Are Drs advised to not treat coughs and colds?

[As2155]

My boy has had a cough for five weeks now. It’s mostly at night and sometimes he can have a hacking cough in the night. This can interrupt his sleep.

i took him to the drs and after 3 weeks in line with the NHS guidelines. They checked his chest but wouldn’t check his throat. Said it could be asthma so gave us an inhaler and sent us on our way.

a week abs a hakf layer his night cough was getting worse also had snot etc. it had a real bark. Took him back and again checked chest but wouldn’t check throat.

they said even if it takes 8-12 weeks to clear that’s fine and the inhaler will either work or it goes by itself. No other treatment offered,

I always remember once you hit 3 to 4 weeks you do everything you can to tackle the cough. However advice seems to be now to do nothing.

Anyone else experiencing this?

If the chest is clear then I imagine they are confident there isn’t an infection so they won’t need antibiotics.
There isn’t any treatment for a cold.
No idea why they wouldn’t check the throat though.

Chest has been clear so could be either:

1. Ashtma
2. Throat
3. Allergies

They seem to only want too look at number 1.

Its something I've not understood. I remember when our dd was quite little. She had a cough that would not go away and had had it for weeks and weeks. It was ruining all our sleep and she was getting run down. We went on an overseas trip and took her to see a doctor there. They gave a good examination, told us she had a bacterial sinus infection and gave her some antibiotics and a really amazing cough medication. Three days later she was back to her old self.

I had an infection so bad they were about to operate once. I was in the states at the time so had a shot of penicillin and it got better.

Or just a standard virus.

Why were they going to operate instead of give the antibiotics? Weird.

Completely understand it could be that but I don’t remember them leaving a virus for months without doing anything.

And to answer the other question I had been given tablets but they hadn’t worked.

I don't really understand the point you were trying to make. You were so close to surgery and then had a shot so didn't need surgery.

If you were in the UK you may have had IV anti biotic- you can't really compare

Completely understand it could be that but I don’t remember them leaving a virus for months without doing anything.

It's been 5 weeks.

And they absolutely are viruses that take months to shift.

It’s a virus. It will go, but will take a while. There is nothing they can ‘treat’ and nothing they need to treat.

Over prescribing antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance which is a large and growing problem. It's normal IME for a cough to linger for a few weeks.

Coughs can linger for ages. There no need for antibiotics if there's no infection. What more do you want the GP to do?

That’s what i was checking as it’s not how I remember it but as some have mentioned are they being over prescribed.

@As2155 antibiotics will not help a virus. If there is no bacterial infection (and your son’s chest is clear, so there isn’t) then it is a post viral cough, or he’s picked up another cold. It’s shit he’s coughing all night, but unfortunately it goes with the territory.

It's not unusual for coughs to linger for weeks. If there is no chest infection then there is nothig to treat.

You could look at his throat yourself, just use a torch to see if it's very red, white spots or anything. Does he complain about a sore throat? If he doesn't unlikely to be anything to see. Does he have a high temperature if there was an infection he probably would have. Can you get some cough mixture, or give honey and warm water, stuff to put on his chest to help keep his breathing clear at night. Ibuprofen for inflammation, all the usual home treatments to help relieve the symptoms.