5 year old always ill

[Lcw29]

My son is always ill. But I'm not talking just colds that he can continue through. He gets badly ill. He's had a cough for months. He coughs so much he's sick. He's exhausted all the time, his nose is constantly streaming. Currently green and horrible. He's had constant infections with tonsillitis, chest infections etc .. for years but I get fobbed off.
Now it's effecting school attendance. He's irritable and so tired. Nothing is ever visably wrong so Gp just says it's another virus ect.. tonight he was screaming his knee hurt and couldn't stop coughing again. Pretty much coughed himself to sleep. What could it be? How can I get a doctor to actually listen to my concerns? Anyone else been through this?

I’ve been through similar with my son and constant tonsillitis. Are his tonsils big? Does he snore at night? My son had poor sleep quality because of his tonsils and adenoids. I was eventually referred to ent which took a year.

good quality vitamins and probiotics have helped a lot! He has a dose of vit d3, k2, vit c, zinc, omega 3 and magnesium. I also try to get vit a in his diet through sweet potato and red pepper. He’s now 7 and hasn’t been ill since October but at age 5 it was constant.

He does have big tonsils yes. But the GP said it's normal for his age and unless he's had a certain amount of tonsillitis they won't refer.

I'll look.into the vitamins. Would you recommend any? Doesn't help he's awful with his diet. He's very fussy despite my best efforts to make him try things

Yeah you need to keep a record of it and ask them to swab the tonsils for strep a. My son had it from 18months so he qualified for having 3x a year each year.

vitamins - if your son will only have gummy type then tonic immunity vitamins are quite good. 2x daily.
theres also the mighty kids liquid vitamins. Both cost a lot though!

Have you had him allergy tested? We had some similar symptoms in my preschooler and he had a massive dust mite allergy. Has been a lot better since being on antihistamine. Could the cough be asthma related?

Has he been assessed by your GP for Asthma for the coughing? There is a cough-variant form of asthma where they just cough all the time ( but never wheeze) my son had it.

My son also has a dust mite allergy

My dd was like this she was eventually diagnosed with asthma but on top of this she had an issue with wheat when she was ill that didn’t show up if she was well. The minute she started to cough/sniff we switched to gluten free and it really helped manage the symptoms.

That's interesting. When we went to a@e last week he was given an inhaler which has helped a bit. I can't have gluten so it's possible he has an allergy of some kind. He's had about 5 bouts of tonsillitis in 2 years poor thing. He's a real trooper though

Here is your answer I’m afraid. If his diet is crap so will his immune system be.

Asthma can show up as coughing in youngsters so if an inhaler helped go back to the doctor to get more. Some doctors are reluctant to diagnose so if that happens switch doctors. Mine got her inhaler finally because she was staying with her grandmother and got ill so saw a doctor there. It really helped.

You should get allergy testing but in the mean time try an antihistamine

Gluten free diet - since you are gluten free you can just try it for a few weeks and see if it helps

Steam always helped my dd with a little Olbas oil. We put a small bucket in her room and filled it with boiling water. We used a 2 layer bucket with drainage holes for safety. Or you can use a humidifier.

Sorry if you have tried all this but this is what worked for us.
The whole thing is so tough for both you and your ds and it is hard to get doctors to take this seriously. All the above improved the symptoms a lot. Good luck