constant cough

[ruthie76]

Hi

My nearly 4 year old has had a constant cough since october.

Sometimes we can go for a few days without it but will always come back.

it is worse at night and I am surprised he doesn't wake himself up.

Normal child friendly cough bottles do nothing for it and neither does the inhaler we were given as well.

Have been to docs 4 times for it - three times he gave an antibiotic and the 4th time he said it could be leftovers from a croup infection. (but he never had croup!)

Is it just a winter cough and cold or something more serious?

any suggestions welcome - I have gone through the readers digest big book of family health (80's throwback and my mum's health bible!) and come to a blank

Could be a dustmite allergy - these flare up in winter and worse at night. Dustmites live in soft furnishing, especially mattresses and thrive in winter. I'm sensitive to them but more in summer when I have hayfever.

Try boil washing then ironing his bedding, wet dusting his room, open window for an hour or two and vacuuming. If it makes a difference at night, that could tell you.

DS (14 months) has had a cough since October. Antibiotics did nothing but an inhaler has helped (plus cleaning his room). Worth asking for one?

Our whole family has had a horrible cough for several months now, some of the coughing attacks are so bad you end up throwing up. I was given two courses of antibiotics. However, with the benefit of hindsight I think that it is just a very nasty virus going round. DD still has a little bit of a cough (especially during the night) and I have started to give her Manuka honey (Tesco sells it with a '10' rating). It does seem to help, plus lots of sips of water.

Has he been tested for whooping cough? It can last for months. It's also known as the 100 day cough iirc.

thanks for your advice

I think i will try the inhaler and see how we go.

bubbleymummy - i don;t think it is whooping cough as i have it it myself and its not the same cough - there is no real distinctive "whoop" but i will bear that in mind.

if it doesn't ease this week, we're for the docs.

apart from the cough he is is usual normal boisterous self.

is it worse at night when lying down

Alypaly - it is worse at night when lying down and first thing in the morning.

Gave inhaler last night but will take a few days to kick in surely?

Think I will go back to the docs - am getting fed up with in and the constant "that child has a very bad cough" etc from my dad and MIL!

www.dust-mite.net/
DS2 had the same symtoms month in month out.
It really got him down. Almost as soon as he laid down. So i went to john lewis and bought their good quality allergy mattress,pillow and quilt covers which are on underneath the normal bed linen.

The bed cover completely encloses the mattress and zips up round it. I actually sprayed a samll amount of fly spray inside it before i sealed it up.

his problems have almost gone.
The reason i thought it was the dust mite (although i hoover my house regularly) was that he didnt get the same symptoms if he fell asleep on the leather settee.
i was told not to hoover the carpet in his bedroom when he was around,so i did it just after he had left for school.

see if doc thinks 2.5mls of piriton syrup would help this problem, Ask doc to look at his nasal passsages. i bet they are inflamed. this causes the post nasal drip and then the resulting cough.

thanks alypaly

Will try this - we have piriton syrup at home for hayfever.

it might make him a bit drowsy. so it might be better just to give doses after school(if he goes to school) and in the evening.

check with doc. he may need a beclomethasone inhaler for a while just to calm his chest down....see what doc says. My DS2 had it for ages before we got help. DS2 used to cough alot when exercising and used to get quite out of breath. The steroid inhaler settled it down initially and then the covers carried on helping. he is now off the steroid inhaler and only uses a ventolin inhaler when he get a viral cough after a cold. he is not a real asthmatic but gets it after a cold.

My son was like this. The year he was 3, he got a cough sometime around October and then coughed until Spring. We tried Piriton, asthma inhalers, every cough medicine on the market. He couldn't sleep at night, was correspondingly grumpy in the day, it was a nightmare.

On the advice of an alternative health practitioner, I put him on a dairy and wheat free diet which cleared up the problem sharpish.

We went to the docs yesterday.

He has thinks it sounds like Asthma - we had inhalers last year but no sound diagnosis was made. so we are back on the brown and blue puffers and see how we get on.

Have also bought mattress & pillow protectors and will see how we go as well