How to not get fobbed off my medical staff

[Mushroo]

Im at my wits end and don’t know what to do. My daughter has eczema and some food allergies but otherwise has been really well and happy. She’s 18 months and loves food.

However, since about March she coughs every time she eats and drinks, like it’s going down the wrong way.

This has developed so now, since May, she’s vomiting around once a week, always triggered by coughing first.

We’ve seen:
the gp a million times and get told it’s viral.
A private respiratory doctor, who said it might be asthma, but inhalers and a course of steroids haven’t helped.
A NHS paediatrician who also said ‘it’s viral’ and prescribed saline drops (also no help). She did a chest xray which showed an infection, did antibiotics, still have the cough when eating.

I just feel there’s something else going on, (reflux? A swallowing issue?) but it’s weeks between each appointment and I just feel she’s getting worse.

You need to be referred to speech and language, your health visiting team or GP can do this.

Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) use various methods to assess swallowing, including clinical evaluations, instrumental assessments like videofluoroscopy and FEES, and observations of eating and drinking. These assessments help identify the nature and cause of swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) and guide treatment strategies

Thank you, I’m just in despair as that referral will surely take a few weeks, and in the meantime, I’m on edge every meal time that she’s going to vomit :(

Most SALT’s triage, I would imagine they would set this as priority. Your Health Visiting team should have a duty HV team you can talk to and hopefully their referrals are done electronically. You can also call SALT as some do offer a self referral or have an advice and guidance telephone number!

@Kidsaregrim thank you so much, it’s really appreciated 🙏

Given the cough on eating/drinking, the vomiting and the chest infection I would be asking if it was possible that she's aspirating and I would ask them to rule that out.

Another thing that might be worth considering since you mention that she has allergies, is eosinophilic oesophagus. My youngest was eventually diagnosed with this after at least 2 years of swallowing difficulties, vomiting and things "going down the wrong way". He also has multiple allergies.
It's rare, so I'm not saying it's definitely EoE but your little one sounds quite like my DS when it first started so I thought I'd mention it.
https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/patients-and-families/your-hospital-visit/adolescent-hub/specialities-and-teams/eosinophilic-oesophagitis/

Thanks all! I’ll definitely raise all of these at my next appointment

@MrsAvocet i have come across this and it keeps getting dismissed.

Would you mind sharing your symptoms? Did it start as a cough and progress?

The reason I think it keeps getting dismissed is my LO loves food and is 91st percentile for weight, but I just think it’s not ‘progressed’ yet