Tired and frustrated

My 13 yr old son has been ill for the past two weeks. First he picked up a virus which then gave him problems with his asthma. After over a week on antibiotics and steroids he now feels a lot better and is no longer having trouble breathing or wheezing but he is still constantly coughing until he is sick day and night. As his peak flow is basically back to normal his doctor has said that we just have to wait for this to stop. This has gone on for a week now has anyone else experienced this... its driving me mad.

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Hi welshwitch,

Sorry to hear about you son but glad that the treatment has made a difference.

Coughing does takes some time to settle down sometimes weeks after an acute episode because the cough receptors are hightened during the acute episode & need time to settle down again.

However, if he is coughing up lots of sputum that is green/grey in colour he might not have fully got over the infection so take a morning sample of sputum (not just spit) & ask the GP to send if for culture & sensitivity. He may need a longer, stronger course of antibiotics to get on top of it but give it another week to see if he settles down.

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It's me again.. no longer tired but still frustrated I'm afraid! Since my last post my son went through 3 courses of steroids and another lot of antibiotics. He had a chest x ray which confirmed he had a bad chest infection and thankfully after the last lot of antibiotics he stopped coughing. But the sickness continued badly for about 7 weeks it got so bad he couldnt return to school. He has settled down now.. as in he no longer feels unwell in any way but he is still sometimes sick especially if he laughs or weirdly when he has to do his peak flow. Sometimes it happens when he has run upstairs.His doctor hasn't got a clue and now we have to see his consultant again. I wonder if its become an automatic thing to do now, I hope we can get it sorted before he goes back to school.