black pepper n eat slowly.
Salt water gargle & soothers throughout day

Anything with guafinesin in it in pharmacy - it's an expectorant.

Licorice tea is brilliant, also jake mans do cough sweets that stop a cough in its tracks x

Thank you! I've got some jakemans which I'd forgotten about so I'll try those first.

No sore throat and fever BTW.

Bronchostop is herbal, and works on all types of cough. Ginger and lemon tea with honey is good too.

I’d second Bronchostop - it works for us.

I swear by Bronchostop. X

If it's a night time dry cough then fishermen's friends lozenges are really good. They're quite strong so I normally have half at a time.

If all else fails then an eighth spoon of tumeric mixed into some warm honey works wonders as well

DH likes Bronchostop. I don't really believe in cough medicines, but I find the black Jakeman's sweets are very soothing. I saw them recommended on here and thought I'd give them a go, not expecting much. I have a couple before bed or if I'm going out into the cold.