4yr Daughter Constant Coughing From Sept-April

[moojuice]

Hi, I have googled this to infinity but still none the wiser.
My daughter (dry) coughs from 10pm - 6am, she started last year in september lasting all the way till april, and has restarted again now. Last year the doctors gave her the ventolin reliever inhaler first then the brown steroid inhaler to take every day. The inhalers dont seem to stop the coughing and weve tried all the usuall suggestions.
We dont smoke, nor have any pets, no mould that we can see either, and have bought an air purifier to try this year but thats not doing much anyway.

When I look online, I get pages and pages of people say "yes me too!" but nothing of any real help - no success stories.

The lack of sleep for all of us is getting to me, knowing this will happen all the time knocks the hope out of us. Not to mention the worry of something worse developing.

The purpose of this thread is to hear from the mums and dads whose child maybe has grown out of the winter coughing or pursued the doctors to get further than I have and get a proper diagnosis/treatment?

I feel the doctors are giving us a "generic" treatment "heres the inhaler" and thats it. They have not bothered to find out any triggers, allergies, peak flow readings (maybe DD is too young for that but) or lung scans maybe?

If anyone has beaten this I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Hi

My ds had a nighttime cough which was so bad he was vomiting at least 3 times a week, until he was 4 when a doctor finally decided he had asthma and started him on the inhalers. For the last 2 years - no cough and we can all finally sleep! However, it did take a little while to get the doseage and the medication right and we saw staff at an asthma clinic for months before it was sorted. Little ones can do peak flow readings but they might not get accurate results until they've tried it a few times, over a few weeks. What we do find is that if we try to lower the dose of inhaler it comes back within a week so regular, specialist appointments to review the medication are vital. I would be persisting with getting a referral to a specialist clinic.

For ds there is no specific trigger. It gets worse if he has a cold and then he needs the reliever inhaler but he doesn't seem to have any particular allergy, although he does also have eczema and hayfever!

Hope you get some answers from the docs soon.

Is it only when the heating is on?
Dust everyday, open her bedroom window for 20 min daily, put a humidifier if too dry (or a deshumidifiier is too damp).
And see if there is any impact.
Is her duvet different? down in winter? blanket in summer?

My DD had this type of cough when she was 4. It lasted about 3 months. She would cough so much she was vomiting and was unable to sleep. She had quite a few days off school as she was exhausted by the lack of sleep.
I remember just sitting up with her in the lounge until 5 or 6 am and counting the spaces between the coughs-it was less than 1 minute.
We live in a non-smoking household, no visible mould, mattresses vacuumed at every sheet change, carpets kept really clean. Nothing helped.
We went to the GP many times begging her to do something and in the end she prescribed a blue inhaler for us to use saying " I don't think it will work but I don't know what else to try"
As soon as she had her next coughing fit we used it and it actually worked! She still coughed a little bit but it with longer gaps in between so she could actually sleep. After a couple of weeks the cough stopped completely and has never returned (she is 8 now). We've never used the inhaler again.
I'm not sure if the inhaler worked or if the cough would have stopped on it's own.
Sorry, I know that's probably not much help to you right now but I know how you feel and hope you find some decent advice

my son was dx'd with asthma at 3 for constant cough Its only in the last year that he was allergy tested, as many kids outgrow their allergies -

The key allergen was dust mites. As soon as you close the windows and switch on the heat, the buggers proliferate.

So...anti allergy bedding: mattress cover, pillow cover, washed weekly. Pillow and duvet. Covers for these also washed at least weekly. Pref. at 60 degrees.

Hoover every day

Hoover the mattress when the bedding is off.
Pay attention also to skirting boards and also soft furnishings.

Air the bed and leave windows open for an hour or so a day - even in winter

Cuddly toys - if they a not washable, then put them in the freezer at least once a week to kill any mites. Reduce the number of fluffy toys on the bed - they harbour mites

I would consider a dust allergy too.

Intensively vacuum the matress and carpet i.e. go over the same spot 10-15 times (don't forget under the bed and any furniture), damp dust all surfaces, wash bedding (plus duvet and pillow) in at least a 60deg wash, also any curtains the room.

Remove all soft toys and hot wash or put them in the freezer overnight to kill off any dustmites.

I have even resorted to giving ds piriton before bedtime sometimes when his cough/wheeze/sneezing has got too much for him.

Good luck

x-posts shongololo

Great minds and all that though

Thanks for the replies, some good help there. She has two puffs of reliever and two puffs of (50) evohaler twice a day, I may give her 3 puffs twice a day to test.