Tried everything!

[Jenhaz]

Daughter is 5 and takes cetrizine for rhinitis and montelukast. Coughing constantly at night for the past 4 nights. I’ve given her all medicines, inhalers and using Vic on her feet etc but nothing is easy the irritation- any tips?

[twinkly29]

Coughing at night can be an asthma symptom so it sounds like she needs an asthma nurse or GP visit to check whether this is the case - it might not be asthma related but, if it is, her rescue meds (blue inhaler I assume) are not working.

[Troilus]

Before I say anything else, I think it would be a good idea to take her to the doctors, but that is not why I’m replying.

When I was little I was ‘prone. ‘ to bronchitis. I got it a lot. ( I wonder now if it was asthma) and my mum used to apply Vick. I remember asking her not to put it on because it made me feel worse. She then bought a kind of night light thing that gave off a smell. I think I used that until I was 10 ish.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it is the Vick that is causing the cough, but it might be aggravating it.

[Jenhaz in reply to Troilus]

Thank you I am going to ring the doctor this morning and hopefully I can get her seen. I will try without Vick tonight that’s good to know. Thanks

[Sunnydays1982]

My daughter was the same but the cough went on for months! She had an asthma check and all ok but she’s very ‘nasal’ and rhinitis was mentioned as I have that too, so she was given a steroid nasal spray for at night...worked a treat! 👍🏻

[Jenhaz in reply to Sunnydays1982]

Oh really that is why I think it is and she’s been getting cetrizine liquid but I think it’s stopped working - how did you manage to get her to use the spray? We’ve tried before and wasn’t a success

[Sunnydays1982 in reply to Jenhaz]

Well I did it up my nose with my nasal spray first to show her it was fine!! I also sprayed it into the air to show her it that it’s just a little ‘spritz’!

Then we just counted to 3 and sprayed it! She is 8 so is quite cooperative 👍🏻

[peege]

It does sound like asthma to me. You've described my son as a child. I used to hold him in a sitting position all night which helped a bit. We lived near Sahara so atmosphere was dry, I tried steam at times which also helped.

It's worth noting that it's tree pollen time at the moment so it may be allergy related. Really pleased you've an appointment with doc now as the sooner you start seeing them the sooner you'll get a diagnosis, it can take several visits.

More recently my g'daughter has been through the mill from 18 months to 8 yrs (now much better, sometimes there's an improvement around 7 yrs. My son was 14 before improvement).

One interesting thing to learn during g'daughters woes was that when peak flow drops it was a sign of an infection.

Mine, son's and little ones asthma was always worse at night.

Good luck at docs - don't forgetyou can always call the help line for advice.

[Jenhaz in reply to peege]

Thank you so much for the advise and support so glad I joined this group!

[peege in reply to Jenhaz]

I forgot to mention post nasal drip! That can cause coughing too.

My son is now married to a lovely Frenchie, their son is now 3. From birth they always had stacks of saline solution in litte plastic ampules. At first sign of a snuffles, his head would be moved back and drops dropped down his nostrils. Apparently everyone does it over there to help clear the baby/child's nasal passages for better breathing.

Over here you can buy baby & child Sterimar (sterile seawater) from chemist or supermarkets. Tricky to get a 5 year old to use it but if she were to try it the once at bedtime and the coughing improved overnight it might show it all to be related to post nasal drip - just a thought. It's all a massive learning curve and we're all different. X

PS of course we're just patients and/or parents with experiences to share not medically trained hence great to see a doctor. P