Constant Coughing

Hi. I just posted something similar to this about my 15 month old. He has had a history of RSV, and croup. He has had a yucky cough for 3 weeks, I too took him to the doctor who said it sounded like a sinus infection. He has no other syptoms, but runny/stuffy nose, which I believe it from him teething. The doc did give him amoxicillion, he has been on it for 6 days, still hacking. I do have a cool mist humidifier, and I do the ocean spray. The doctor also told me to give him Mucinex for the drainage, which I only do if he is really coughing. But it is getting to the point where I am wanting a 2nd opinion, because of his history with other illnesses. I think that he will always have the RSV in his system. Hope this helps, and if you find out anymore, PLEASE let me know. THANKS!!! And good luck!!!

Deslym cough medicine works wonders for nighttime cough. Both of my children have gone through the same thing many times. They ended up putting my daughter on a breathing machine with drops when hers gets to bad. Might want to ask about it.
Tks

Hi W.-my Mom recently told me about something that might help. Put vic's rub on his feet- I guess it helps stop coughing right away and decongestion too. I haven't tried it yet, but will if I need to. Good luck and let us know if it helps.

Hello, I am a grandmother and great-grandmother so understand what you are going through. Try rubbing Vicks Vaporub on the soles of his feet and putting on white socks. The socks protect your sheets, etc from the greasy Vicks. I thought this sounded strange, however it worked on my 15 mo. granddaughter. Also a teaspoon of honey coats the throat and stops the coughing. A word of caution - children less than 1 year old should not take the honey.
Hope this works.
J.

Have you considered environmental factors? Perhaps an air purifier in Tucker's bedroom would help. We have one in our 16 month old's room and it has helped tremendously with overall health. (There's one in our room too and my husband has not snored since we got it and has had far fewer allergies.) Sears carries the Whirlpool brand that was rated best by consumer reports. On a side note, medication - espeially so young - can often hurt more than it helps, so try asking your pediatriciam more questions as to why he is making his recommendation and maybe you'll feel better about a non-medicinal response. Good luck.

He could have acid reflux. My son and daughter would spit up and cough off and on and they told me it was reflux. S.

Hello my son was the exact way my dr even tried med and it didnt help. i ended up taking him to an allergy dr and after a lot of test it turns out that he has asthma. The type he has is called cough varient asthma. It took about 4 months of trying the vaporizer vicks..... if you would like i have a very good dr and if you would like to visit them email me and i can give you the contact info. ____@____.com

My daughter is 17 months old. We went through this last year and again this year. We ran the gammit with possibilities and even did cystic fibrosis testing which was negative.

What has worked the best was a prescription for Zyrtec (allergies) and a nebulizer. She has a breathing treatment with Pulmicort and Albuterol. Since she seems to be frequently coughing lately and can't shake it, we've been doing pulmicort 2x a day and the Albuterol every 6 hours. We've done this for the past week and some type of treatment at least once a day since October. The treatments really do work. We still go to the doctor at least once a month partly because I'm paranoid that the cough is going to turn into something else, but her lungs sound clear and her ears are clear. This past week we did a chest x-ray which confirmed her lungs are clear.

This is the same timing as her coughing last year. Her cough ended around March and didn't come back until October.

W. I'm happy you got some resolve to this but in my opinion, it's time to change doctors. Your son should have never gotten this sick. This doctor LET your son develop the problems he has now BY NOT treating him. He could of given you any number of medications to relieve the cough and congestion and the ear infection would have likely never occurred. IMO it happened because his tubes became so swollen from the constant coughing they could no longer drain.

The first visit and the doctor gave him nothing, ok, but after the second visit and he still gave you nothing, it took three co-pays for your child to be treated, that's just wrong!!!

If you put Vick rub on his feet and then cover them with socks, that should help his coughing at night. If you think he's too young for vicks rub then you can try a mixture of honey and a bit of vinegar the same way and it should work too. I have three kids and it's always worked for them. I don't know why it works so well on the feet but I'm sure it will help your baby. Good Luck.

I would have his Tonsils look at or if they aren't the problem ask about an anebulizer. Works great for my 1 yr old who is prone to coughs and lung problems since she had RSV when she was younger. Good luck, I know it's hard to watch your child go through that.

My daughter had the same thing happen. After to going to the doctor for about 3 months and with consistent phone calls, her doctor finally sent her to a pediatric allergist. Turned out that she was allergic to dairy and soy.

You might ask if they will refer you to a pediatric allergist.

Good luck to you.

I have a friend who swears about this...in addition to the cold mist vaporizor, drinking water, she puts the Vicks vaporrub on the bottom of his feet. Dont know it works but she says its great.

Hey W., one thing that stuck out to me was that you live on a farm, he may have an allergy. I would talk to you Dr. ask what they think. Sometimes it's hard to express the seriousness to them, they get a little callus to it because they see it everyday. Just keep expressing your concerns, if that doesn't work, switch doctors. I hope you are able to figure something out, i know as mother's it is hard to see our little ones like that! Good Luck to you! M. Rose in Webb City, MO.

my son has asthma and had the constant coughing as well. The doctor told us to remove all stuffed animals as they collect dust. She said to get rid of the humidfier and buy an air purifier. Put a pillow under the mattress to help elevate the bed. I hope he is doing better. I have heard of the vicks on your feet as well. I can't wait to try it on my own!

If you don't get some results from this appointment, I would recommend going to a different doctor. As the Mom, you know when something is not right with you child and if your doctor will not listen to your concerns and try to help you solve the problem, then you should find someone that will.

have you explored the idea that it may be acid reflux causing the cough? People sometimes don't realize that can cause a cough. With the other symptoms, I would ask the Dr. about that. I have had experience with a child with a similar cough and prevacid took care of it. They may want to do a swallow test.

We had the same problem with our 3 year old a few weeks ago. I gave her a spoon full of honey. It's thick and coats the throat just as cough syrup does. It didn't stop the coughing, but it helped enough so she wouldn't gag and throw up.

W.,

This may seem different, but I heard that if you put vicks or mentholatum on their feet and put socks on them at night it is supposed to make them not cough at night. I've had a few people tell me that it really works. You might try it when he goes to bed. This is supposed to be for a common cold etc... if there is something else going on it might not work. Give it a try.----J. C

This might sound odd, but if he has had a cough for that long, it is probably something in his diet or environment. Experiment with different foods and see if there is a trigger. If he has an allergy (doctors don't like to test for allergies...at least the minor ones that just make us uncomfortable)it could be restricting his breathing/airway and causing a constant cough. If there is nothing to "cough up" then he is just going to make himself sick coughing. I know when I choke on something and my throat is irritated, I cough...sometimes for a couple of days. I would start with Milk...take him off milk and give him fortified juice and rice milk. See if there is a difference. Talk to a nutritionist about altering his diet. There is even a very inexpesive (about $30) test you can do (saliva swab) with a nutritionist that will test for the major allergins. You might have to contact a chiroprator or some other "wellness" professional to get to the right person. Doctors dont believe in "diet" as a remedy...but that is the way our ancestors survived! They didn't have "medication" they had herbs and knew what foods to stay away from. These days our diets are so loaded with preservatives and hormones, we are not eating what our bodies intended for us to eat! I would start there. We found a soy allergy in my husband and a milk allergy in my son...the doctors either over medicated with crazy meds (antihistamines and antidepressants) or gave them nothing. Diet changed both and now they don't have any health issues!

Good luck...and you are actually lucky your doctor is not pushing medication that won't help him! That is hard to hear, but it probably wouldn't have "fixed" him.

There is a condition called Pertussis (I think that is how you spell it). My youngest had it also. He would cough so hard and it usually got really bad at night. He couldn't sleep and would throw up at night. He would have it for about a month and then it would get better for a few weeks and then it would come back again. We dealt with this for about 6 months. We were in and out of the doctor's office alot. Finally, I took him to the ER and they put him on about 4 different medicines. It finally got better and (knock on wood), he has not had it for a few months now. He is up to date on his shots (and apparently this is something they get vaccinated against) but he still got it somehow. Ask your doctor about that. Hope all goes well.

I will be making a phone call to the Dr tomorrow actually due to 2 of my kiddos having bad, barking coughs. My daughter barely has a voice and is running a low-grade fever. Our youngest is acting fine, but his cough sounds nasty! Guess we'll see with the Dr has to say.

I am glad your doctor finally came around to treating your son. I would recommend that you have your son tested for asthma too, just to be on the safe side. It is way better to catch it early that way you may be able to get it under control and into "remission" as was done with my son. My son is now 11 and does not have to have any treatments or medications, but when he was little we had to watch him really closely. He got bronchitis all the time and that was a tell tale sign. Good luck in the future.

I am sorry that your son and you are having a hard time. I was raised on a ranch myself and had semilar issues. It would usually start right after a cold then would last 2-3 months.I would usullay go months without any further problems until the next time. unfortunatly the more medicines they prescribed the more side effects with little to no actual relief. We later found out that I had a minor allergy to the grain dust. It really must be hard to watch your son be miserable, but if your doctor is reluctant to give meds it is probably best. However, an arbuterol inhaler/treatment when symptoms were at their worst, or after exposure to grain reall helped relieve me. I hope that your docter helps you a little better today. I hope that this will give you a couple of additional questions to talk to your docter.

W., I totally understand your frustration!!! My youngest went through that when he was a baby. It has taken years for me to find what medicine works for him. I was recently told by a friend to put vicks on the bottom of your or babies feet and make sure to put socks on. The vicks is supposed to soak in and work much better. Please give this a try and dont give up, if you dont think the doctor is doing everything he should, move on to the next one!!!
Good luck!!

hi this may be something called "croup" it is what my daughter had as a small child. she went to the doctor several times and they told me there was nothing that they could do for it, and it may be an early sign of asthma? we did not receive medicine but they did put a siringe in her nose to clear out the mucus and that seemed to help (even thought it is not comfortable at the time) also some things they told me was to put pillows under the mattress at night when she slept to elevate her head. A humidifier really seemed to help at night and I would definitely make sure he stays away from cigarette smoke of any kind. I hope this helps, hopefully he will grow out this, my daugher had it from about 6mo- 1 1/2 she has outgrown it and it never turned into asthma, hopefully this helps.