Is cough medicine a load of old crap?

[Sparklingbrook]

I have the virus from hell.

Hot/cold achey, sickness etc. The worst bit is the horrible chesty cough which sounds like a sealion.

Does anyone find any cough medicine actually helps?

I think there is one make that actually contains something to reduce the cough but other than that it won't help with a chesty cough. You are best off with regular paracetamol and ibuprofen which will help reduce the irritation that makes you cough. Plenty of vit C to boost your imune system and lots of rest. Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks Topsi. DS2 had it over half term and I was so excited I had escaped it.

I find it helps. I buy Benylin if it's really bad, or Kilkof if it's just an irritating one.

I wondered about Benylin or that one with the bull on the front. They all taste vile don't they?

I am a little bit better, just barking more at night than anything.

I was only talking about Coughing Bob Fleming from the Fast Show the other day on a thread and now I have turned into him.

Oh, hope you feel better soon.

The best cough medicine is Gees Linctus which dh buys over the 'net. You can't buy the original formula one in chemists - it has chloroform and squill in so you get a great nights sleep

I've heard of that hidden but have no idea why. Chloroform-brilliant.

They are all just sugary syrup and do naff all unless you get one with codeine in it (prescription only)

I take Benylin if I can't sleep for coughing, or have a blocked nose.

But it must be the original one for dry coughs as that has an ingredient that helps me sleep.

It's only available in pharmacies.

I have something a bit like this :(
its horrible. im taking cough medicine only because i cannot walk upstairs without coughing I really don`t like it. Its just sugary syrup.

covonia really seems to work and tastes like creosote

No they do not - and I say this after almost 3 weeks of trying to get rid of a cough. GP said they are not worth it - ibuprofen & paracetamol as mentioned upthread
My ribs are so sore, it actually hurts to breathe deeply

Depends on the type of cough, if its catarrh then the medicine will help bring it up. However, a dry cough nothing can stop it. Most are sugar mix.

Cough Nurse is fab. You can get it from a pharmacy. It really helps a lot (and knocks you out in much the same way as Night Nurse so even if you have a cough at least you can sleep).

Some cough medicines can actually prevent you from getting better because it suppresses a cough where with a chesty cough you need to cough up the crap.

I find my son's Becotide inhaler the best thing to shift a persistant, dry, irritating, post viral cough

The only thing I find them useful for is soothing the throat to stop the cough for long enough (a few mins) for me to get off to sleep. They don't cure anything, but can ease the cough while you can still feel the mixture in your throat.

That said, a spoonful of honey or a locket type throat sweet fill the same role.

I went back to the GP today as it now hurts just to breathe normally, and REALLY hurts to cough or breathe deeply
I have apparently torn a muscle because of the coughing

Fecking useless cough medicine!!

Me too home now I can only cough weakly clutching my sides, bent over double.

Yeah none of them do much.

I like a bit of corvonia for a sore thoat, it tastes lovely and stops me coughing just long enough to drop off.

Hope you're feeling better soon, keep resting; I keep thinking I'm better and then I go to work and relapse.

I used to know a pharmacist who said that Covonia was both an expectorant and a suppressent so contradicted itself

I am still here, still coughing. I have Buttercup Syrup now. Docs appointment on Friday. What I don't get though is doesn't the cough mixture just go straight down?

DH is sleeping on the settee tonight. He's had enough.

smile - yep, me too
When i was coughing at the weekend, my 4 yr old told me to "stop being so melodramatic."
Hope he feels guilty now

Got straight into your stomach,not your stomach that's coughing! Steam and lots of it.get well soon x

Got earlier Doctor's appointment. Chest infection.

Oh dear sparkling have you got antibiotics?

You should make yourself a nest on the sofa and drink lots of juice.