Coughing

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

Long story short - 4 1/2 month old has been coughing lots the last two days. DH thinks she is maybe just playing with her sounds, but I'm afraid she maybe has a hair (or something else?) in her throat that is bothering her. Anyone have any experience with this? She doesn't do it constantly just sort of sporadically, but when she does, it's usually around 5-8 coughs. TIA.

[aramat]

At that age, my babies do cough as a way of testing sounds. It doesn't sound serious or turn their faces red, and they usually have a rhythmic pause between each cough. They may even do it with a smile. If I thought something might actually be tickling her throat, I'd let baby nurse, and usually that would take care of it. (Hairs usually go all the way through and come out in the diaper.) She could also be just choking a little on normal baby spit which can increase with teething.

[OneWithTwo]

My daughter did this and it was a game. We would say "oh my goodness, are you ok?" and she would cough more and we would just repeat. I believe it's a test with sounds, but like I said it turned into a game for us. My son who is almost 7 months, but was actually due in April, coughs all the time(on purpose) and plays the same game now thanks to my mom.

[raqi]

My DD (6 months) loves to cough. Whenever she sputters while nursing she gets a huge grin on her face and does a few more just for fun.

[jsh7809]

Mine coughs a lot, too, and I just read that one symptom of teething (and all of its accompanying drool!) around this age is coughing and choking... they're still learning to swallow all of that extra slobber. That made me feel better!
My neighbor has a 7 month old, though, who does that little "ahem, ahem, check me out over here!" cough and she calls it the "courtesy cough"... like he's just letting her know he's there. Funny!