persistent coughing

[linzoid]

My 4 year ol ds has had a cough for the last 6 or 7 months i think. Sometimes during the night keeping him awake and some weeks just sounding chesty in the mornings and then pretty much fine the rest of the time. The doctor just tells me to keep him on salbutamol but like tonight he's had some before bed and is now coughing. The doctor he sees at the hospital (for low immune system) didn't think it necessary for him to use a preventer. Does anyone else have any experience of this or advice?

I was told by my doctor that cough medicines were useless, honey and water works much better. My dd had a very persistent cough this time last year. I gave her warm honey and water before she went to bed, then I put a bowl of steaming water in her room with a few drops of Eucalyptus in it. Within about 4 days her cough had cleared up.

However if you are really unsure, then do seek a second opinion for him.

My dd had exactly the same problem age 4. She just used to cough and cough until she was finding it difficult to catch her breath. We had several emergency appointments at the gp and tried all sorts of thing including salbutamol. Nothing seemed to work. I had to explain to her teacher when she started school halfway through that if she sounded like she was choking, she wasn't, it was just this weird persistent cough. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was like whooping cough even tough she had the jabs. It did start with a cold but the cough lasted about 4 months then just seemed to go.

Apparently chronic coughing can be related to food intolerance. All the usual culprits: wheat, dairy, eggs, citrus etc. You might want to do a bit of research in that direction. If it is that then cutting out the culprit food for a few months can make a dramatic difference. A warning, though, some doctors are very cynical about food intolerance.

Linzoid: if you lived in Leicestershire they'd probably call the persistent cough asthma. When DH got diagnosed with asthma (for having a persistent cough) we were told, and read repeatedly, that coughing is actually the most common asthma symptom. Turns out that DH's GP is "the" asthma expert in Leicestershire. But DH didn't just have an annoying cough, he was completely knocked by it, couldn't sleep, therefore lost his appetite, therefore lost all energy. The cough was so bad we couldn't carry on a conversation. Drove me mad.

So of course, DH's "asthma" disappeared when another doctor relabeled it pneumonia and treated him with antibiotics. Guess none of that helps you!

Hi Linzoid, I dont know if this will help. Here is my experience.
Similar problems with both my boys ( age 4 and 2 yrs old at time of problem.) Antibiotics every two weeks or so for both for about 6 months until I went to see an ENT specialist.
He said the cough was "asthma /allergy" due to a nasal allergy.( dont know what allergen, but cutting out milk, actimel, yakult etc and bread and eating more rice does seem to help.I give them simple yogurt and cheese too. Also try to keep the house relatively dust free.(!) )
No obvious symptoms, just a thick gluey substance deep in the nose which could only be seen when they put a camera up both kids noses ( completely painless, over in less than 5 mins and both boys watched the TV screen as the camera travelled ! it was amazing!)The gluey stuff was also causing ear infections - again very mild so no obvious symptoms except the cough which was worse at night. ( night coughs can mean mould allergies. check the internet, stacks of info.. )
The 4 yr old was given nasal steroid spray and Clarityn syrup daily for 3 months, the younger one Zyrtec syrup and salbutamol inhaler, and it cleared up 3 months later. Now six months later both are symptom free . I do give them a daily maintenance dose ( very low ) of Ketotifen ( 4 yr old ) and Salbutamol inhaler ( 2 yr old ) to keep it from coming back esp as we dont live in the UK and geting to a good medic is not always easy.
When they get colds I put them back on the meds and the colds dont linger like they used to either.
Hope this helps...... Mine do seem to be growing out of it so maybe yours will too. Good luck, I know how it feels, its awful when you lie awake listening to a youngster cough and cough.

linzoid, might be worth asking for a chest xray just to see what the lungs are like? They can easily tell from this whether your ds has early stages of asthma and needs a preventer - you can ask your GP to send ds for an xray if the immunologist isn't forthcoming. Night coughing is often a strong indicator of asthma.
Speaking from personal experience - I had the same thing last year and the only thing that finally got rid of the cough was using the preventer for about a month, after that everything was perfectly fine again (I have had asthma since early childhood but it has virtually disappeared by now).

2under2 - whats a preventer ? I never heard of one. Is it something like a a nebuliser ?

iggy I mean a steroid inhaler... the brown ones, as opposed to a reliever one which is blue.

iggy yes ventolin/salbutamol is a reliever one and the seretide is a steroid. Have had them in different colours in other countries but in the UK they're always the same.

Thanks - Mystery cleared. Yes we use both dependoing on the situation. We also had to invest in a nebuliser( a machine that vapourises ventolin and other meds such as ATrovent and pulmicort ) and you hold it over the childs nose for 5-10 mins every 4-6 hours during a severe asthma attack.It acts like an electric reliever!
All so unnecessary cos since the correct diagnosis of the cough has been made ( Asthma due to allergy ) we just give the kids antihistamines daily and we dont seem to have any more problems.