help! dd's dry coughing wakes her over and over.

[philosoikou]

My dd, age 20 months, is prone to coughing. It seems to be how she manifests any illness/virus? Very often, she will have no other symptoms other than a dry, non-productive, raspy cough that starts about a half hour after she's gone to bed, and just keeps waking her, at intervals, all night long. Luckily, nursing usually calms the spasms, but it means a poor night's sleep for us.

First question: what can I do, or give her, to stop the coughing? We run a cool mist humidifier, and Vick's on the soles of her feet does help a lot sometimes. But it's not helping tonight. What else can I do?

Second question: why does this happen to her? My older dd has never had a nighttime cough like this, ever. This dd has it quite frequently. Like I said, there are often no other symptoms. In general, she is happy and very healthy. I'm very curious as to why this issue keeps coming up. It tends to be 4-5 nights in a row, every 3-4 weeks (best guess). Would love to hear any thoughts!

Thanks for any help!

[sbgrace]

One of my son's had that. It was diagnosed as something non-specific but treated as asthma. He had viral induced cough-variant asthma though he wasn't diagnosed with that for a long time. He was treated for it (successfully) so he could sleep.

If that is the situation with your daughter what will help is a rescue inhaler or nebulizer. And prevention will be keeping her from getting colds which is very difficult at that age as they don't keep their hands out of their mouths. Good vitamin D3 levels will raise cold resistance and that might help her avoid a virus and therefore the cough that hangs on and so would probiotics.

[philosoikou]

Thanks for your reply! Wow, it had never occurred to me that it could be asthma. I guess I should look into that. No asthma in our family, so I'm not sure where that would be coming from.

Any other ideas?

ETA: I gave her some Chestal Honey (a homeopathic syrup) an hour or so ago, and haven't heard from her since.

[sbgrace]

Originally Posted by philosoikou

Thanks for your reply! Wow, it had never occurred to me that it could be asthma. I guess I should look into that. No asthma in our family, so I'm not sure where that would be coming from.

Any other ideas?

ETA: I gave her some Chestal Honey (a homeopathic syrup) an hour or so ago, and haven't heard from her since.

I hope I'm wrong and the homeopathic fixes whatever is hanging on with her. My husband nor myself had asthma. His brother doesn't have asthma. I don't know how he ended up there but he did.

[philosoikou]

I have heard it said that asthma cannot be diagnosed until age three, and that if "asthma" shows up before that, it is almost certainly food allergy-related. This would surprise me, as she's never had any other signals of food intolerance, but I want to make sure I'm covering all my bases. Thoughts?

[kjbrown92]

Coughing can be a sign of reflux (which is usually caused by food intolerance, barring a physical problem).
Coughing can indicate seasonal allergies, not necessarily asthma. Two out of my three kids coughed with allergies. If it's a dust allergy, you could encase pillows/mattresses and do other dust-reducing measures. Do you have pets?

[sbgrace]

This looks like a good thing to read. It talks about cough variant asthma that I was responding about. But it also talks about other causes of this like reflux and a viral cough (maybe this is it for you?) and makes suggestions about those. It looks like good information. http://www.pediatricplanet.com/aftercare.aspx?i=93

My son had allergies triggering his cough as he got older. When he was that young though he didn't appear to have allergies (and I know he wasn't allergic to dust or cat) and viruses appeared to be his only trigger. He did go on to develop the wheezing type asthma as he got closer to four or five. But I don't believe all kids do.

My other son was a severe reflux child (up to age 3.5) and he does not have any food allergies. That is still possible if she doesn't have allergies. That said a reflux cough in my experience continues in the morning (and was worse then here) because it's from throat irritation from the acid while the child lays down. But that is certainly another possibility.

One way to figure this out in my mind is if her cough responds to albuterol....

[EENS]

My oldest 3 children all had a dry raspy cough at night that lasted for weeks. One thing that really helped was a hot water bottle for about 20-30 minutes before/during bedtime placed near (doesn't have to be on) the chest, it can be on her side or partially on her chest.

I'm not sure how to do that with a 20 month old unless you can fall asleep with her and keep it near her chest for about 1/2 hour.

I hope she feels better soon.

[Panserbjorne]

not a big fan of combos, but the remedy I would have suggested looking at is in Chestal. If this helps, stick with it. If it doesn't hold, then start looking at single remedies. I'd look at drosera first.

People often have weak spots....places they manifest illness. That's the simple answer. My dd gets a cough/chest stuff. My other two do not. I never get coughs, my weakness is my digestion. Many system of medicine address the individuality, it's what I find to be so fascinating.

I totally agree with Kathy here that it could be reflux, food allergies, structural, yeast etc. but in homeopathy generally the why's don't matter as much as the experience. I'd still say drosera, but if I'd also have the structure assessed if it's chronic. A good pediatric chiropractor or DO is worth their weight in gold, IMO.

[kkfum]

nak...
maybe dust mites, like pp said.

also, my latest obsession is learning about vit d deficiency. it's linked to many illnesses/diseases including asthma. you may want to check levels. my whole family is very low, even though we hit the current "normal" range. healthy levels should be much higher & the rda should be much, much higher.

great resources:

www.vitamindcouncil.org

http://vitamindfoundation.org

[luv-my-boys]

well I have 2 "coughers" and I know what you mean by sleepless nights.

With one son it was reflux that we were able to pinpoint and treat by not nursing and lying down right away or nursing while lying down sleeping. We did use a med for 1 or 2 days to get us over the hump intially but once we knew about the reflux (which he outgrew) we were able to prevent it.

With another son it is allergy triggered. This one took us forever to figure out. He would always seem to have a cough which oh course manifested itself at nighttime. Partly because when your sleeping your lying down and you get drainage (that tickle in your throat) and so you cough to clear it. And it was particularly bad after colds so we attributed it to that but really it was that his respitory airways would get inflammed from the cold viruses and so make him more prone to react to something in the air. We now have my son on a daily low dose allergy med which has made his life so much BETTER. We were very worried about it causing damage to his airways if left untreated exasberating the problem furthur. We also have him sleep on an incline so that his head is slightly elevated (difficult/safety issues for younger kids) that has also helped. We also have a hepa air purifier in our house which even I have seen the benefit from. BTW we NEVER had allergies (anyone in our families) until us. oh course we'd be the ones and I didnt even develop them until my 30's.

[philosoikou]

Such a lot of great food for thought. Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to share your experiences and ideas.

I think I'm going to commit to a [very expensive] visit to our homeopath. She's really wonderful and has always hit the nail on the head in the past. Before we go to her, I'm going to keep better notes for a month or so, so that I'll have more information to give.

Her symptom picture is pretty clear. I'm not sure what is the cause, but your post, Panserbjørne, really resonated with me. That's how I think about this sort of thing, too. I was only hesitating on the homeopath because it's $125/visit.

I think we'll also visit the chiro. Our chiro has a good reputation for working with children, but I do get a little frustrated sometimes that she is reluctant to treat a particular problem; she's always pushing for regular, weekly visits. And I understand her thinking, but we simply cannot afford that approach.

Perhaps a trip to the MD is warranted as well, but I will hold off on that for now.

As for vit. D, I have been giving CLO for a long time, and have started, since fall, giving 1000 IU/day to my girls in addition. I may have their levels tested anyway. Thank you for the reminder!

I will be keeping all these ideas in mind as I try to get to the bottom of this!

[Mamatoto2]

I also love Chestal as well as Umcka for coughs/sore throat stuff. That said, my girls also get nighttime cough stuff that lingers. We've had success with homeopathic Allium Cepa and Hydrastis Canadensis. Love Drosera too.

[Kailey's mom]

Originally Posted by philosoikou

Thanks for your reply! Wow, it had never occurred to me that it could be asthma. I guess I should look into that. No asthma in our family, so I'm not sure where that would be coming from.

Any other ideas?

ETA: I gave her some Chestal Honey (a homeopathic syrup) an hour or so ago, and haven't heard from her since.

Silent reflux.. that could cause it also

[philosoikou]

Dear wonderful mamas, if you have time, would you please read my new thread about this little one's persistent vomiting?

http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1186829

I am starting to really wonder about the reflux possibility. Or maybe I'm on the wrong track?