Help! my 2 year old coughing when eating

[Tammywade]

Just need some advice
my 2 year old girl has been coughing everyday during meals for the last 9 months…
she will cough until it turns her stomach and then throws up sometimes I encourage her to sip her juice and sometimes that stops her coughing…
ive been to doctor and they thought it could be acid reflux I have tried omeprazole and gavinsgon didn’t seem to work at all so I don’t think it’s that… also it can happen at first bit which makes me think it’s not acid reflux… has anyone else had anything like this with their children and what was the cause ?
ps she took her bottles ok as a baby and started off on solids with no problems this started as a bug and has been ongoing ever since !!!

My DD has dysphasia, laryngomalacia, laryngeal cleft (amongst other things)

My youngest had laryngomalacia and had to get surgery but has recovered well and is drinking and eating fine since… but my 2 year old has never had any issues since birth with swallowing it has only started the last nine months ? When I describe it it sounds like she’s aspirating but doctors didn’t mention this ? Did your daughter have the same symptoms when eating meals ?

Have you seen any respiratory or ENT consultants? Might be worth asking for a referral.
My DD had acid reflux. But it was only diagnosed after close to 20 hospital admissions for see saw breathing/lung infections.

Doesn’t sound like aspiration as this is when food goes into airway and then lung which would cause chest infections.

Sorry, I meant her other conditions were only diagnosed after hospital admissions

Aspiration can cause symptoms like the OP is describing.

Fair enough I always thought there would be recurrent chest infections or cough outside of eating with ongoing aspiration

In some cases it can be that way. My daughter’s main aspiration risk is drinking so has to have thickened drinks. When she has a cold- her saliva or mucous cannot be thickened so causes coughing, then can lead to infections (lower lung). With food- anything too crumbly like the wrong type of biscuit, she aspirates but through coughing she can clear it out. It’s about changing it from a wet to dry cough using therapy techniques not dissimilar to those used for cystic fibrosis patients

she never coughs other than when she’s eating or swallowing foods… she’s never had chest problems or infections since she’s been born…and it isn’t every time she’s eating 9/10 it is…for whatever reason she can eat corn snacks and treats chocolate without ever coughing … I’ve tried Changing her diet to see if it was certain foods but it’s not… some foods always make her cough she isn’t losing weight we have managed to stop her from vomiting most of the time… it doesn’t put her off her food once she has thrown up or stopped coughing she will go back to the food…I’m so tired of trying to figure out the cause of it… she’s always constipated aswel not sure if that’s related but she has dark hard pebble like stools for the the last nine months aswel… just worried that it’s something that could be treated or avoided and I may be making it worse without knowing…

Is she drinking enough?
DD has chronic constipation too, doctors believe it’s due to the thickening agent and not drinking enough due to being a bit phobic

Also doctor has referred her to get blood test and a scan done… been waiting on an appointment for her to be seen to for seven months I’m hoping the bloods and scan doesn’t take as long… if they don’t have answers by then I will ask to be referred to ENT…

She stoped drinking bottles (milk) since ten months and went straight to juice dilute… she refuses to drink water at all just spits it out… but she drinks plenty of juice only way I can get water into her… she would drink 5-10 cups a day and she has to take one to bed and would still wake in middle of the night for a drink… think it’s a comfort thing for her as she couldn’t be thirsty

Does she cough when she’s drinking at night? Speak to the GP about the constipation too look at the Eric website for advice on managing constipation (not all GPS are clued up on how to manage constipation)

My daughter was coughing when eating at 2 years she also had problems breathing though her nose and snoring. We had ENT referral and it was her tonsils and adenoids too big. She got them removed that fixed a problem she is gaining weight now, that was a problem before.

When this all started it only happened at bed time or middle of the night but it’s never at that time now she would never cough when drinking during the day or night… I will look into that thanks… although her stools are black hard pebbles she doesn’t seem to have any cramps or discomfort she just finds it hard to pass them…

definitely worth going back to GP.
It’s probably better to get on top of constipation too before it becomes a problem, constipation can take ages to resolve and if one day causes a tear or lots of pain can end up withholding in fear of it happening again.

@Tammywadei know this is an old thread but we have the exact same symptoms. Did you get anywhere?