Cough cough - when to go to the doctor

[Pook]

My dd (8 months) has had a string of colds over the last month, the last of which is on the way out. However as the snot has dissipated, she has developed a really tickly (I imagine - it sounds it ) cough, which is particularly bad at night. It doesn't seem to be bothering her, she is lively and doesn't have a temperature (though is a little clammy, but it is fairly muggy today, isn't it). No wheezing. But waking a lot in the night and it's horrible to hear her coughing away in her sleep. Any suggestions? Is there a point where I should take her to the doctor? Do cough medicines work?

I'm not sure if there are any cough medicines that she can take (AFAIK most of them are 1yr plus). Have you tried putting a pillow under the mattress of her cot to raise her slightly? Rolled up towel etc will work just as well, and as they are under the mattress you don't need to worry about suffocation etc Also, if it's not too cold, is it possible to leave the bedroom window open a little bit to let air in? A warm room can irritate the cough (I'm experiencing this myself at mo). If she does actually wake up from the coughing, maybe a little cool water in a bottle/beaker to relief the tickliness a little?

How long has she had the cough? I think I would probably take her to the doctors if it was more than 5 days, but that's just me, maybe I'm too rash

Hope the little mite feels better soon though

My DS had exactly the same thing over Christmas. Luckily he was 13 months then, so we were giving him Tixylix Night-time. Apparently "soothes children's irritating night-time coughs" or "exactly what it does on the tin"! Anyway, at the same time, we discovered that Boots do their own brand of baby cough bottle which you can give from 3 months. I was quite surprised at the time - like HiddenSpirit I reckoned they were all from 12 months... Afraid I can't remember if the cough bottle was chesty, tickly, or just anything, but good luck and I hope she gets over it soon!

message withdrawn

Thanks all. It does seem to be pretty persistent at the moment. What I've been doing mostly is going in when I hear coughing and giving her a drink of water from her beaker, which she takes (usually) while asleep. Just to wet the throat really. Poor lamb.
Think it's all tied in with a snotty nose, so perhaps not serious enough for doctor. If she's really bunged up I've found medised to be brill. And written in large writing on the box - may cause drowsiness! Yippeee. I'm a terrible mother - drugging my own daughter.

Was chatting to dh about this as he is seeing loads of kids and adults with this at the moment (is GP).
His advice? Cough medicines may as well be sugar water, there is NO evidence that they work at all, though they might soothe the throat a little. The best thing fora chesty cough is steam - take your child into the bathroom and turn on the shower or the hot tap! Or boil a kettle, and keep the room moist e.g bowl of water on a radiator etc ...

There's pretty much nothing a doc will do for a cough either - in fact dh was debating the ethics of putting a sign up in the waiting room saying 'if you haven't had your cough for a month or more - go home!' (not funny if its your kid, afraid its doc's sense of humor, his partner really wanted to do it but dh talked him out of it). Almost all coughs are, of course, caused by a virus and so there is little can be done. If your kid is coughing up blood or brown mucus, or exceptionally thinck yellow/green mucus, is running a high temperature or has been coughing for more than a month, or is wheezy when breathing OUT, then get in touch with the GP/NHS direct. Hope this helps, and doesn't sound too cynical!!!

And we drug our kids too - medised - HOOORAYYY! And when we flew to Canada last year we drugged them with antihisthamines to make them sleep on the plane and get over jetlag!

Oh Susanmt! How reassuring and refreshing. I love my doctor, and the last thing I want to do is add to her workload at the moment unless really necessary. If I deep down thought there was anything that she could actually do, or if dd had other symptoms, I'd already have gone. Just wanted gut instinct confirmed really.
Medised GOOOOOOOD!!

having said that...my ds was coughing very badly about month ago, I ignored it for about 2/3 weeks thinking "there's nothing doc can do". No other obvious signs of anything i.e. no temperature. Finally took him after 2 nights of no sleep and it turned out that he did have a chest infection.

obviously susanmt knows what she's talking about but this was just my experience.

Sorry - I did mean to add in that dh says, of course you know your own child best and if, at any time, you a worried then you should get in touch with a doctor or NHS direct. He says no decent doctor will refuse to see a child day or night if parents are genuinely worried (though he did get home at 4am on Friday morning having been called out to see a child the parents said was very ill and they were very worried and when he get there the kid was playing in the middle of the bedroom floor - his temp was 37.5, no history of convulsions but the parents were hysterical about his temperature - hadn't given him Calpol or anything and the kid was perfectly well - dh had a good few things to say about that one in the morning!!)

That is reassuring susanmt, my dd has a cough too although I'm not worried about it. Nice to see you btw

message withdrawn