Night time cough. SOMEONE SAVE ME!

[goldilocksandmylittlebear]

Please tell me the magic cure for my 12 months constant night time cough! He has been coughing every 2 mins since 6pm and been sick with all the coughing twice.

Had this a few times before and doctor gave us 2.5ml Piriton.

Have given him the Piriton, rubbed Vicks on his feet, put the yellow pages under the cot, given him s dose of Tixylix infant cough liquid (the only one you can give a baby under 2) and water.

What else can I do!!! Please help this is driving me nuts ( and him of course! )

My ds suffers with coughs.
Every time he has been sick with coughing it has normally been because he has had tonsillitis and they are enlarged and are making him throw up.
My Dr has also said a few times that cough mixtures do not work.
An emergency Dr gave ds nasal drops to stop his nose running and dripping down his throat causing coughing fits - that worked.
The only way I manage to help him really though is to sit him up in my lap while he sleeps - normally once a few hours have gone by he seems to be in a deep enough sleep for the cough to subside for a while.
Lots of drinks, steam, well ventilated room with damp towel/flannels on radiators to humidify the room.
Good luck.
BTW why did Dr give him Piriton? Does he have an allergy?

Meant to say - when he has been sick he has needed antibiotics. Has he had a high temperature?

The problem is that if you've already given him something and he has been sick it's hard to know how much of the medicine he has brought back and how much is in his system still. The doctor recommended a pholcodeine based syrup for my son (It's a cough suppressant) but I can't remember what the age was on the bottle - sorry.

It's awful to be going through this. I had it for weeks with my son - do get his tonsils checked though - if they are enlarged it will cause him to cough. Sorry I can't be any further help.

my DD has phases of coughing a lot at night, sometimes to puking stage, and doctors think it is asthma. very hard to diagnose in under 5s but occasional use of ventolin inhaler helps a lot for my DD.

We have just finished antibiotics for tonsils and then D&V. His nose is running alot and I think its this that's bothering him. Its so FRUSTRATING!! My GP says its "one of those things", another said its Asthma but the medicine has made no difference, a ped said it was an allergy, but nothing has worked! We were free of this for a few weeks and now its back and I know we will have no sleep tonight. I have already changed this bed 3 times since 6pm.

Dd had this a few weeks ago, we gave her tixylix (which didn't work), rubbed vicks on her cheast and used the carvol plug in vapoiser (sp) which seemed to help her sleep.

in pain they swear by an onion cut in half in the room

Onions are good for ear infections if held next to childs ear, onions are great for colds but just make my eyes run.

ONIONS!!!!!!! I think I'm going to hang myself

We had the same with my DS - He was hospitalized quite a few times because he didn't stop coughing at night. It went on most of the night for weeks on end. We got absolutely desparate and were told it might be asthma (we were given all the inhalers but tbh they did nothing for him. I really sympathise with you...I pushed our GP hard and finally got a referral to a paediatrician who identified enlarged tonsils and adenoids. They wouldn't operate under the NHS until he was two but we fortunately had private health insurance and he had both tonsils and adenoids removed at 14 months. It was a traumatic process - the operation etc - but we haven't looked back since. He's now nearly four and has been really well ever since.

Thanks MadMazza that's really interesting. We were in hospital a few weeks ago with tonsilistis, do you think they would have noticed if they were enlarged?

Turn the heating up? (at your own risk obv but worked with our various night time coughers)

Steamy kettle in the room or vaporiser sometimes works

Turn the heating up and wet cloths on the rad? How long would you use a vaporiser for or kettle?? Thank's Wilfs

I think it might be related to the tonsils. WilfsElf is right about the heating but also open a window as well to keep the air fresh (sounds mad but might work).
We have taken ds to hospital etc numerous times regarding cough and I think they do not understand how awful a cough is.
I think I saw that your ds has a runny nose - remember that will cause coughing if it is 'collecting' in the back of the throat so maybe nasal drops will help.
You can only suppress a dry cough as a chesty cough is needed to clear phlegm I think and you risk causing a chest infection by suppressing it apparently.

Well from our experience in hospital I would say no they probably wouldn't have noticed. During my son's first stay they diagnosed bronchiolitis and he was kept in for about five days - he was given frequent nebulizers of all sorts. Subsequent visits to hospital were a waste of time they always erred on the side of possible asthma. The first doctor to check his tonsils was the paediatrician - he referred us straight to an ENT specialist who recommended an operation. They do say that the reason why they wait until 2 years old is because the tonsils can shrivel up on their own but tbh we were so frantic with worry, lack of sleep and our son was so poorly we decided to go for the op early. It was a hard decision seeing him put under the anaesthetic and he didn't eat for a week afterwards (he did lose a lot of weight).

If you leave the lid open on the kettle it will continue boiling till you stop it - obviously within reason.
I bought a humidifier and found not difference. Also on a practical note is there someone to help you tonight? I have taken shifts with my sister and dp. I sleep till 12 -1 am while they taken over and then I will swap (although if ds is sleeping then I will continue to sleep). Just helps you a little.

MadM - think you made the right decision - my ds was taken into hospital with suspected heart problems which was actually his heart racing as a result of tonsillitis!

MadMazza your my life double! We had a 10 day stay in isolation when ds was 11 days old with RSV bronchiolitis, then had the stay with tonsilits last month, spooky.Do enlarged tonsils cause lots of virus and infections because he hasn't had 2 weeks of good health since he was born!?

Apparently if you let them drink some fizzy water then that can help ease the cough. Won't kill them if it doesn't. Don't know where i got that but only found it out today. Worth a try?

Turning the heating up makes DD worse, the air dries out too much.

We put a large bowel of water (boiling) under the cot with Karvol or Kiddie Olbus Oil in it. Also we use a Vaporizer but that is no good to you at this time of night... unless of course you live very close to me in Berks???

Errrrrm, other than that I have nothing. DD gets her worst coughs with tonciliti, also gets lactose intol once she has had a tummy bugs which makes her sick when she coughs for about a week. It is dreadful and everyone ends up really really tired.

Best of luck though, do you have a good out of hours or walk in center you can go to in the morning?

Sorry leoleomakingalsit do you mean the humidifier didn't work or was no better than the kettle......?

Still coughing and now sleeping on towels as sheets are all used up!

Milk and dairy products also seem to make coughs worse.

We put Vicks alot closer than feet too, we put it on the front of her grobag so it does not touch her skin.

We also use Mediced (evil evil terrible mother) to help dry up the snot and get rid of the post nasal drip.

God, my LO was hospitalised with RSV bronchiolitis at 8 weeks too. Scary stuff. My LO still gets TERRIBLE coughs hence the picking up of useless facts out of desperation in case another one lurks around the corner. Oh- a tip don't propo them up too high in their beds as they tend to roll out.

Thanks BlueBumedfly sadly I live in sussex so a bit far to travel to you! However I'm tempted to as its driving me mad!

Might give NHS direct a call now