Nasty Cough. Doctor says nothing to be done. Any home remedies or relief?

[WinkyWinkola]

My DD (17 mos) is being kept awake by her cough. It's really chesty. Poor girl is so sleepy in the day as a result and she's coughing so much, she retches sometimes. I really feel for her.

The doctor says she's too young for cough mixture which, he said, is a con anyway. He said a steamy room could help. I tried that but it didn't do much really.

Any tips please?

I found that lifting the head end of the cot a couple of inches helped.

Slice an onion. layer it up in a bowl with sugar. Leave overnight, then tomorrow spoon off a teaspoon of the syrup, and feed it to dd. It's sweet/oniony, but it will cause her cough to go from tickly to chesty and more 'productive' and make it go quicker.

I use it myself, but my dses won't touch it, so they sufferwith coughs for weeks.

try an onion compress on her chest/back when she's asleep. bizarre but really worked for my DS at about that age. I think it was just a chopped up onion (or half an onion) wrapped up in a teatowel, put in the oven to warm for a bit, then I taped it on to his back when he was asleep - I think the taping thing was my idea rather than the recommended method, but DS would not have stood for me putting anything under his teeshirt while awake. It makes the whole room stink of onions but it stopped him coughing at night altogether. I found the idea online somewhere so sure you could track down the official advice..

I used Tixylix Night-time at night but I've noticed that some places now say not to use it for children under 2yo.
Ask the pharmacist what you could use.

In the day, I used a honey, lemon and glycerine mix.

Agree with raising the head end of the cot.

I don't know whether this would be accepted by a 17mo, but my dad used to stir a teaspoon of black treacle into a mug of hot milk to drink before he went to sleep, it seemed to coat the throat and prevent the tickle, so he could fall asleep. He had it as a child; I have also done this when I had a bad cough, it tastes just like treacle toffee. It might be worth a try.