Need help with toddler's constant coughing at night

[PigletsMommy]

Sounds like the same thing my DD (22 months) is just getting over. Hers lasted a little over 2 weeks. She also has allergies and asthma. She was on Benedryl & her nebulizer. Her Ped let us try children's claritin but I did not see any improvement. Benedryl actually seemed to work better. Vicks & the humidifier helped some. I also 2nd proping her crib mattress up on one side.

DH & I also had problems the last 3 weeks. Coughing, sinus issues, & sore throat.

Apparently the ragweed is really bad in our area...our doctors are saying the are seeing a ton of these cases right now.

 

[Laura]

If your son has an allergy and not a cold, you could be making things worse with the humidifier (depending on the allergy). My DH has allergic asthma--his allergy is to dust mites, which propagate in humidity. He would cough like crazy when we went to bed at night until we found out the problem. We've been vacuuming the bed, the pillows, using dust mite covers on the pillows and mattress and things are better. Can't eliminate the little buggers completely, but we can improve things.

And I would stop the Vicks. See if Zyrtec can be given.

 

[golfgal]

Sounds like the same thing my DD (22 months) is just getting over. Hers lasted a little over 2 weeks. She also has allergies and asthma. She was on Benedryl & her nebulizer. Her Ped let us try children's claritin but I did not see any improvement. Benedryl actually seemed to work better. Vicks & the humidifier helped some. I also 2nd proping her crib mattress up on one side.

DH & I also had problems the last 3 weeks. Coughing, sinus issues, & sore throat.

Apparently the ragweed is really bad in our area...our doctors are saying the are seeing a ton of these cases right now.

Ragweed has been horrible the past couple years.


OP, does your son get ear infections?

 

[disneydawgs4]

Haven't read all the replies, but I do know that we have been through this with our DS (6) and at 20 months we finally found out he had an absolute horrible sinus infection. He had been fighting one for many months but had not been given the correct amount of antibiotics to clear it up (it takes a longer round of the meds), so it was so bad, he ended up in the hospital with fluids and IV meds. I don't say this to scare you, just to say you might want to go on your gut instincts and insist on seeing an allergist.
We have been going to one ever since and have found out that DS had an immunity problem with the area that controls sinus and respiratory problems. He's system seems to be doing better, not getting sick as often, and we are treating for allergy induced asthma. He gets the same thing with being fine during the day and coughing all night, but the allergist has helped with knowing what we are up against and giving us the right treatments.
Sorry, know this is long, I just want you to know that sometimes going with your gut instincts can help our children in the long run!

 

[marcyinPA]

We go through the same thing with DS11. He has terrible seasonal allergies. When he was a little guy, though, he was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease. He was diagnosed at about 6 months of age. He would wheeze with activity...we noticed it when he started to crawl. And when he caught a cold virus, he would wheeze and cough all night long.

He eventually outgrew the R.A.D., but our nebulizor was our best friend for many years. Even after the R.A.D. symptoms went away, during allergy season, he was on one inhaler or another.

This year, he is on Flonase, Claritin, and Sudafed as per his Dr.

I will tell you that if he does have asthma or allergy induced coughing, the Vicks will not help. The only thing that helped our DS was the nebulizor treatments, and even then, there were times that the coughing and wheezing was SO BAD that we had to take him to the E.R. He was probably at the E.R. 8 times before he turned 4.

 

[Creativebeth]

Night time coughing is the #1 sign of childhood asthma. Get him tested now, and save alot of headaches. Regular pediatrician aren't much help.....been there, done that.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Ragweed has been horrible the past couple years.


OP, does your son get ear infections?

He's only ever had one. But now that I think about it, he's had a new pillow in his bed for about two weeks and maybe that's causing some of the issues. He got a cold right after he started daycare about 4 weeks ago and has been really snotty/sneezy. But the night coughing has gotten worse and not better.

 

[ChrizJen]

Poor little guy!
I'll chime in with another vote to see the pulmonologist. I have mild persistent asthma that comes around this time of year.
DD has allergy induced asthma as well, and this is the time of year we have to keep a close eye on things. Hers presents like a cold with nasal drainage and coughing. But the coughing is mostly at night, and she usually ends up out of control and vomiting if we don't catch it in time. We have her on a regimen of Pulmocort/Albuterol by nebulizer twice a day and she still sometimes needs a rescue inhaler at night. It's definitely a bad time of year for allergy problems.

Good luck and I hope you get some relief for your little guy soon!!

 

[minniebeth]

I agree with other posters who suggest the symptoms can potentially be indicative to that of allergies/asthma like symptoms. Asthma in children is not always the difficulty breathing, it can be the chronic cough as well, like others have pointed out.

My DD8 dealt with this for a long time and after ruling out the typical upper respiratory things, she was diagnosed with cough-variant asthma. There are "triggers" that can set this off in addition to allergies, it could be a recent illness as well.

We have her on Allegra and she does well. Her dr. suggested Singulair as well, but since we had issues with my older DD who has more severe asthma on it, we chose not to even though we know it's effective.

Hope you can find a solution for your DS and that he feels better!

 

[KiKi Mouse]

Coughing at night is a sign of asthma (as well as other things) but investigating asthma something you may want to look into.
My middle daughter had a coughing fit in the middle of the night a while back. The hospital treated her for asthma. We are still not sure if it is asthma or it was an episode of croup. We have a rescue inhaler and were also given a preventative inhaler for when we recently went on a road trip.

Good luck with everything and let us know what you find out and how your child is.

 

[ccgirl]

As you can tell, a lot of people do different things. I go thru this a lot with my children. My DS2 especially. He does have asthma but the cough you are saying is not always due to his asthma. If it only happens when he lays down, or is made worse when he lays down, and just started it is probably post nasal drip. I use the generic Vicks (not infant) on my son.

Stay away from milk products as this produces more mucus. Drink plenty of water as it will thin the mucus and also use a saline solution to dry up the nasal passages. Elevating the mattress is a great idea too. I would put pillows under my sons mattress but I also had to put something at the bottom of his bed to prevent him from sliding all the way down. This has always worked. Even though my son has asthma, I am very leery of using steroids on children. I am not a huge of antibiotics at all. I understand they are needed sometimes but sometimes a cold is just that, a cold, and needs to take it's course.

Good luck, I know it's not easy watching a sick child.

 

[bumbershoot]

Stay away from milk products as this produces more mucus. Drink plenty of water as it will thin the mucus and also use a saline solution to dry up the nasal passages. Elevating the mattress is a great idea too. I would put pillows under my sons mattress but I also had to put something at the bottom of his bed to prevent him from sliding all the way down. This has always worked. Even though my son has asthma, I am very leery of using steroids on children. I am not a huge of antibiotics at all. I understand they are needed sometimes but sometimes a cold is just that, a cold, and needs to take it's course.

Good luck, I know it's not easy watching a sick child.

I agree with all of that.


Me being me, I'd take him to a naturopath or even a full-blown homeopath, to try to find the root cause of this. Could just be a really mucusy cold, and it's of course essential to get all of that out and not keep it in his lungs. Could be something else. But I'd trust one of those healthcare people to really dig for answers...

Me being me I'd also take him into a gentle chiropractor, to help support his nervous system which supports the immune system.

 

[shortbun]

Still in a crib. I've never tried elevating the mattress....I'll give that a shot tonight, too.

this, do this. We elevated out son's mattress in his crib many nights to help his cough. We had to go in and place him right side up often though because he'd end up at the bottom. Small slant but definitely a slant.