For the last five days my 3 1/2 year old DD has had a cough with no other symptoms. No runny nose, no fever, totally normal energy and mood. She says she feels fine. But she coughs all the time -- mostly a dry cough during the day, loose at night.
I keep thinking it's either going to turn into an actual illness, or clear up, but it's hardly changed. What could be going on?
One thing I'm suspicious about is that the cough began the morning after her third night sleeping on a dusty OLD mattress that my dad and stepmom brought down from the attic of their little vacation house. I think the mattress came with the house when they bought it 15 years ago, so it could be many decades old, and the attic was as dusty and dirty as your typical attic.
So of course I wondered if the cough was a reaction to some dust/allergen/bed bug/something else in the mattress. But we left the vacation house that very morning, and she's slept in her own bed (organic cotton mattress, fresh sheets) every night since then. If the cough was a reaction to some allergen, wouldn't it have stopped or at least lessened by now?
Nothing seems to help -- I've tried spoonfuls of honey, warm and cold drinks, two different homeopathic remedies (I'll keep trying!), a warm steamy shower/bath (she coughed through the whole thing), etc.
What could it be, and is there anything that might help?
