Does milk make a cough worse?

[GingerPCatt]

DS (2.7) has had a cough for a few weeks. He's been to the doc and it's just a cold no infections. He coughs for up to an hour at night keeping is all awake. MIL told me that him drinking milk will make the cough worse and I should cut out dairy until he's better. DS is a very fussy eater and most of what he eats is dairy based (cheese and yogurt). Is milk making a cough worse an old wives tale or is there any truth in it? The doc didn't mention anything about it. With both of us being tired and grumpy I don't want to deny him milk unless there's some evidence it will help. Thanks.

your mil is sort of right.
milk (dairy) makes the body produce more mucus - which then needs to be coughed up.
if might help not giving dairy close to bedtime. if dc gets a bedtime bottle, maybe give it a it earlier.
sleeping a bit elevated (pillow under the sheet) can help as well.
if the cough is only at night and without him having a cold you might want o go back to the gp as it can be a sign of asthma.

Jus try going dairy free and see what happens. You can get soya milk and yoghurt. I have heard of this being really helpful for children with mucousy chests.

Ok I'll give it ago. Can anyone recommend some nondairy yogurts or milks that a child would like?
Thanks

I switched my ds to goats milk, cheese and yogurts and it made a big difference to him.

there is no medical study to say it does help BUT we've seen a huge difference in ds when we took him off dairy (for glue ear, cough, constant runny nose) - only way to know is cut it for 3 weeks and see if there is any affect.

Don't give soya products as a substitute - its not good for little boys especially
Coconut milk is nice, we don't bother with yogurt or cheese substitutes - if they can't eat it then I don't want to pay extra for some processed food
Add in more calcium rich foods ie green veg - quick google will give some ideas

Spider why is soy not good for boys? I didn't know that.

Soy has oestrogen-like effects.

We cut down on dairy when DD has a cold - and up the fruit and veg.

There are lots of links about soya for boys/men via google, one is www.nhs.uk/news/2008/07July/Pages/Soyabasedfoodandmalefertility.aspx soya contains phytoestrogens, the differences between the soya products in western world is they are incredibly processed. Because there are lots of alternatives we've chosen to avoid them.

Studies show that milk intake doesn't link with increased mucus or cough. A study also gave people milk or soy milk to drink which had been made to taste the same. Some of the people had a strong belief that milk made mucus worse and others didn't. The study found that the people that thought milk made mucus worse reported more problems after drinking either milk or soy. Please don't cut out an important food group suddenly and without good reason. There is a reason that respiratory clinicians don't recommend this to their patients.