DS, 16 weeks, spluttery cough - anyone with experience of this?

[flippyfloppy]

My DS is 16 weeks old and EBF. About three times a day when he is either reclined or sitting up, he coughs the way he would if he had swallowed too much milk. Like a spluttery cough, I pick him up and pat back until it stops but he is always quite distressed after it has happened because he can't catch his breath, a few seconds later he is then fine. He has a lot of drool at the moment and I had put it down to maybe that catching his throat but just wondered if this is normal or anything I need to worry about. Over the last week or so he has been possetting up more than usual after a feed or half an hour or so after a feed, not sure if is related? TIA x

Weird. Was just pondering that exact same thing about my 20 week old ds! He looks really shocked when it happen and it scares the pants off me. I also worry massively that he'll do this in the night and I'll not hear him and he could be sick/choke.

So not helpful in the slightest, sorry, but I look forward to hearing if anyone's more use than me!!

Is he teething? My ds is and he's been coughing in a similar way - I think it could be all the excess saliva making him splutter.

Thanks for replies! Yes it's scaring me too! Especially thinking could it happen when im driving or when we are asleep at night. Could they actually choke on their own saliva? He has got a lot of saliva at the minute so makes sense about possibly teething. I can't remember this with my DD.

I'm just sitting with ds now after hearing more choky spluttering and have had to stop the car twice in the last week because of it. Have also just asked dh - has anyone ever choked on their own saliva?! Haha! Sometimes after one of these episodes he'll just quietly go back to normal so if I'm not right next to him or in front of car etc I'm terrified that he's just silently choking but thankfully every time he's just been fine and looks as though he's wondering what I'm bothered about!

AWS, sounds exactly like my DS! His eyes go red and watery first then he kind of "chokes" quietly, then gasps and usually then gets distressed and cries. I have googled it too and seems like it can be quite common, think I might ring HV Monday too.

EXACTLY the same. Guess it may be quite common. I don't think I'd twigged how consistently this was happening until 'talking' to you...maybe I could also consult the fecking useless HV... If you get any sense about stopping it happening or just reassurance that it's not that dangerous could you post back here pls? My HV is seriously likely to just give an 'understanding' sigh and shrug. This has been the height of her advice on bf anyway. Sorry, going off on a different rant!

Have any of you considered silent reflux? My ds has this at the moment but he is much younger (7 weeks). Just a suggestion.....but many of the symptoms are exactly the same as my ds.....he was diagnosed a week or 2 ago and infant gaviscon was prescribed which has helped a little.
Good luck.

Hi beckieperk, it had crossed my mind, DS has never liked lying flat during the day (always slept on me) however seems to settle OK at bedtime. He never seemed to enjoy feeding when he was younger and for the first six weeks seemed to cry an awful lot! Also he has been possetting up a lot more in the last few weeks. I had thought that if it was silent reflux the symptoms would be more obvious and severe? Definitley will have a trip to HV next week and see what happens. Thanks again and I'll keep you posted AWS.

Thank you. Tbh I wasn't thinking reflux as he's always happy to sleep on his back and our incidences of this seem to happen when he's in his swing or car seat. That said, he hasn't settled well tonight but sounds more mucous-y than reflux-y iykwim? Apologies for the thread hijack - just describes precisely the concern we're having currently.