coughing until sick - ongoing problem ?

[star32]

hi , i have a daughter who is 4 who constantly suffers with coughing until she is sick. every time she catches a cold ,which is quite often, the cough that comes with it goes on for weeks & weeks. she has been like this pretty much all her life. it interrupts hers and our life massively due to lack of sleep because of it. she doesnt seem to be able to cough without being sick , its awful. its usually worse at night time but lately has been affecting her during the day too. monday was spent with her laying on the sofa coughing with a bowl next to her constantly being sick . shes been to the docs countless times as we just dont know what to do, we have been given blue and brown inhalers but neither help ,sometimes even seem to make it worse.
she seems to gag really easily and i am wondering if this is the actual problem? maybe a sensitive gag reflex or something , she had issues as a baby when trying to put her on lumpy food , she would constantly be sick from gagging. she didnt eat lumpy food til she was nearly a year much to the health visitors disgust. could this all possibly be linked? she also snores alot, whether thats relevant i dont know. i just wish i knew what the actual problem was. people have suggested tonsils and adenoids being a possible cause , is this likely?
she has a hospital appointment at the end of the month after i finally found a sympathetic doctor to refer us, but i am wondering how they begin to look into this kind of thing? does anyone have any experience of constant coughing & vomiting? it really is making life miserable . shes only 4 but is missing preschool quite a bit because shes so tired after being up all night , and also because it is now starting to affect her during the day when its really bad. i am worried because she starts in reception at lower school in sept, and dont want her missing lots of school because of this. i just hope theres something we can do ... any info or advice would be much appreciated! THANKS XXX

No real advice but didn't want you to go unanswered. As I read your post and got to the snoring bit I was thinking "adenoids" too. Hope you get somewhere with the referral.

My DS is 2 and has similar issues but not as severe. He has grade 3 tonsils which means that they almost touch in the middle and it is likely that they are causing obstructive sleep aponea (but the studies have been inconclusive as he always removes the monitor on his hand). He snores like an absolute trooper because of the massive tonsils and the times he wakes at night are classic aponea times.

He has a persistent cough which is managed with a blue inhaler, but the slightest sniffle causes fluid to collect in his throat, resulting in more coughing (often leading to vomiting).

Only in the last 6 months has he been able to eat anything other than thin, smooth purees because anything else would make him gag, choke and vomit. As such, the muscles in his mouth haven't fully developed so I am looking into speech therapy for him.

We paid privately to see a peadiatrician as he also has reflux and it was at this appointment that they discovered the giant tonsils. He's been referred to a ENT specialist but they will not remove his tonsils unless it is causing severe problems (ie sleep aponea).

HTH

My DS is 2 and has similar issues but not as severe. He has grade 3 tonsils which means that they almost touch in the middle and it is likely that they are causing obstructive sleep aponea (but the studies have been inconclusive as he always removes the monitor on his hand). He snores like an absolute trooper because of the massive tonsils and the times he wakes at night are classic aponea times.

He has a persistent cough which is managed with a blue inhaler, but the slightest sniffle causes fluid to collect in his throat, resulting in more coughing (often leading to vomiting).

Only in the last 6 months has he been able to eat anything other than thin, smooth purees because anything else would make him gag, choke and vomit. As such, the muscles in his mouth haven't fully developed so I am looking into speech therapy for him.

We paid privately to see a peadiatrician as he also has reflux and it was at this appointment that they discovered the giant tonsils. He's been referred to a ENT specialist but they will not remove his tonsils unless it is causing severe problems (ie sleep aponea).

HTH

Tonsils. DS does this, horrible barking cough for weeks on end after every cold, retching and gagging, snoring and exhausted all the time. ENT referral took a bit of pestering but the surgeon advised removing them pronto. Just awaiting a date now.

You could be describing DD. She is 8 and has missed so much school (19 days since Sept) because of her cough. She has a sensitive gag reflex from her sensory issues and always gets the worst cough ever even if cold is mild.

I went to docs a few weeks ago and they said there is nothing they can do. She does not seem to have asthma and well in between episodes. She coughs if she hiccups or laughs to hard.

It is a nightmare, but I get the feeling she will grow out of it, like she has with some of her other sensory behaviour.

My son was like this at that age. His coughs went on for ages and often he was sick. He was also really easily sick if he didn't like some food or even if the texture was a bit different to how he was expecting! Things did improve after we changed his bedroom - his original room was quite chilly after the heating went off at night. But other than that we never found a solution. But he has grown out of it. Now aged 9 he is rarely sick - only with the occasional tummy bug - and seems much more tolerant about food generally.

My ds had always been exactly as you describe your daughter and we were trying increasingly strong inhalers. We got extremely fed up with the lack of solution and the increase in steroids with limited effect and so saw a respiratory specialist who prescribed singulair (which apparently is an anti-inflammatory and stopped the irritation in his lungs that was producing all the mucous) and this has pretty much stopped the problem. We just give the pills at the first sign of a cold and have not had any problems this cold/coughing/vomitting season. I imagine there's a lot of trial and error in treating these things and my ds may just have grown out of the problem, but I really sympathise with you and you may want to consult a specialist.

ahh, thank you for the replies, sorry hadnt been able to get online for a few days. have her hospital appointment nxt tuesday , so really hoping they are more helpful than the doctors at our surgery! nice to hear from other people that have experienced similar and that there may be light at the end of the tunnel ! something keeps swaying me into thinking tonsils and adenoids are the issue here ,n not asthma as the inhalers just dont work for it, unless a diff inhaler can be given, but we will see i suppose. XX thanks again XX

My daughter is going through the same thing, she's had inhalers and steriods. We went to A&E in desparation, they told us there is a bug that makes them cough until they are sick. They gave us a prescription for Azithromycin 200 mg/5ml, once a day for 5 days. They result was almost instant. The first nights sleep in 3 weeks!!! We have an appointment to see a paedatrician in 5 days after the medicene is finished. They only thing, the side effect is sickness, diarhorrea etc., but this outways the constant coughing and sicking!!

ahh, glad youve managed to get some sleep ,i totally sympathise. my daughter had her hospital appointment and they did blood tests and a chest xray , then she had a sweat test(for cystic fibrosis) on thurs just gone. just got to wait for results and next appointment . if nothing is shown on these tests, i think they are referring her to ear nose and throat specialist. going through a bad patch with the cough again at the moment, shes spent the last 3 days constantly coughing n being sick :( she cant play properly or even eat without throwing up because of it. theres no way she will be able to go to nursery tomorrow , i feel so sorry for her having to suffer like this. not sure what to do , her next hospital appointment (unless something specific is found on tests) isnt for another 2 months!

hope you continue to get some decent nights sleep , let me know how you get on x