Another coughing question

[Pixiedust34]

My ds has been coughing for over a month.

The doctor gave him an inhaler. It didn't help. He was tested for asthma and was fine.

His chest x-ray is fine.

Overall, sinuses are fine. No allergies.

He was given an antibiotic in case there's an infection brewing. He's still coughing.

Although he had the vax, the dr. gave him a blood test to check for whooping cough. That's not it.

Ds says he doesn't have heartburn, so it isn't reflux.

We go back to the dr. in 2 weeks if he is still coughing, as the antibiotic may linger and work for an additional week. If he's still coughing and we ruled out everything above, any guesses as to what it could be? All of the obvious seems to be ruled out.

 

[clm10308]

No idea, but somebody posted in the disabilities board about a kid having a condition of uncontrolable tics that included coughing.

 

[Lilliputian]

He had a blood test for whooping cough? I think they have to swab the inside of your nose and culture it for whooping cough. A lot of doctors can't do it in their offices. They have to send you to the county health building because the cultures have to be grown in a specific medium that most doctors don't keep in their offices. A blood test may give clues, but you may want to press for a real whooping cough test at this point.

He could have reflux without feeling heartburn. It would be a little unusual for it to just suddenly start badly enough that he has a worrisome cough, but it's not impossible. He could temporarily take an acid reflux med to rule it out.

I'd be giving elderberry syrup right now. It's great for lung health, and it sounds like he needs it. It won't hurt anything, even if it doesn't end up working. Which way is your doctor leaning about what to do next? If it were my kid, as long as the doctor had done thorough examinations (which it sounds like yours has), I'd be comfortable just waiting a bit to see what happened. Coughing is annoying, but some viruses just take a long time get over.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I have bad reflux and never had heartburn. I wouldn't even know what heartburn feels like to describe it.

I had a Barium swallow(think drink the chalk) done to see the reflux was going down instead of up. It was causing mad coughing problems and really making my asthma worse.

 

[3doodlebugsmom]

Well this may seem weird, but once I brought my DD who was 12 at the time to the ENT Dr. because her left ear was blocked. While the Dr. was trying to remove the wax that was cemented in her ear, DD started coughing.

The Dr. told me she was making DD cough. She said there is a nerve(?) in your ear that can make you cough if something is pressing on it.
So I guess you could try an ENT doctor if all the other tests are negative.

 

[aprilgail2]

A few months back my daughter had what they said was some viral thing where she also had a cough for over a month- then it went away. She gave it to my mother who also then had a cough for over a month until it went away. Last year in school I remember some other parents telling me their kids had it also.

 

[KimR]

My DD had went through this and it lasted for 8 months. We took her to a pediatric pulmonologist and they tried various inhalers and steroids, but nothing worked. They tossed around terms like exercise-induced asthma, chronic bronchitis and habit cough, but they never really came up with a definitive diagnosis. The problem with chronic coughing is that the more a person coughs, the more irritated the bronchial tubes get and it becomes a never ending cycle.

I don't know if it was coincidence or not, but she started to improve right around the time we went on vacation and she got a break from the gym (she was a competitive gymnast). Even though the doctors kept insisting exercise was good for the cough I really do think she needed that break.

 

[marcyinPA]

I have bad reflux and never had heartburn. I wouldn't even know what heartburn feels like to describe it.

I had a Barium swallow(think drink the chalk) done to see the reflux was going down instead of up. It was causing mad coughing problems and really making my asthma worse.

Same here, for the most part. I have had a few cases of burning- but mostly, I cough at night. I also had the barium swallow, and an endoscopy- both revealed reflux and I had an esophageal errosion. I just didn't feel the heartburn symptoms.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My ds has been coughing for over a month.

The doctor gave him an inhaler. It didn't help. He was tested for asthma and was fine.

His chest x-ray is fine.

Overall, sinuses are fine. No allergies.

He was given an antibiotic in case there's an infection brewing. He's still coughing.

Although he had the vax, the dr. gave him a blood test to check for whooping cough. That's not it.

Ds says he doesn't have heartburn, so it isn't reflux.

We go back to the dr. in 2 weeks if he is still coughing, as the antibiotic may linger and work for an additional week. If he's still coughing and we ruled out everything above, any guesses as to what it could be? All of the obvious seems to be ruled out.

Stop the presses....just because you do NOT have heartburn does not mean you do NOT have reflux.

I am a prime example. RARELY will I get "heartburn". However I have reflux.

 

[lizbaby007]

My mom has been having this problem as well. It started last month when I was visiting and has not gone away yet! She has been to the dr and seen an ent. They put her on an antibiotic and steroid (she is already treated for stomach acid). So far no relief and no concrete diagnosis. She is beyond frustrated and understandably in pain from the constant coughing.

This happened a yr ago. She got a cough and it persisted for over 2 1/2 months. No diagnosis. There seems to be some truth to the fact that the more you cough the more persistent it becomes as it is irritating your bronchial tubes. The only way she was able to get rid of it last time was using Delsyn (sp?) the over the counter cough syrup for almost a month. She was scared to use it for that long but it was the only thing that made the coughing stop (allowing some healing to happen in her lungs). She slowly weened herself off of it and the coughing stopped.

Now she is going through it again and wishes more than anything she knew what caused it in the first place!!! Hang in there, hopefully it will go away sooner than later.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

My daughter had this and it was asthma (sports induced) but started with a 4 month cough.

BUT DS also had this and it was GERD. He did not have any other symptoms. We did a few steps that helped it that I am sure your doctor would not have a problems with.

- tilt the bed where his/her head is up at least a 30 degree angle. We used extra blankets.

- stop all snacking at least two hours prior to bed time.

- make sure they slow down if they are a fast eater. Add more water into meals and try to reduce normal GERD triggers.

- This one may or may not upset you but we used one Pepcid a day for a month. Depending on the age you may want to ask the doctor on this, but a Tums would also help and both are over the counter.

Within the month we found a HUGE difference. My son would go through rough times (his was tied to stress that he was unaware of) and summer eating habits.

Good luck, I hope you figure out the little one's problem really quick. Not fun when they are have a problem you can't figure out.

 

[U2_rocks!]

My DD had went through this and it lasted for 8 months. We took her to a pediatric pulmonologist and they tried various inhalers and steroids, but nothing worked. They tossed around terms like exercise-induced asthma, chronic bronchitis and habit cough, but they never really came up with a definitive diagnosis. The problem with chronic coughing is that the more a person coughs, the more irritated the bronchial tubes get and it becomes a never ending cycle.

I don't know if it was coincidence or not, but she started to improve right around the time we went on vacation and she got a break from the gym (she was a competitive gymnast). Even though the doctors kept insisting exercise was good for the cough I really do think she needed that break.

Could she be allergic to something in her gym?

 

[Pixiedust34]

The dr. did say that the blood test wasn't exact. They could check immunity levels from the vax, and if the immunity was strong enough then he was comfortable ruling out whooping cough. They did say that whooping cough is making a comeback, which is why they wanted to check even though ds had all his shots.

I will ask again about acid reflux when we go for our follow-up visit if he's still coughing in a couple of weeks.

Thank you for all of the thoughts!

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Both my Dsis and nephew have come down with whooping cough, diagnosed today. Get the swab. Can't be confirmed with a blood test.
The entire family needs to be on antibiotics because they were exposed. Good luck with everything.

 

[mrsv98]

DD has allergies and when they act up, she gets post nasal drip and she coughs. However, several years ago she developed a "habit cough". That doesn't mean she is doing it intentionally or as a tic, rather, her brain got used to the 'habit" of coughing and continues to send the cough signal long after the need is gone. This was explained to us by a pediatric pulmonologist after she was tested. At its peak, DD was coughing 15+ times a minute. One way the Dr diagnosed the habit cough was to have her count to 50. She never coughed once. He said that when she was engaged in something, her brain was occupied and thus she didn't cough.

He gave us a couple of techniques to help control and eventually stop the cough. It took a couple of weeks but it did stop. Now we know what the cough sounds like, what triggers it and we are able to control it before it gets too crazy.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

My ds has been coughing for over a month.

The doctor gave him an inhaler. It didn't help. He was tested for asthma and was fine.

His chest x-ray is fine.

Overall, sinuses are fine. No allergies.

He was given an antibiotic in case there's an infection brewing. He's still coughing.

Although he had the vax, the dr. gave him a blood test to check for whooping cough. That's not it.

Ds says he doesn't have heartburn, so it isn't reflux.

We go back to the dr. in 2 weeks if he is still coughing, as the antibiotic may linger and work for an additional week. If he's still coughing and we ruled out everything above, any guesses as to what it could be? All of the obvious seems to be ruled out.

My younger son gets this every single year. It lasts for a month or two. To this day we cannot figure out what causes it. I think it's an allergic reaction to something that grows outside even though he has no allergies to speak of (although he has bad reactions to poison oak in the back yard).

I used to get a cough every day and it was due to my acid reflux. I rarely get heartburn during the day from what I eat and the only time I do feel anything is at night while laying down. So have your son chew on some Tums before going to bed and see if that helps.

Another thing that would make me cough is when I had to run in gym. I didn't have asthma but the cold or running would bring it on.

My other son has exercise induced asthma. His lungs are fine but he coughs like a fool when it's cold and he doing any kind of exercise.

Guess they inherited all the bad stuff from me.