We’re in 2026 and nobody has invented a cough medicine that works for children?!

[elm26]

I’m just going to vent here because I’m on what feels like day 728283 of no sleep.

3yo DD has this awful virus that’s been going around, our whole house has had it at some point or another for the last 7 weeks on and off. Headaches, snotty noses, coughing.

DH, DS (1yo) and myself seem to have shook it off the last couple of weeks.

DD is on week 6 of coughing her little lungs up especially at night. I took her to GP last week, said it was viral and lungs are clear.

Tonight, she’s had some junior Bronchostop but threw it up almost immediately after a coughing fit a couple of minutes after taking it. GP recommended a small amount of liquid piriton to dry up the nasal area and stop any dripping down her throat. Does nothing.

Why has there not been a cough medicine with actual active ingredients in it (like our night nurse for example) that works for children? I remember being given medised as a kid with a bad cough, yeah okay it made me drowsy but at least I slept and that allowed my body to recover quicker.

Is it genuinely because people abuse this and would use it to make their kids sleep “just because” etc? If so why hasn’t a non drowsy proper cough medicine been made? It seems so bizarre to me that we are in 2026 and we’re still told Vicks on soles of feet, chest, back (personally has done nothing for mine), vapour plug ins sort the stuffy noses but make them cough more, honey (for over 1’s) in warm water with a bit of lemon only soothes the throat I’ve ever found? Doesn’t stop the cough.

Genuinely don’t know what to do, I feel so sorry for her she’s exhausted and I’m thankful it’s half term and has been peeing down as it’s given me an excuse to stay indoors in my slobby “I look like I haven’t slept in 10 years” clothes, no make up, hair on top of my head and do painting, play doh, puzzles, reading books and other low energy activities with them.

The only cough syrups that truly worked contained opiates, so obviously got banned. Honey is as good a bet as anything.

They know full well what would work but children are deemed too small to have them unless they are hospital unwell so over the counter cough medicine is never going to work very well.

I don’t think there’s cough medicine that works for adults! Just as we can’t cure the common cold

It sounds awful and I feel really sorry for your DC. I hope everyone is better soon.

When mine were little I was told to put vaporub (or equivalent if too young) generously over the soles of their feet at bedtime then put socks on. Weird and random but it worked (and for others too). I don't understand why but it really helped, and hopefully helps yours too.

Yep, Vicks vapor rub (or use kwan loong oil if you’re near an Asian market). Soles of feet and socks on overnight. Helps with the coughing.

My mum did this for us growing up and I do it with mine.

I don’t know if this is okay for such a wee one, but my Indian friend swears by “golden milk” and the magical properties of turmeric for coughs and colds.

We had a humidifier in the bedroom, put on a good hour before bedtime, helped a lot!

Thing is, a cough is there for a reason. To get/stop crap going into the lungs and causing an issue.

we do have stuff that works, but suppressing a cough isn’t usually the best for us.

see also Imodium for diarrhoea- stopping your body getting rid of whatever is the problem quickly and efficiently. Or medicating fevers- not always the best thing as reducing the body’s way of killing bacteria and virus with heat is counter productive.

personally I rarely medicate- I’d rather feel shitty for a few days and let my body fight it off than reduce the symptoms with medication but feel ill for longer. Couple of TV days won’t hurt.

anyway back to medised. It was simply an antihistamine with paracetamol. Some parents were medicating to sleep, but another issue is they were giving medised alongside calpol and OD’ing on the paracetamol.

you can buy an antihistamine on it’s own still if you really wanted to. Side effects are drowsiness.

After I had a c-section under GA, and had a cold, I really struggled with coughing. I asked a nurse at the hospital, a GP and a pharmacist and they were all pretty firm that cough medicines generally don’t work. There is rarely a silver bullet. There is also not a scrap of evidence that Vicks on the feet has any actual effect on a cough, although having warm cosy feet can help you sleep better, cough or not.

I find Benalyn kids “cough medicine”, (which is nothing more than flavoured glucose syrup) can help to get rid of a tickle for enough time to get me to sleep. But it doesn’t fix anything. I currently have a cough after a cold and am using it at night time.

The only other thing that helped my daughter short term was to run the shower in the bathroom to build up enough steam to loosen mucus and help her cough it up.

We have a cough for a reason. The body is trying to expel build up in the lungs to assist with healing.

Re: Imodium. I agree with the point generally, but if you need to go out, it can be a godsend.

Honey is an expectorant.

@Whosaywhatnow
@Strokethefurrywall

OP already said that the Vicks on feet hasn't helped.

Pretty sure that when they used to put morphine and cocaine in the cough syrup that they worked pretty well. Might be a little hard to get ahold of though.

My grandfather used to say morphine is a very effective cough medicine! He kept a bottle in his pocket for his smoker’s cough!

It’s not going to be available these days though, is it?

Dont take cough medicine

Coughing brings stuff up from the lungs.

Coughing isnt actually a bad thing even if it feels like it at 3am

What about Ventolin? Only if it’s been prescribed but after 20 mins it’s always helped reduce a cough for my children

My ds was given an inhaler after a prolonged cough and it works

Ventolin is for bronchospasm. It won’t do much for viral infections, to reduce mucous, infection etc.

it can have side effects as well so shouldn’t be prescribed as a simple cough suppressant.

that and the fact that suppressing a viral cough means mucous and material will stay in the lungs, giving infection a great opportunity to take hold.

Yes and no. Yes, in those days it worked better in that people stopped coughing and slept. No, it didn’t in that suppressing the cough often meant that what is meant to come up via coughing settled on the lungs/the airways, caused complications and mortality was higher. Pretty much the opiates only really assisted people who were not going to get better due to the underlying cause and made them more comfortable on the way out, albeit usually hastening that exit somewhat due to reasons mentioned above and respiratory depression if the doses were decent enough.

What about a tickly cough, due to post nasal drip? I’ve never felt the cough in my lungs; it’s all in the throat?

I’m allergic to my cats, and have the symptoms of a mild cold, unless I take double the dose of antihistamines.

Bowl of steam with dried thyme.

Another vote for a humidifier in the bedroom here , we have the Vicks paediatric cold water version so no burns risk , hands down my best parenting purchase , improved many an awful cough and cold at night and 12 years old this winter and still going !

Even adult ones are rubbish we stick with honey and lemon and kids just the honey. Works a treat

The only effective cough medicines had codeine in them, Benilyn even had one called Benecod or something like that! Unfortunately that disappeared years ago. Now it’s about coating the throat to reduce the irritation, but only works for about 5 minutes.