Seeking Information Regarding a Persistent Cough

Last October my son experienced a persistent cough and after a trip to the pediatrician as well as trials with Benedryl and some prescription drugs we still had the cough. We started an inhaler while we waited to get in with an allergist (pediatric experienced). The inhaler did a great job on the cough. The allergist ran environmental tests and none of them came back positive. He feels that it could be a cold/virus induced type of asthma. The dr. also said that many children can outgrow this. So right now we have him down to one puff of an inhaler a day unless he gets a cold and then he needs more to control the cough. Our goal is to get him on an as needed only or not at all basis with the inhaler. Also, both dr.s explained to me that "asthma" is no longer considered just the severe attacks most people associate it with. I was told that when an allergen triggers a runny nose they call it allergies when an allergen triggers a cough they may call it asthma.

My 2 1/2 year old daughter was just diagnosed with asthma. In her case, she had a persistent dry cough, particularly at night. Occasionally she would have coughing "fits", which I later found are asthma attacks. Someone described it as "barking". First you might want to try describing the cough. If it sounds productive (flemmy) then it may be allergies. Your little one may be coughing due to post nasal drip. Definitely let the doctor check it out. In any case, continue to follow your instincts that something isn't right. Good Luck

Hi K.,

So my 3 year old had pneumonia when he was 2 which did not present with anything more than a cough. After that his cough continued and he was diagnosed with what they called cough variant asthma. This is not asthma per se, but could turn into asthma later down the line. They placed him on Singulair and on a nebulizer.

Let me say that I am not one that is ok with giving my kids antibiotics or prolonged usage of ANY medication. With that being said my son was allergy tested twice (scratch test) with no results but the allergists stated that he definitely had allergies but it may be too early on to get results (allergy testing can be quite flawed). We finally went to a naturopath who gave him a blood test and found a SLEW of food allergies.

What I know is that my child is different after being taken off the foods he is allergic to. I also know that when he gets sick his coughing comes back and one or two nebulizer treatments help but then he is also bouncing off the walls (it's a stimulant) and he has a hard time getting the rest his system needs to fight the bug. Time will tell if the food allergies are a huge playing chip in the respitory thing, but I definitely would recommend taking a more natural route, as many meds can cause more damage than good and should be a short time fix rather than the long haul....

If you would like anymore info please feel free to contact me here. And I wish you the best...I know how frustrating and futile it can feel sometimes fighting for our kids health and knowing what is best for them.
J.

My 3 year old son has had a cough for like 5 weeks too. So do some of the kids in his daycare. The cough started hard like bronchitis for a week, and then he had a runny nose with it. Then the cough lightened up (less frequent and not as deep) but persisted for 2 more weeks. It was almost gone, but then he was playing hard all weekend, and was outside too alot, and his cough was little in the chest this morning, but he only coughed once or twice and then that was it.

I'm outlining this because I thought it was allergies too, but he didn't seem to have the other symptoms so I ruled that out. The next weeks I was convinced it was turning in to bronchitis, I used to get that, but his cough would only be bad sometimes, and when I had bronchitis I coughed all the time. So I ruled that out too. NOw it's just gone away.

I think it was a minor virus that was going around as other kids were getting it, but they outlived it now!

I rode the cough out, gave him echinacae/goldenseal tincture and alot of fluid, and kept his activities to a lower level so to not burn out his immune system. I personally choose to not do medicine unless it is chronic. His friend however had to get antibiotics for an ear infection but he is prone ot ear infections and my son is not.

I just wanted to share that other kids are going/have been going thru this too. And it may not be as critical as allergies or asthma.

My son, 2&1/2, was just at the dr. on Friday for his cough. He was put on Children's Clairitan in the fall for allergies and it has helped. He's had a terrible dry cough for 2 weeks and sleeping was awful. Everytime he paled he would have a huge coughing attack and couldn't catch his breath. It turns out he has Induced Asthma. It's when allergies or colds or running can trigger the asthma. He now has an inhaler that he took every 4 hours for 3 days. His cough is much better. Now we only give him the inhaler when needed. It seemed to loosen all the 'gunk' in his lungs at first so his cough became flemy for the first day. It is now day 3 and he is doing so much better. I am not one to use meds much at all on my children, but my son is much better and breathing without coughing.

both of my children have allergys my son almost 12 years old takes allergy meds daily except around wintery season.
my daugther almost 5 years old is suposed to take meds every day but i think she is too young to take meds daily so i just give her benadryl or childrens loradine when her alergies act up and this time of year is diffently alergy season.A to answer your question alergys can get that bad the reason is because dranage fom sinisus drain to your thort. the reson i know is this samething you ar going throw happened to my children last and year and i was worried also.so please try not to worry it is hopefully just allergy. good luck.