Chronic night time cough with vomiting in 18 month old

[abigail_b]

Hi All,

My one year old daughter has had a persistent night time cough on and off for the last few months. About 1- 2 times per week it leads to throwing up.

She has had a series of colds...and we have usually attributed it to that, but we are starting to see that it occurs even when she is symptom free during the day. It seems to be related to post nasal drip. She co-sleeps. We have a cool mist humidifier in the room. I use honey, a homeopathic cough tablet, Eucalyptus Archangelica rub on her chest, and keeping her propped up as much as possible. Sometimes one/some of the remedies seems to help a little, but nothing is really eliminating it.

Last time we consulted with the doctor it was diagnosed as just being cold related...nothing that we could really do other than what we are already doing.
I have been reading some online about it and am getting overwhelmed- people dealing with endless diagnoses from the doctors (allergies, asthma, RSV etc.) all to no avail. Often the only solution people mention is Singulair which I am absolutely NOT giving to my child.

We are going to try sleeping with her in another room for a few nights to see if it is anything environmental in our room. We have a lot of bedding in our room (we have a king sized bed next to a full sized bed) which creates lint...we do keep it as dust free as possible since I am allergic to dust, but there is definitely still dust lurking. Also all the windows have light blocking curtains on them...with the humidifier going all night moisture builds up and some mold is always trying to grow on some of the window frames. We always stay completely on top of it, but I couldn't say that at any given point in time there isn't a single mold spore in the room.

We haven't tried any diet elimination yet which I know is what my naturopathic doctor would suggest. She still BFs, but her next favorite food is cheese. It is so difficult for me to think about feeding her without dairy as an option. There haven't been any obvious links to food.

Thanks for reading this far!
Wondering if anyone else has had to deal with this, and what worked to solve it!

[syn_ack89]

My 4 yr old is still experiencing it so no help here. Hope someone has an idea...

[Peony]

DD2 got this every winter from age 1-3, for her it was symptom of RAD (reactive airway disease). It was always after colds, an inhaler would decrease/eliminate the coughing. Last fall when she was 4, she finally got an asthma dx and proper treatment, no coughing this winter! And yes, Singular was part of that but after so many years of her symptoms, everyone was ready to give it a trial. You are on the right track, working on mold and dust issues. Covering the mattress for dust mites was another one we did. 

[NiteNicole]

My daughter is five and still does a lot of throwing up due to post nasal drip (allergies, seasonal).  Often, she ends up with ear infections as well, also from allergies.  At this point, if Singular worked, I would be happy to give it to her.  I'm all for avoiding unnecessary meds, but not at her expense. 

[abigail_b]

Thanks for the replies! I did make another appointment to have her looked at on Wednesday. I was just freaked out about the Singulair after reading the side effects on the website (hallucinations, suicide etc.) but I know those are extremely rare side effects and probably impossible at the dose she'd be getting...

[Wendlynnn]

You described our dd exactly from age 1 on. She's 3 now and still gets it during a cold. A year ago it was at its worst - we sat an ENT, GI, you name it. We tried reflux meds...nothing helps. Even asleep upright in the car can lead to cough and vomit (that was a fun car ride last week )

Our ped recommends the homeopathic remedy ipecacuanha, which she says won't stop the cough, but will lesson the vomiting side effect. Long term - hasn't been so successful with us. The Hylands Cough and Cold homeopathic syrup does seem to help with a little spoon of honey also to help suppress the cough.

Also, keeping a vomit bucket at the ready...sorry you're going through this!

[marispel]

My DS went through the same thing.  He barely had a cold but the cough stayed in his chest for weeks and weeks.   We finally tried Singular and it worked within 2 nights.  The cough was gone.  I was worried about the side effects, but decided to try it since we had done everything else.   We only give Singular when he first starts a cold.  We do a whole pill and as soon as the cold goes away we back down to 1/2 pill and then off of Singular.

He did wake up with bad dreams which he has only seems to have when he is taking Singular.   It has happened only two times and we immediately stopped giving it....BUT once he has a cold again we start dosing him because every cold goes straight to his chest.  We just try to do the minimum amount needed.

IDK - I'm thankful to have the Singular because the constant coughing and coughing for nights on end is much worse than the possibility of an occassional bad dream.

[beebalmmama]

My first ds had a similar problem with a persistent cough (except for the vomiting). However he would still cough during the day too. But the coughing would linger on and on after colds and then resurface with the next one. We also had a pedi suggest singular and asthma. But I was not comfortable with it and was pretty certain the cough wasn't in his chest but due to post nasal. It lasted until he was around 3.5 yrs old where we did some more tests and x-rays, confirming no problems in his lungs. Until then we tried to do a lot of allergy relief with his bed linens, dust etc, cut back on dairy for awhile to eliminate/lessen the mucous. Fortunately he did outgrow it around 4 yrs old.

Ds 2 (16 months) has had some coughing at night due to colds this year and we've seen the throwing up that you mentioned. It also seems related to post nasal drip and is usually a problem at night. When he has a cold I've been trying to avoid dairy to lessen the mucous. Otherwise we keep lots of towels/prefolds nearby to mop it up. But he is still nursing at night and so most of what is coming up is breast milk. Although he's had a couple of strong coughing fits that brought up his dinner.

[Catubodua]

much sympathy here - we go through it with every cold, and we're in the middle of it again now.  our washing machine is getting a workout from all the clothes/towels/blankets covered in vomit.  even worse for me is when he seems to be sleeping so peacefully and a cough wakes him up.... i almost want to cry every time i hear him start.