What could this be please?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

Disclaimer - Drs appointment is booked but not for 3 weeks!

DS is 8 and for a while has suffered with shockingly bad breath, I have taken him to the dentist who found no problem, and I have got him the antibacterial mouthwashes and I run a tight tooth brushing regime, he has an electric toothbrush and timer, he's missing 3 teeth but they're baby teeth. Dentist assures me there is no decay or inflation etc but his breath is awful it really is, I feel horrible saying it but I have had to move away from him at times (I don't tell him this) even after brushing it is as bad.

Combine this with constant itchy eyes and a bad sensitivity to light, I took him to the optician, his eye sight is perfect and apart from the very apparent sensitivity to light she could see no issues.

The eye thing started before Christmas and gets worse sometimes but I can't find a trigger.

Other things that may be relative, every winter he gets a bad chesty cough, he is given a blue inhaler for it, it lasts a good few months but there isn't any sign of infection, it's just all ENT sensitivity, lots of sniffing, coughing and throat clearing, tonsils look fine.

This might seem bizarre but he does seem to have incredibly thick saliva he struggles to swallow or move it around his mouth without making a lot of noise, this has always been a thing though.
So now I'm back to trying the gp, can anyone in the Meantime take a guess of what it could be?

I would ask for a referal to ENT if GP doesn't find anything. Sounds like a sinus infection. Does he complain of face pain or headaches?

He has been getting headaches since the itchy sore eyes started, this was the main reason for the optician visit to make sure he wasn't getting eye strain.

Thanks for the reply.

Sinuses do sound possible, that would explain a lot of it, especially if he's generally prone to ENT issues.

Regarding the eyes. We are an allergic family. Two of my ds's have had problems with itchy eyes. The oldest one started with eye problems around 9/10 when he reacted to chemicals (usually cleaning ones - could avoid at home but not in school) and felt tip pens (had to leave the room when class using individual whiteboards and marker pens).

The next year he started with very intensive itchy eyes and light sensitivity. This got progressively worse and he was rubbing hie eyes so much he ended up with tears (little holes) in his cornea in one eye. No-one knew what it was and he could see well enough. I thought it must be allergic due to his history but various ophthalmologists said not. He was eventually diagnosed, by a very good consultant ophthalmologist, with something called vernal conjunctivitis which is an allergic condition but is relatively rare and tends to affect males just coming up to puberty. The good news, although it is a nasty condition, is that it eventually burns itself out in the vast majority of cases. I'm not saying your ds might have this by any means. But I wish I'd know about it at the start as it was very difficult to get a diagnosis. So I thought, given the age of your son, it might be worth a mention so if you don't get a diagnosis and things don't improve you could ask for it to be ruled out. By the way, my ds had horrendous mucous problems at the same time and was almost constantly coughing.