Any advice please? Continuous coughing

**Toosh** · 05-09-2010, 01:34pm

Afternoon ladies

I wondered if anyone may have any ideas as to how I can help relieve Siena's awful cough?

She's caught a cold from Himself and has been coughing about every 30 seconds since 5am

Her chest is also really wheezy and I'm sure I'm going to have to take her down to the Children's Hospital again if she gets any worse. Fourth time in as many months

If I have to take her then so be it but if I could relieve her cough a bit in the meantime then at least she wouldn't have that to contend with as well as her chest. I've given her her inhaler and the steriods that she always has when she goes in (had some left over from last time) so her chest may start to ease soon.

Any ideas? Poor little thing, her cough sounds so dry and sore

Thanks ever so

ETA: she's 16 months

**cheeky_biscuit** · 05-09-2010, 01:37pm

When you listen to her breathing from her back, is it crackly/rattly?
If she's lying on her back, when she breaths in does the skin between her ribs draw in a lot?
If either of those 2 happens, then I would phone the out of hours doctors.
If it's just in her upper resp. tract, then there isn't a great deal you can do. Glycestrin syrup or honey might sooth things down in her throat & stop the tickly cough?
The thing with chest infections is they don't always get a raging temperature so they don't get diagnosed as quickly as say an ear infection.
Hope she's ok

**Loula** · 05-09-2010, 01:45pm

Maybe sitting in the bathroom with the shower/hot taps on for a bit of steam might relieve it a bit. Do you have a humidifier? We use one for the kids when they get colds and coughs and they really do seem to help.

Hope it gets better soon!

**Toosh** · 05-09-2010, 01:46pm

Thanks CB - yes I'm keeping an eye on the recession (the skin drawing in over the chest and ribs) and it's OK at the moment. She had it terribly last time though - you could see every rib outlined when she took a breath and she's a proper little fatty so she was really struggling to breathe.

She has a big asthma shaped question mark over her at present as she's had so many of these episodes since Spring that it could be something more than just a "respiratory wheeze" as currently they've labelled it.

I'll try the syrup as it does sound very dry and sore.

**bubbasweet** · 05-09-2010, 02:32pm

Honey is pretty good for this sort of thing, quite soothing albeit temporarily. I'm very prone to coughs and I quite often sit in the bathroom with the shower going so it creates a bit of steam. It eases things for a bit.

**Toosh** · 05-09-2010, 02:48pm

Thanks ladies - will give it a go. I think she's finally gone to sleep

**Bettie May** · 05-09-2010, 03:12pm

Sounds exactly like what Arthur had. Months and months (maybe about five before going off to the GP for help) of continuous night coughing... chest infections.... coughing up so much foamy mucus off his chest sometimes he was sick with it. He was then told he had a "virus related cough" but finally diagnosed as having asthma at 4 (they like to say the "A" word as late as possible apparently!).

He is now on a brown (steroid) inhaler morning and night and a blue (ventolin) as and when required. I didn't think it could be asthma as he never gets wheezy running around at school, only at night.

Since being on the inhalers he's only had one bad episode really recently and that may have been because I was slack on the inhalers. Not sure I want him on them forever though so we are due a review in a few months to see where we go from here.

Another factor not helping him turned out to be a dust mite allergy so keeping cuddly toys/rugs etc to a minimum may help.

You don't realise how much sleep you lose when someone is coughing like that. I used to have him in my bed as he would wake up gasping for breath sometimes and it would scare me. If it goes on for a long time it can affect their growth too as obviousy they aren't resting properly.

**suemarie** · 05-09-2010, 03:51pm

Originally Posted by Loula

Maybe sitting in the bathroom with the shower/hot taps on for a bit of steam might relieve it a bit. Do you have a humidifier? We use one for the kids when they get colds and coughs and they really do seem to help.

Hope it gets better soon!

I agree steamy bathroom helps as does a quick breath of fresh cool air, helps with croup too.

**DillyDally** · 05-09-2010, 05:23pm

I hope she is ok. Poor little thing

J was similar to BM's Arthur - he was evenutally diagnosed as asthmatic when he was about 3 and a half, after a year and a half of awful coughing, every night. And BM, I know all asthmatics are different, but J is 15 now, and doesn't take his inhalers all the time - it's definitely improved since he was little. And it hasn't stopped him doing anything.