CM Club - I need to decide what to do about this baby's cough........lots of opinions needed to help me please!!!

[bloodsuckingLOONEY]

Right, this is short as got to leave in 15 mins and got nappies to do, ds to dress (always strips off when at home!) etc.

Right, baby sibling is now 10 months old. A lot of you know she's had a bad cough for a very long time, not permanent but very very frequent.

We used to get her coughing so much she'd throw up all her milk. It's better than it was in that way but now she seems to get really distressed when coughing a lot, gets very clingy, lots of tears etc. and I feel awful.

Opinions vary on this one, some say children this age do get bad coughs as can't bring the phlem from their chests up very easily, others have said if she's too poorly to go to toddler group then she should be sent home sick. Thing is, if she has it this much, I can't really expect parents to keep taking time off sick (I've only actually sent home once for cough and that's when she was being sooooo sick).

Got to cut it short (just had to do horrible leaking poo nappy and now have to rush to school. A lot of you know the situation I'm talking about, if not I can fill the gaps later.

Sooooo......

Insist on Dr's?
Send home?
Keep having her hoping this phase will eventually pass?

I'm not a Dr and so can't comment but I must say although ds had trouble at times with colds, he never had half as many colds as this little one, plus I've never had another mindee quite like this before (with ds, I've looked after 6+ babies of this age group and none have been like this).

WWYD????

TIA

I have 2 los and ds always seemed to go through bad coughing spates, different to dd. Asthma and eczema run in the family so I mentioned it to the gp, saw asthma nurse and ds now has 2 asthma inhalers. Below 2 years old they won't label it as asthma but there is no doubt the inhalers have helped. As he's got older and lungs have developed it's been much less of a problem and hopefully he'll grow out of it.

Maybe a possibility to be dicussed with gp?

GP won't hurt. Insist on her going and offer to take her if necessary.

Definitely raise it with parents as a concern. Coughing that much doesn't sound normal.

It's so hard to watch them struggling to play and be happy, I'd say she must see a doctor for your peace of mind, say you need to reassure parents of other mindees thtt it's not contagious.
Offer to take her yourself if they can't make it to surgery.
All of my family are prone to these never ending coughs but I would not have expected anyone to look after them when thay are at their worst; Suggest Karvol, Steaming, maybe less milk and dairy while she's poorly, it can aggrivate(sp) the catarrah.

Thanks for all the replies

I've mentioned several times about going to the Dr's, she went once ages ago and the Dr was pretty rubbish and said it would clear. Thing is, I'm not sure if mum really went on about how bad it is and how long it's been going on for? Since I've mentioned it, mum hasn't been back. She's a very busy person and so I offered this morning to take her myself and she just said 'lets monitor the cough today as she didn't have it over the weekend'. I see what she's saying but my point is, she's getting this a LOT and it must really hurt It's a right hacking cough and sounds like she must be very sore in her chest and the tears also suggest this

I have to be careful and be sure I am right to push before I take the next step. Reason being is mum isn't one to bother Dr's plus we fell out the other week (first time I ever fell out with a parent!!) as I was trying to send said baby home as she was crying, had bad cold (again) and a temp of 39.9C (103.82F) and was at risk of convulsions (due to high temp). Mum went mental about me wanting to send her home, couldn't see the problem, said all babies get like this and I explained yes, children get ill but....(referred to sickness policy). Now, mum does seem to be different since I made her realise she can't bully me any more (yes, she was bullying me, it was horrible!).

I personally think this cough needs further investigation as I also wondered about whether or not some kind of inhaler would help? I even think I should get a Dr's note (somehow....don't know how to ask ) to reassure me that she has been to the Dr's and that I don't need to worry about the risk to baby and/or other children.

Just feel I need a bit more reassurance.

p.s. when she's like this she can be crying her eyes out if I don't hold her, then half hour later laughing her head of like nothing is wrong (still coughing) but then it starts to bother her again and she's all upset again.

Personally I would insist they take her to the docs, give her less dairy products for a few weeks and keep having her but I would carry on going to toddler groups etc as most children have coughs and colds at this time of year and keeping them all apart is hardly practical, i'd only keep them off and send home if they had a temp or sounded really rattly or were really unwell in themselves and obviously wanted their mum.

LMGs - I only keep her off toddler groups when she's very bad and believe me, she's been bad enough not to send her there!!!

p.s. have taken baby when she's been coughing and spluttering before as ok in herself and been given right evils from mums who didn't want their babies given germs and she's very messy with it (iykwim) and of course would throw up everywhere. Not being funny LMGs but I actually think I'd feel the same if I saw someone with a baby like this.....i'd be thinking 'god, that baby should be at home!'

My DD have bad coughing when she got a cold and the dr's gave her an inhaler. They said it would help with relaxing the breathing tubes with should then help with the coughing. She still coughed but not as bad, and she stopped using it before she was 3yrs old.

Insist that mum makes a appointment even if it means you taking her. I have taken mindees to the dopctors before, in fact with schoolie2 the doctor listened to me more than mum as she thought I had looked after so many children that what I said held more water IYKWIM.

Have you got an advisor you can speak to? I think it might be a good idea. We've all made good sugestions (well I haven't yet!) but maybe in light of the way she has spoken to you and behaved in the past, it might be a good idea to find out what they think you should do.

are there any other things that concern you. is development ok?

Thanks everyone. I've let mum borrow some karvol rub tonight and she's going to put drops in the room and give medicine. She also said she'll put her in with her as I've pre-warned how bad she has been.

Mo - you know what, I've lost all faith in advice from so called professionals. Each time I've tried to get advice, I just end up feeling like I've wasted time when I should be looking after the kids!!!

One thing I will say for mum.........she's been TOTALLY different since I snapped the other week. I felt so unprofessional at the time but baby was SO poorly, I just lost it. I think this is what had to happen to open her eyes to how she's been behaving. She was very grateful last week when I found other childminders for her children because I had to close. So, I'm going to see how things go as she's definitely acting more like she's trying to please me since

She told me tonight she has finally got a new au pair - arrived last night. So I'm hoping that she'll feel less stressed about everything and will hopefully take time to arrange Dr's etc. I've offered to take baby to the Dr's and have also said that Dr's do need pushing sometimes and explained how I know they are crap at times etc. I said I'd asked a few people about the cough and lots had said an inhaler MIGHT help so I'll chat to her about it again tomorrow (will probably email tonight).

Thanks again for the advice everyone

franny - no, she's actually very good development wise, she's way ahead of what her big sister was at that age. The only thing is she looks like she's lost weight but that's probably from the other week when wasn't eating well at all.

Good, sounds like you're making some progress. Lets hope the new au pair manages to sort them out too!

Me too!