12 year old, really bad cough

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My son has a really bad cough. He is not ill in any other way (apart from his throat and diaphragm hurting from the cough). He doesn’t have a temperature.

My other child has also just got over (getting over) a cough that they have had for 6 weeks although theirs wasn’t quite as bad. It did make them sick a couple of times from coughing.

My sons cough is quite intermittent. He goes for an hour or so with no coughing. The cough sounds a bit wet, but not quite chesty. It’s a bit of a honking noise although not exactly. The coughing fits are really bad and make him turn red and sound like he’s going to make himself sick with it. He also has a wheezy gasping intake of air during the coughing sometimes.

He had all his vaccinations, although obviously they were some time ago now as he is 12.

What might it be? Should I take him to the doctor as NHS website advises against? Would they be able to do anything? Is there anything I can give to treat him that would actually work as his coughing is waking him (and the rest of us) up at night?

Anyone?

He’s just going cough cough cough cough heeeeeeeeeeeee at night and just coughing in the day.

I don’t know what to do. Doctors phone line just says emergency appointments only all the time and it’s not an emergency.

Except at night, when he sounds like he can’t breath.

There's definitely no harm in taking him to the gp. I does sound a bit like pertussis (whooping cough). If its that then antibiotics can help but normally only if given at the start of the illness. Its sometimes called the 100 day cough because it does last for such a long time.

Sounds potentially asthma like if it’s worse at night. Take him to GP.

Have you tried speaking to a pharmacist? They are usually quite knowledgeable about symptoms and might be able to recommend something over the counter that could help?

Dd has been like this since the end of October and just in the last week it has stopped. There are some particularly nasty bugs around at the moment, and since she didn’t seem ill at all, other than cold sniffles we didn’t bother with the GP. I sympathise with the coughing at night though, it’s extremely annoying.

It sounds like whooping cough to me. I had it as a child, and the cough cough cough inhale sounds very similar. I guess it could be a milder version due to vaccinations - o see online they wear off after about 10 years, so I guess that is possible. I will take him to doctor to see- more worried about infecting others... Thanks everyone. Also good idea about pharmacist too.