HELP! Dd has terrible cough!

[lenaw]

Need some hepl and advice please - urgently!! Dd (8 months) has been poorly with cold for the past 3 weeks. Seen the GP - says her chest is clear, but she has this terrible cough that wakes her up during the night and she cryes and makes herself cough even more (to the point of being sick). If I try to get her up and give her a feed, she screams for hours! Cough syrup doesn't help (again makes her sick), same with Vicks.
GP suggested to let cold sort itself out, it's breaking my heart listening to her coughing!

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thanks I've just put wet towel on radiator... Too late to raise her cot but definately will try to see GP tomorrow
what did you do with bronchitis?

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My dd has just gotten over this. She got it at about 6 weeks old and it took 4 weeks to shake. I kept going to DR as she coughed so bad she would stop breathing for a second and then start up again. They said the same thing about it not being in her chest so everything was fine and let it run it's course. I ended up taking her to A&E even though I knew they would say the same thing.

This sounds stupid but eventually the DR at A&E looked in her mouth (which they hadn't done before) and said she had a really sore throat which is why she was also off her feed. That was all I really needed to hear so I asked if I could give her honey and lemon drink in water which is what I have when I have a sore throat (remember she was only 2 months old). They said no problem and this did help. Mind you as I was leaving after they gave me some saline drops for her phlegm the nurse made a sensible suggestion which was give her some calpol to at least help her sleep. She said kids didn't just need Calpol when they had a fever. I gave her some Calpol that night and it really did the trick letting her body rest enough to get on the mend. She's over the cough now and back on track so things are fine.

They are right there isn't much you can do but if you want to give your dd honey and lemon then put it in some warm water (to melt the honey) and use equal parts honey to lemon. If she doesn't like it much then just add more honey as this will sweeten it for her.

Don't blame the nurse for suggesting Calpol either as all I wanted was someone to tell me what was wrong and give me some advice if it was out there. I felt 100 percent better just for knowing it all came down to an incredibly sore throat. Good luck with it all. You could still raise the cot up even if she is sleeping in it by putting some phone books under one end. She shouldn't wake while you do this.

Oh yeah, one other thing people suggested besides towels on the radiator or a humidifier was to put her across my lap and tap her back (reasonably hard) like a physio would to help dislodge the phlegm. This did help bring the mucus out as even though she was swallowing it all she wasn't vomiting which amazed me as my son is well known for his vomiting.