19 Month Old Coughing at Night

talk to dr about asthma

my son has asthma and doesn't cough/wheeze from running or heavy physical activity like my sister did as a child---instead, he coughs for WEEKS after he has a cold because it always goes to (and stays in) his chest

Baby vapor rub works really well. So does saline spray and then sucking the snot out with the nose bulb. Good luck.

I have ten people in my house and we passed around the same flue for about two months!!!!!!! My son was very ill and I braught him to the E.R..... There really isn't too much you cannnnnnnn do but what my doctor told me to try (off record) was the Childrens Triamenic night cough and cold strips) He said even tho you shouldn't give it to children under 4 Take the desolvable strip break it in fours and give 1/4 of the strip. It should help with the cough..... My doctor is also a long time family friend. He did say he wouldn't just tell anyone to do this. But It worked for my son who was 18 months at the time. As long at you only use it once a night for no longer than three night in a row. And not durring the day even for naptime. Good luck to you and you're and I hope everything works out for you and you're lil girl!

Kimmie

Give an update on how she is doing please!

Try elevating her so she is not lying flat. If she is still in a crib you could put a pillow right under the mattress.

My son had the post-nasal drip for two months when he was 18/19mts-- it would get better then worse. Finally, I gave up on the homeopathic cough syrup and good diet and I took him into the doctor. He got all sorts of serious meds for allergies and asthma (he has neither) -- I was desperate so I used them and the cough finally cleared up. I don't know if that helps, but in my experience the post-nasal drip was really hard to cure without the meds.

Try asking the pediatrician to check for a sinus infection. For a while my son had a constant runny nose and a nasty sounding wet cough but the mucus was clear, he had no fever, he was running around and laughing as usual, and the coughing was mainly at night but even then very rare. The humidifier and elevating didn't really help and it didn't go away on it's own. After 3 visits to the pediatrician over a period of 3 months she finally said it might be allergies b/c his lungs were clear and everything else looked normal. Well, the allergy specialist found out it was a sinus infection. Once my son started taking the meds the runny nose went away along with the cough and he's been fine. Yay! The downside is that the antibiotics he's taking are for a whole month but at least he's almost done with it. Good luck with finding the source, though.

Is anyone a smoker in the house? Not meant to be judgemental but my dad was a smoker and I coughed every night until I was 16 when he quit. If not, it could be allergies or like you said sinus drainage. Have you called her doctor? Maybe there is something you could give her to soothe her at night. Maybe you could use a humidifier? Anyway you could elevate her mattress with a pillow underneath the mattress? Sometimes that helps congestion or drainage. Hang in there...you will get other great advice from the mamas on here, I'm sure.

She's old enough to have honey. So, before bed, give her a teaspoon of lemon juice (to cut the mucus) and then a teaspoon of RAW honey (to coat the throat). You can get raw honey at places like Whole Foods. Honey has been proven to work as well as cough suppressants and isn't as dangerous, you can't even get cough meds for a toddler any more!
Do it after brushing teeth, a few days or a week of this isn't going to hurt her teeth if you brush them in the morning as well.

Night coughing is a sign of asthma, or similar. My son has colds and they tend to go straight to his chest causing night coughs. Sometimes a breathing treatment will help and we are on a preventative through cold/flue season so that colds basically don't turn into constant coughs or breathing concerns. I'd talk to a pediatrician about the possibility. So many children these days have something similar that can be cleared up and prevented with a preventative inhaler.

You are probably right that the drainage goes into her throat at night, making your daughter cough. It could be the remnants of a bug. I also wonder about allergies. How long have you been living in this house/apartment? Does it have wall-to-wall carpeting? Could there be mold? Dust allergies (dust covers on pillow and mattress would help that immensely). A friend of ours had kids who had runny noses and congestion all the time until they moved to a house that didn't have mold. If it has been only a month, I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be allergies, but something to consider. Also, during this time (whether the cough is due to allergies or to being sick) it would probably be good to go light on milk products, as they tend to cause some congestion whether a person is allergic or not. I don't have a good recommendation to stop the post-nasal drip. Our acupuncturist (no needles for little tykes) is great with Chinese herb prescriptions (tablets -- not the stuff you have to cook). But I don't know what to recommend. If you are interested in complementary or alternative medicine, let me know. Good luck! Let us know how things go.
Siddheshwari

My daughter had the same problem... I started elovating her bed. At times I would have to have her sleep on pillows, on her stomach. for my daughter, she had asthema, and I would also put a humidifier in her room with warm mist. check for mold in her room... too.

Have you tried Vicks vapor rub on the soles of her feet, with socks covering her feet at night - right before bed??? That is what we do and it helps a LOT - if they wake up at night, apply some more to the bottoms of the feet, put the socks back on and put back to bed.

Hopefully this will help. - we use the baby brand of vicks just FYI

I am not a pediatrician but I am a mother of two with night allergies, as I like to call them. Perhaps there is something in your child’s room that is causing the flare-up (mold or dust) near window seals. If the mold is an issue cleaning it with a little vinegar and water can keep it at bay. The room could also be dry and in that case a humidifier at night might make a difference.

Essential Oils are the key. They're not a medication, so they can't do any harm, unless you've got an epileptic and you use the oils contra-indicated for an epileptic.

Good drying ones are the ones made from trees, and pungent herbs. Blend w/ lavender for good sleep and some orange or lemond to soften pungency.

Email me for more suggestions: ____@____.com
Also have cougher eat lots of parsley.

Just a couple of thoughts.....coughing at night can be a sign of an ear infection. I didn't know this until I went to the Dr with a cough I couldn't get rid of at night and was told that I actually had an ear infection and that coughing when lying down is a sign of that. Also, if your daughter is still getting teeth, it could be that she's getting a tooth in and is salivating more....which is making her cough when she lies down. Might want to take her to the Dr just to ensure that her ears are OK.

My daughter was doing the same thng. I took her to the doc and she said it was allergies. They were making her nose run and then when she would lay down at night it would all go in her throat and cause her to cough. She told us to give her childrens claritan or zyrtec and she prescribed a nasal spray. She is doing better and we are all sleeping again.

GIven that your whole HH had some kind of bug, the cough is probably related to that or allergies, as others have said. However, there is another possibility I thought I would mention, which is gastrointestinal reflux. Sometimes reflux can cause coughing, especially at night when your child is lying down and gravity is no longer helping to keep everything down.

you can add a tabletop fountain to keep your humidity up as it helps suppress alergens in the air and therefore helps her with that problem

My PEDIATRICIAN told me years ago to elevate the foot of the bed or crib slighly so that the drainage doesn't go into the lungs, you have to wash the sheets more but it does work.