cough cough dd9 coughing for a week now. so ill. i am at my wits end. dry cough, any exp, wil it end soon. plese help.

[PiratecatClaus]

finally got to a gp today, has antibiotic in case of upper bacterial infection. but is prob a virus. sick to death of it. she's been ill with one thing or another since b4 half term.

she is always ill. non stop. noone helps, and have no answers. my life is just looking after ill kiddy with no help. xmas was shit.

Sory you had such a bad christmas. You sound pretty down

Had a similar experience with my 6 yr old this autumn / winter. It doesn't help that he's autistic (and therefore uncooperative) so no-one manages to examine him properly. I'm solo with two boys, I don't drive and I don't have any friends locally - I have felt very close to the edge over christmas. I keep debating going to see the GP about my depression anxiety (instead of trying to get her to take an interest in the fact that my kid is ill because she clearly isn't very interested in that) but she can't change my circumstances and that's the problem

i have been down, the xmas thing was so looking forward to it and planned and did everything for visiting family and now dd ill once again. her illnesses set me on edge. so much.

i just didn't enjoy xmas. i know i am blessed in many ways, but when your kid is puking from coughing, you feel so helpless. on the plus side, there is improvement today. and the house is empty.

4nomore, i am sorry i know how you feel. x thankyou both for replying.

Cat -doesyour dd have asthma?

hi, she had infant asthma between ages 1 1/2-3 1/2 ish. coughed at night every night. only that. you know the one? no wheezing or anything in daytime. Mind you inhlaers didn't seem to do anything, she's carried on getting coughs till now really. I can remember her getting predisinole tabs a few times, for coughs.

She has large tonsills, and just recently one of the many gp's we see said she had tonsillitis. In fact looking back thru her notes ( at my request) one gp said she's had 4 or 5 lots for tonsills/throat in the last yr.

So i asked for a refferal to ENT which we have on Jan 14th.

I think tnat some kids with asthma only cough, they dont wheeze. And prednisalone is an oral steroid , usually for asthma and nit just a cough. Im confused.....

Great news abut referral to ENT. Our Ds was referred about constant " ear infections" that were actually fluid causing pressure in ear. V painful, he used to scream and runa hight temp. He had tonsils out and grommets inserted and went from being awlays ill to hardly ever.

Glad she is seeing a specialist soon

how old was your ds kristingle, when he had them out?

My gp was reluctant to say seeing ent was a good idea, said it was up to me 3 weeks later and another bout of tonsillitis and I asked her to do the referral. Yet she even said to my dd9, 'it's up to you if you go ahead with the op or not' which made it a tad tricky to say to dd, hey actually it will be up to the ENT people.

I know your ds had them out for ear infections, but did you dither in your decision. I have googled and have seen much conflicting advise about the pros and cons of having them out. But, i had min eout at 6, my mum had hers out at 16 and therefore it could be a genetic thing. It never stopped me getting coughs of course, and i am prone to some pretty awful ones, but of course i never got tonsillitis again!!

No advice but I know how you feel. Ds started school in august and has missed almost 5 weeks due to chickenpox, chest iinfection, terrible ear infection, slapped cheek, canker sores, numerous tummy bugs and various fevers. Dd (15m) has caught them pretty much all too.

It makes me very nervous, I feel like we're never on an even keel iyswim? Never a chance to catch our breath.

I feel for you i really do, it's so stressful seeing them ill. if you do a search on mn for the past 5 yrs it's prob what i've mainly posted about. Docs always said oh she will grow out of it, but she's nearly 10 !!

DS (12) coughs all night for long stretches. He is asthmatic but inhalares don't stop the tedious coughing.
This is what works :
Steaming him before bed
Cough mixture with pholcodeine in - can get it unbranded from chemist. He hates teh taste but it does seem to help.
THere is also an urban myth about vicks on the soles of the feet plus socks in bed - google it! I have to say, the night I did it he didnt cough, but had also done the steam.

yep have done the vicks on the feet!!

i have some revolting med its red with the pholcodeine in it. I thought she had a chesty tigh cough, but gp thinks it is prob upper resp one. Hard to know what med to give sometimes.

Cat -he was 3 when he had the op. They wouldnt do it sooner as he was too light ( apparently they like thme to be a certain weight, makes the anaesthetic safter i think).

We didnt have many dounbts as he had repeated bouts of painful illlness and many courses of anto biotics. Also his poor hearing was affecting his speech development.