My Son Is Coughing - Plano,TX

Use a cool mist humidifier. Do not use a warm one because it promotes bacteria growth. And like the other moms said coughing maybe a sign of asthma brought on by allergies. My son has this and when his coughing starts I pump in a dose of his inhaler between coughs and his coughing subsides immediately. Good Luck.

It certainly could be allergies. I would try running a cool mist humidifier in his room at night.

Has he been checked for asthma? My two oldest sons have this and there are times when they need to be on an inhaler once a day to keep the coughing spells at bay.

I'd start tracking your local air quality reports, and document those ratings along with his coughing spells... it's possible there's a connection and he has some sort of allergy or sensitivity. You could also track his activity each day, and his food, to see if there's any connections there.

I can't think of any other likely cause, but if that doesn't solve the mystery, I'd take him back to the doctor on the next day of his coughing spell. It seems to be something ongoing that would be better caught up-front.

Our kids have awful coughing fits when they're draining from their sinuses badly. Right now, we believe our daughter has another ear infection (she had tubes last year and has already had 4 ear infections this year) - she's draining badly from her nose, and is having a tough time with coughing. This is usually how we know it's time to go to the pediatrician. She has a well-baby visit on Wednesday, and we're expecting to be told to go to the ENT.

I'd advise against cough medicine. In the past few years, the American Academy of Pediatricians revamped their policies on cough medicine for children under the age of 6 (basically, not to give it to them unless prescribed by the physician) because of overdosage.

Here's what the AAP says about cough. I'd recommend having another look at the pediatrician to see if it could be allergies, asthma, reflux, etc.

Good luck:
http://www.healthychildren.org/english/search/pages/resul...

Most likely asthma. A humidifier in his room will help but be sure and keep it clean. Asthma flares up and goes away. If you take him to the doc when it isn't really flared up the doc won't be able to hear his wheezing but when you tell the exact things you wrote about then he should be able to diagnose him. If he doesn't listen, change physicians. Asthma can be serious. Keep a journal of when he does it and what the conditions were before it came on (a day of playing outside, after strong exercise, ect.) along with those pollen counts if you could. Get a physician that will not dismiss a mother's observations.

My son (who is one) recently started coughing as well (as did his sister who is 6) and so have I. It may be allergies and it may be too warm in the house. Try to put on a humidifier (which I found has helped alot) and also make sure that their room is as dust free as possible.

We went through this with our oldest daughter for about a year. She was tested for allergies and asthma, we had several chest x-rays, a couple of ER visits because she stopped breathing during her coughing spells and NOTHING. The doctors told us that her lungs were immature and didn’t know how to breathe, so to speak. There was absolutely nothing medically wrong that the doctors and specialists could find. Warmer weather seemed to help clear things up and she hasn’t had problems since she turned two.

My kiddos have had the same problems due to the craziness in the changing of the weather. I run a cool mist humidifier every night & their dr. prescribed Singulair through April. It has been amazing. The coughs & runny noses completely stopped. They feel so much better & have had no problems since on the meds. Good luck! :)

Take him to see an allergist!

On a somewhat regular basis, my (now grown) son seems to cough up a "cap" of mucous that was stuck somewhere in his throat. My guess is that when the "cap" gets big enough, he has to cough it up. He's now in 20s and doesn't want to take any medicine to keep the mucous from forming.

When the kids were younger, we used humidifiers in their rooms during the winter. If you choose to do that I hope they've made them so they're easier to clean nowadays!

My son will have a cough that is related to allergies. If the cough starts we will run the humidifier and if need to, will do a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. This always will stop the cough. Another thing it could be is allergies to cleaning products. After you use these toxic chemicals, they can stay in the air for several days or the bottles can outgas leaving the air full of toxins. You could start using safer products in the home to eliminate these carcinogens around your family.

H. Meece
www.WorkAtHomeUnited.com/H.
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I neer knew that dry cough was asthma, but it is! The Dr will give flovent and poof- gone. I never knew! I always thought asthma was wheezing etc. But that cough is also a sign. I waited a year- wished I had known!

My first instinct is to say check for asthma. I have asthma but when my daughter started coughing randomly, I didn't think it was asthma because it didn't manifest the same way that mine does. But, as soon as she started on the asthma meds, it went right away and hasn't come back.

Another suggestion- my nephew has a 'nervous' cough. Sometimes when it's quiet in the house, or if he's nervous and doesn't know what to say, or if there's a silence he feels like he should fill, he starts coughing. (he's been doing this since was five years old).

Good luck!

Allergy testing sounds in order. I am allergic to everything but cedar and have to take 2 shots a week and I frequently get a cough or have coughing spells. Go to an allergist or and ENT.