Baby constantly coughs at night

[Dinkleberg]

Hi all. DS is 8 months and for months now has been coughing at night. Sometimes for hours on end. Sometimes he will cough up clear slime/mucus. He seems perfectly unbothered by it and will often sleep through the coughing fits but obviously neither me nor DH are getting much sleep!

I will say that he does get colds quite often (he has a sister at nursery who of course picks everything up and then gives it to DS) so not sure if it's just one viral cough after another, or wether it's something like asthma. He doesn't really cough much in the day, just at night. Nasal spray, Calpol plug in, vaporub don't appear to make a great deal of difference. He's perfectly healthy otherwise, no temperature, eats and feeds well etc. At a loss really!

What temperature is his room or is he in with you still?

He's still in with us, it's usually around 20c.

I have had coughing fits all my life, especially when lying down. Although I do have asthma, it wasn’t until my new doctor diagnosed reflux and I started medication that the coughing stopped.

Us too, it's exhausting me!

Coughing can be a sign of asthma

My son has this and was admitted to hospital eventually at 6 months old. He would only cough at night and never cried with it.

Turns out it was silent reflux , when he lay down at night the acid was leaking up and irritating throat and causing coughing

He was put on medication till 3 years old . We also had to sleep him on a slope to help. Some books under one side of cot to prop it up. Try that.,

My baby had it and lucky was admitted to hospital as I kept on at doctor about it so they took him into monitor him and it was silent reflux too.
Leaks out at night and irritates the throat.

My DS does this too!!!!! Every night, for those who say silent reflux... how is this diagnosed?

Reflux or asthma
Get him in with the dr asap

But for now, any possibility you could prop the cot up, but on the outside only, not inside the actual cot as that can be dangerous
So with the ‘head end’ can you put some books or similar, under that side of the cot? Anything sturdy would work

The hospital diagnosed it and then put him on medication

I would talk to your gp and mention the fact you are wondering about silent reflux - I think it's common and coughing at night a main symptom

In mean time prop up your cot at one end . I co slept so we got a wedge thing which also helped.

This thread is a god send.
My 2 1/2 DD coughs exactly the same at night. Otherwise fine in the day and has been like this for ages.
I hardly sleep a wink (hence me being up now)
I will be making an appointment for the GP in the morning to get this silent reflux sorted.
Thanks for posting OP!

At 2.5, I would consider asthma rather than reflux. Your GP will sort it either way. My DS was diagnosed with asthma from a persistent nighttime cough. An inhaler sorted it almost instantly.

@BananaSpanner oh right.
I have wondered that because in September 2021 she was in hospital with Bronchiolitis - we were given inhalers and for about 3 months afterwards she was still coughing day and night. The GP changed the inhalers and the cough cleared up a little but has still always been there at night time. I'll get this looked at again on Monday. Thank you

My DS did this, every time he got a cold he would cough for 6/8/10 weeks after then he’d get another and so it would start again. I kept going back to the GP as it was just not right but they always put it down to a post-viral cough. Finally got an asthma diagnosis early, when he was about 3 (although he’d had inhalers a while before this). I say early as they usually are reluctant to diagnose asthma before they can do a peak flow meter and that they don’t usually do until they are 6. He’s on daily steroids and inhalers but will still cough through the night if he’s had a cold.

@doublechocolatedigestives that's not true about age and reflux my son was still on meds till after 3

3.5 he was discharged from hospital clinic

He is now 6 and no longer has it but reflux can be there into them being children it's not just babies.

Definitely go take to gp about it reflux.

I've just taken my 5 year old for the same thing. Tbh he's nearly always coughed like that at night and I thought well it's one viral infection after another because he did get spells of not coughing too. Only when his sister came along I realised he coughs way too much - even with a cold, they don't really cough constantly unless there's something else up eg asthma. He's got an inhaler now for night time.

Have you checked the room thoroughly for mold, including in wardrobes, under bed etc?

My daughter was like this - it was asthma. One thing that helped drastically was rehoming our cat 😭

@YearoftheRabbit23 yes I thought it could be mould but we've checked everything and no sign. No pets so it's not a pet allergy.

Thanks for all the replies! I didn't consider reflux! DS WAS very sicky as a young baby, GP wouldn't medicate though as he was still gaining weight well and wasn't bothered by it. It's improved massively since we've introduced food.