Our 9 yr. old boy has had a chronic cough for 4 1/2 years. He coughs several times a day. He has been seen by pediatricians, ER doctors, pulmonologists and ENTs. He has been treated for postnasal drip, cough-variant asthma and sinusitis. He has tested negatively for allergies 2 times. He tested negative on a sweat test. His cough gets worse with an upper respiratory infection but the cough has never gone away. He has taken Singulair, Prednisone, Zyrtec, Augmentin, Tannate cough medicine, Claritin, Astelin, Nasonex, Flovent and Albuterol. None of it has worked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Desperate parents

I'd see about genetic blood testing for CF. DS has CF; however, he passed his sweat test with flying colors. Wasn't borderline, it was NORMAL. His genetic tests showed classic CF.

Hi there,

My daughter had the exact same symptoms. The doctors finally fixed the cough by removing her tonsils. It turns out that her tonsils were incubating a severe drug resistant infection. Once the tonsils were gone, and they gave her the right medicine the cough seemed to go away. Does your son still have his tonsils? If he does it might be the problem.

Good luck