Apparently, my 7 month old niece has had cough since birth. It is not pneumonia. Parents are not concerned. Should they be? Any insight?
I agree with checking for asthma, but two other things come to mind. First I would get a "swallow study" to make sure that the baby is swallowing correctly and that she is not aspirating even a tiny bit. This would cause coughing as she tried to get the fluid out of her lungs. Second I would check for GERD since the acids from the tummy can rise up and cause coughing.
7 month wow that poor baby what a long time to be coughing. If it were my child I would ask the doctor about allergies/asthma. As long as the baby is not turning blue anywhere he/she is fine, but I could not imagine coughing my whole life.
Coughs can be from a variety of sources.
Whooping cough is making a resurgence and made the news because of several cases occurring in CA recently. Our daughter had it last year (~15 months), and it was scary.
Cough can be from bronchitis, from allergies as the stuff drips from the nose into the throat, etc. Even things like Acid Reflux can cause cough in some people. Perhaps the parents have had multiple conversations with the pediatrician and just haven't shared them with the family.
Unfortunately, different things are more alarming to different parents. I tend to worry much more now after my own serious health issues than I did prior to that.
I hope they find the cause (and get a little more concerned) soon.
Yes, they should be concerned. It could be asthma or RSV! They would be devastated if something very bad happened to her in the night, which could have been prevented! She needs to be checked out by her pediatritian!
