Son compulsive cough driving me to distraction

[SadlyNotATroll]

3 months ago my son had a typical cold with a dry/scratchy cough. The cold is long gone but he’s retained this constant (and I mean constant, every 10 seconds) clearing of his throat cough-like tick. It’s driving me absolutely mad and I can’t work out how to help him stop. He doesn’t seem to realise he’s even doing it. I’ve asked him to cover his mouth when be coughs in the hope that the action of moving his hand up might make him realise and stop but that’s not working. I’ve tried being patient and also some tough love where I tell him he needs to stop it. I’m at a loss, any tips?

Both my ds have a tendency to develop this habit after they’ve had an actual cough - I’ve found pointing it out every time ‘your coughing again’ and reminding them 1 big productive cough not lots of throat clearing- it takes persistence but has worked. It sounds harsh written down but they don’t realise they are doing it and it really is habit rather than need.

My GP sent me a pdf about habit cough with some good advice on how to help ds to stop. It included getting him to count to 3 in his head every time he thought he needed to cough. For example.

Have you taken your child to the doctor to rule out other causes or injury?

Does he seem bothered about it? Does it ever escalate in a bigger bout of coughing?

My daughter did this and eventually her teacher brought it up too as it was quite distracting at school. The pharmacist recommended an allergy nasal spray suitable for kids so we tried that, roughly 3 times a day for a week or so and it disappeared!

My son does this on and off. For him, it’s a tic. He can cough every couple of seconds and it drives me mad but we don’t draw any attention to it. It usually lasts a couple of weeks but the last time went on for ages.

Ignore it and it will eventually go away.

My DH has had chronic mild asthma so once childhood and had a tendency to cough explosively to clear his chest, apparently he was taught to do as a child before inhalers became a little more sophisticated (60 yrs ago). DS now 21 does not have asthma but coughs just like his dad when clearing his thought or when he has a cold. I’m sure it’s just subconscious mimicking.

They both drive me mad because even after 35yrs together DH’s sudden explosive cough can make me jump out of my skin. It’s so random and annoying and can wake me out of a deep sleep. I have brilliant ear plugs to wear at night now, but even wearing them it can still wake me.

Most noises I can ignore but not the signature cough.

My tip is take him to the doctor for an asthma assessment.

I was that kid (and still am to a degree).

While my dad was still alive, he used to be really irritated by it. Eventually shouting from other rooms, "STOP COUGHING!" Or slightly friendlier, "Do one big cough, then stop."
For me, it's only really apparent the first hour I'm awake. It's like my chest and throat get claggy overnight, and I have to cough to clear them. Then I don't cough at all for the rest of the day.
I do have mild asthma, so I don't know if that contributes to it at all.

Yes asthma does contribute, there is likely something in your sleep environment that irritates your lungs.

Could be a nervous tic. Very difficult to treat. As you need to get to the root cause of what’s causing him to feel anxious.

has anything in particular happened in his life recently?

Could be, but it's been happening since childhood, and I've lived in plenty of places since then.
I reckon it's just another example of "bodies be weird."

Kindly, unless your son was doing this before he had a cold then it is worth getting him checked out. There are so many bugs going round that a dry tickly cough 3 months on is not unusual at the moment.

Failing that try Difflam spray from the Pharmacist. Worked wonders for one of my DC after a 12 week post viral cough as it took the irritation away.