Chronic cough in 12 year old

[Tholeonagain]

My 12 year old daughter started with a cough in March. Her brother had the same thing and it seemed like whooping cough - bursts of violent coughing. It gradually changed into a more normal cough but it’s never quite gone - her brother’s did ages ago. She’s had at least one other cold in the meantime. She’s very well except for the cough which is up and down - some days worse than others. I have taken her to the GP several times who have listened to her chest and said it’s clear. It hasn’t responded to anti histamines or asthma inhalers. I just want it to go and am beginning to worry that there is something really wrong with her - I can get very anxious about health matters particularly involving the kids. Any similar stories/ thoughts?

Bumping for you, but my first thought was asthma. Did the GP get her to use a spirometer (measures her breath output)? Did the GP give asthma preventer inhalers (like the brown Clenil) or the blue one (like Salbutamol)?

My DS(9) was diagnosed with asthma last year but his was three bouts of breathing difficulties, with the third bout being serious, but I believe that a persistent cough is often a sign of untreated asthma.

Can you get a second opinion from a different GP and mention doing the breath test, if not done already?

My daughter had a cough for 6 months following a virus. I had taken her to my GP a number of times. On my last visit I saw a locum who said coughs can persist for up to 12 months. In the absence of any other symptoms she would not treat. I posted about it on here and someone gave me a really hard time about accepting that. However, GP was right, it persisted for around 6 to 7 months then stopped!

Thank you both! I am glad your daughter is better tinybirdie and that your son’s asthma was correctly diagnosed Globetrot - I hope he is doing ok. It doesn’t seem like obvious asthma because it’s not particularly linked to exercise or sleep and her chest always sounds clear. We had a blue inhaler which didn’t seem to make any difference. She hasn’t done the spirometer. I do think it’s linked to the original virus- which as I said was a horrible cough one which her brother also had and then the other one she picked up about three months ago when recovering. She’s well in herself and gets cross with me for keeping on dragging her to the doctors!

I've recently (last 4 months) had a virus with a cough. The cough has taken ages to go and even now I have peculiar coughing/choking things when something hits my throat. I think it's been left far more sensitive than it is usually.
Could she still be sensitive and thats making her cough more than normal?

I wod be interested to know Tholeonagain if you r daughters cough went away my 12 year year old son has had a cough for 8 weeks now Started off where the coughing was constant however improved but still coughs numerous times a day otherwise healthy No cold and it's a dry cough been docs given inhaler and antihistamines no improvement

Hi there no it hasn’t really gone away - it’s up and down! We took her to see a specialist- using health insurance- who wasn’t concerned and didn’t want to do any tests. And it’s not bad enough to disturb her sleep or bother her. She just coughs more than the rest of us/ most other kids … I don’t like it but I think we’ve done everything we can for now…