Help - Mystery night time cough!!

[katchat]

Hi - I'm quite new here and this is my first attempt at posting a message - fingers crossed. Anyway, I have a 14month old dd who has had a nasty cough now for about 3 weeks. It doesn't seem to bother her during the day but wakes her up in the middle of the night and then she'll be coughing every 30 seconds or so for ages. It starts of sounding dry and tickly until eventually (maybe an hour later - yawn!) it starts to sound more productive, then eventually she gets back to sleep. Until it wakes her up again.

I've been giving her tixilyx before bed and have tried a spoonful of honey but not sure if they're working really. I have run the bath and shower before to make it really steamy which seems to work but that also really wakes her up, and not ideal to do in middle of the night.

Am getting desperate as she woke up at 3am this morning and only had 2 x 45 min sleeps after that before it was time to get up to go to work/nursery (bl**dy nursery - she was fine before going there!!).

Anyone else had this prob and got any tips??!!

Hi katchat, welcome to mumsnet!

My dd is 17 months and has this on and off. I give her Tixylix too, sometimes it seems to work sometimes not. If she is really bad I wake her in the night and give her some.

Try putting a bowl of water on her radiator (or you can buy plastic things that hang over the radiator) which will provide more moisture in the room.

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katchat, dd 17 months is exactly the same. She only coughs in the night and it follows the same pattern as your dd, starts dry, then becomes productive and sounds vaguely like she's choking which sounds more distressing than it is as when I've gone to check on her she's actually asleep and is coughing in her sleep. But yes, it wakes you up completely and then leaves you on edge wondering if it will start again. My dd had tonsillitis about a month ago and the cough started after that so I worried about a chest infection.

To vaguely put your mind at rest, I took dd to the gp. who said a chest infection would cause coughing all the time and would likely have a high temperature with it too, as well as lethargy etc. There's a possibility night coughing could be to do with asthma but he didn't think so in dd's case and said he thought it was the end of a virus and would probably clear up on its own.

Thanks everyone - think will boil a kettle a few times in her room before bed then keep it to hand so I can do it in the middle of the night too if need be.

Have tried raising one end of her cot but she usually just ends up scrunched up at the bottom ... maybe I'm making it too steep lol!

Doesn't sound chesty so not too worried about a chest infection (but am asking HV just in case!) but she did get it after having another virus so maybe it's just a remnant of that. Hope it clears up soon!!

She's due to have her MMR on Thursday (already been put off due to virus) ... would you let her have it or would you wait till she was absolutely 100%?

Thanks again everyone - you're all lovely!!

Katchat, sometimes central heating can really dry the atmosphere, especially at night. A bowl of water is a good idea or perhaps invest in a humidifier.

Homeopathy has worked for us and our dds several times with coughs. Literally, after weeks of just nightime coughing, 2 remedies pm and am, and the next night, nothing but peaceful sleeps all round. It's worth seeing a registered homeopath IMO, as they can give you a "constitutional" remedy.HTH.

I'd also recommedn humidifier - much more effective than bowl of water & quite cheap. we use it every time they have a cold.

Quick update - last night I filled her room with steam using the kettle (but may invest in a humidifier as this not strictly practical or safe ... boiling water, blah blah!), put olbas oil in her bath and put her to bed after a spoonful of cough medicine, honey and nurofen as she had a slight temperature ...

... and SUCCESS!! Heard her coughing a bit but it didn't wake her up and then she had a little cry a bit later on but settled herself back to sleep. Feel almost human today!

Will defo consider homeopathy though if it carries on - thanks batey

That's good news. Dd's little night cough has been better too, don't know why exactly, but she's had a more peaceful sleep.