Hello,
I have a little boy who just turned 3. About 2 months ago he caught what the doctors think was the horrible H1N1 'Swine' flu. It was a tough ordeal but he recovered well after about a week. Since then I have noticed he coughs.
But the cough is not bad or frequent. It's almost like he is clearing his throat a few times. Sometimes he will just cough once or twice and then won't cough again for minutes to hours.
I am living in Brasil right now and my mother in law is a nurse. She seems to think it is related to anxiety but she has been wrong a lot before. I took him to a doctor and they said allergies due to him not being sick. I do not think it is allergies. When I pretend to cough I notice he copies and imitates the same, short cough so I am sure he is controlling it.
He is very a very shy little boy and takes time to warm up to people. He also is not talking that much yet. He is learning 2 languages (portuguese and english) and understands both languages but does not speak in full sentences. Most of what he says does not make sense. The doctors said not to worry about this and be patient....
I would really appreciate any advice or insight.
I am not too worried but I love my son and want to know what is going on as he can't tell me much.
Thanks so much! :o)
No worries. Completely perfect and normal. Cough is just lingering leftovers from flu - body's way of clearing gunck. Also, may be attention getter, if he notices you worry, and they notice. As for the lack of chattiness. Multi-lingual children take longer to start, but once they do, they can't be beat or stopped. Congratulations for being able to raise them bi-lingual. Sounds like you are a great mom.
I've heard that they like to make different sounds and coughing is one of their favorites.
It's possible that it's a nervous tic. My son (who is now 5) has gone through some phases of tic-like behavior. One was swallowing noticeably hard, clearing his throat, and blinking his eyes hard. This started when he was 2-3 years old under times of stress (his brother being born, moving to another state, etc.) I just ignore the behavior and it goes away (but not right away- it usually has lasted weeks to a few months). It may not be anything to worry about. Don't give it much attention and see if it goes away on its own.
I don't know about a nervous cough but I got H1N1 also and the only lagging symptom is a dry cough. Otherwise I feel fine but just cant shake the cough. Maybe it's the same thing.
Well, I can only speak from my own experience. But when I caught the swine flu, the cough persisted off and on for several weeks after the other symptoms disappeared. It was really almost a month before the cough was gone completely. So if you've already checked with your pediatrician, I probably would give him some time and see if it doesn't just go away on its own. Good luck!
My daughter did this (she's 24 now) any how when she was young this became a habit for her and I started to worry about her damaging her throat somehow or something.... My husband got the idea that we should show (pretend) concern like...."Oh dear it doesn't sound like your feeling well... you need to rest, go lay down and take a nap and lets see if we can get rid of that cough." After 2 or 3 times of this ... No more cough :)
My son (who will be 3 in a month) just discovered coughing. He had a cold for a week, and noticed that coughing gets him attention. Now he will cough, and then smile! He also coughs when anyone else does. I think it's just a phase.
I was sick a few weeks ago an still have a little lingering cough. It could be that he has thet same lingering cough. Or like another has said, it's just a fun sound to make. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it as long as he's not sick.
