Chronic Cough - Elimination Diet - Update #15

[lyterae]

B. started coughing in late winter of 2009.. We too her to the dr. numerous times and were told it was "normal", nothing to worry about. We finally switched doctors in March who agreed that it wasn't normal especially going on for this long. She had a lung x-ray done (clean) and we were referred to her allergist for asthma testing.

Asthma testing didn't go very well, he said it was basically impossible to test at her age (4).

Over the course of several months now she has been on an inhaler (asmanaex), nasal spray, and prevacid. Initially the cough seemed to go away, it is now back and worsening and has been for about 2 months.

She was on prevacid for almost 3 weeks with no changes so we discontinued her use of it, and we also took away the nasal spray to see how her nose did (she initially went on it due to a constant runny nose/sinus infection).

At this point we're seriously considering an elimination diet starting the end of this week and pulling out wheat,corn, soy,and gluten. She is already dairy free.

Am I missing anything? She has had x-rays done of her tonsils and aednoids and they are "normal". I'm sorry if this is a little disjointed, this has been a long-term issue for us and my poor B. should be able to go a day(or weeks!) without coughing.

[True Blue]

Did they do any allergy testing?

[blessedwithboys]

do you use any chemicals in your home which coul dbe setting off the cough? for us, it was that, along with dairy. if you're already dairy-free, i bet you see good results taking out the other 4.

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by True Blue

Did they do any allergy testing?

Yes, she's had allergy testing. Nothing of note there. The items we've pulled out of her diet have been dairy (due to ezcema and constant stomach aches) and watermelon and cantaloupe (immediate rash around her mouth).

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

do you use any chemicals in your home which coul dbe setting off the cough? for us, it was that, along with dairy. if you're already dairy-free, i bet you see good results taking out the other 4.

We don't use any chemical cleaners, I already switched detergeants to something fragrance free, and she has the same constant cough at daycare (which is pet free and only uses "green" cleaners").

ETA - I really hope that pulling out the other 4 will help, we would all be thrilled if it meant no more coughing!

[kjbrown92]

I'd go to another allergist just to be sure it's not asthma. My niece was diagnosed pretty young (I think age 3). Removing gluten, soy, and corn will take out almost all processed food, so that's a great start. Also keep a food journal, since it might be something that's less pervasive (as in it's apple, potato, and rice, but since you have them all the time, it's "chronic" if you know what I mean). Make sure you look at all supplements/meds etc. for ingredients. If you're eliminating to check then you need to take it all out, down to the soybean oil and the xanthan gum level to really check. Then if the cough goes away, you can check what level she can do. Does she cough at night too? Or just during the day? And have you tried an air purifier in her room at night?

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

I'd go to another allergist just to be sure it's not asthma. My niece was diagnosed pretty young (I think age 3). Removing gluten, soy, and corn will take out almost all processed food, so that's a great start. Also keep a food journal, since it might be something that's less pervasive (as in it's apple, potato, and rice, but since you have them all the time, it's "chronic" if you know what I mean). Make sure you look at all supplements/meds etc. for ingredients. If you're eliminating to check then you need to take it all out, down to the soybean oil and the xanthan gum level to really check. Then if the cough goes away, you can check what level she can do. Does she cough at night too? Or just during the day? And have you tried an air purifier in her room at night?

It's day and night unfortunately, we are considering going to another allergist as well as an ENT in the near future if we can't get any answers. Unfortunately that would mean driving a significant distance, we already drive 1.5 hours to see her current allergist, it would be closer to 4 hours to see a pediatric allergist.

[Nosy]

Chronic cough was gluten for my DH- no gluten, no cough.

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by Nosy

Chronic cough was gluten for my DH- no gluten, no cough.

I would be perfectly happy to become a gluten free household if it meant that our dd could get rid of her cough. I'm hopeful that an elimination diet will give us some answers. Thank you for your comment!

[lyterae]

Update :

B. has been soy,corn,wheat, and gluten free for over a week now (she was already dairy free). She has been off of her inhaler since Saturday.

There is a very noticable improvement, however she is still coughing randomly. I've noticed that when she does cough it's a "little" cough, not a "is she going to turn blue or throw up" coughing spree like it used to be. She slept in our room and had one small cough as she settled in last night and that was it.. No coughing for hours on end or waking up in the middle of night coughing. I've also noticed that she has significantly less problems with BM's than she did before.

We aren't sure which of the things we've eliminated has helped but I don't want to start reintroducing things until she's stopped improving. So far everyday is still a little bit better than the one before.

[mamafish9]

I'm really glad she's improving. If it's taken this long and she's still not totally clear of symptoms, I'd suspect gluten first - it takes the longest of those three to clear from the body. It could be more than one thing as well, but I'd definitely suspect gluten.

[kjbrown92]

Are you keeping track of her diet to see if there's a correlation with any other food and the coughing? It's possible that there's a major offender and a minor offender....

[lyterae]

I've been keeping a food diary for her, and up until yesterday evening everything was fine. It appears that I accidentaly contaminated her last night at dinner. She had orange juice with her dinner (something she hasn't had since we started) and was up all night coughing. The orange juice was calcium fortified which I'm finding out could mean that it has corn in it.

[coop_mom]

OJ is pretty much the only thing we don't let my son have (he's 4). We attributed his rash/eczema to the acid in the OJ, but we're not really sure what it was in the juice that made him sick.

Good luck with your elimination diet, it seems like you're doing great so far!


--k

[lyterae]

We're still having the occasional reactions that we haven't pinpointed the cause (such as an enjoylife granola bar). However, we have now tested both corn and soy and they are a no-go. The soy starts instant coughing, the corn seems to kick in about an hour or so after she has any. So long as she's feeling well tomorrow we're going to go ahead and trial the wheat and see what happens.

She told me yesterday to make sure that I didn't feed her something she couldn't have, because she doesn't want to be "coughgirl" at preschool when she starts next week.
This was right after she had the supposedly safe granola bar and spent the rest of the day coughing.