need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
My Daughter (Paige) is seven years old. Every year (but most noticably the last two years) on or around October 1st, she comes down with this chronic cough. A couple years it turned into bronchitis, last year it turned into pneumonia. She is healthy otherwise, and does show a few other signs of allergies (slight runny nose, eye irritation), but it's mostly just a nasty sounding cough, that is only productive every once in awhile. We took her to the allergy doc and they said she does have a fall allergy (can't remember what it was). We recently got her on singular 5mg chewable, but I don't really think it helps much. Question is, could this be allergies causing this bad of a cough? She gets on these coughing spells, and seriously coughs like every 10 seconds for about 3-4 minutes straight. It's also worse at night, in the morning, and after school. Help!!
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
If you find out what is wrong, please, please send me an e-mail. This sounds EXACTLY like my son right now who is currently on a course of a 5-day steroid as well as Albuteral due to the same chronic cough your daughter has.
I have been to the doctor 2 days in a row now and demanded a chest x-ray out of simple fear that they might be missing something. He was sent home from school yesterday because he coughs so much and so often that it disrupts the class. My heart just breaks and I panic when I can't fix things like this.
Good luck to you. Also, as I am typing this, I notice he is "sniffling" a bit. Maybe it is post nasal drip?
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
I wanted to get back to you in re: of some research that I did and what we did for our son tonight who is almost 6.
After much reading, we decided to do a simple nasal rinse. Ran to Walgreens and grabbed a neti pot with 60 packets of solution in it for $8. Had him watch some Youtube videos of some little girls doing it themselves and then prepared everything per the box instructions. He was afraid to do it himself, but allowed me to do both nostrils. It was difficult to get the right angle, but we got the hang of it rather quickly.
HE STOPPED COUGHING WITHIN 5 MINUTES! He kept blowing his nose, but I swear....after weeks on end of nothing but coughing and even having to go get him from school because they sent him home for literally coughing every 3 seconds....it stopped. It just stopped.
I'm still sitting on the couch staring at him dumbfounded. Try it, it wont hurt and I am so relieved.
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
Yes, allergies can absolutely cause the chronic coughing that your children are suffering from! You might not see a lot of runny nose symptoms because the mucous is draining straight down to cause the nasty cough. Next year, start the daily dose of zyrtec or claritin before the allergy season starts to prevent the allergies from getting so bad.
As far as this allergy season goes.... hot honey and lemon tea can ease the coughing. Hyland's homeopathic cough and cold remedy (I can usually find it at Walmart) works well, and Triaminic nighttime works, too. I like to change up what medications I give my kids so their systems don't get used to one particular medicine.... don't know if that makes any difference or not, but it's just what we do.
Every night, at bedtime, rub Vicks vaporub on their feet and put socks on them. I have no idea why, but this method does work to ease coughing!
As a side note.... if you use products like Febreeze or Lysol, or other aerosol cleaners, you might want to lay off of them and see if that helps improve your child's symptoms. My oldest daughter used to get horrible bronchitis and asthma symptoms as a toddler and her doctors said she'd probably suffer from it for the rest of her life. She was sentenced to a lifetime of nebulizers and steroids. BUT I had noticed a pattern with her, that she got sick always after I did a big cleaning with Lysol (and other aerosols). I quit doing that, and took her off all the nebulizer and steroid stuff, and after a few weeks, she was symptom free and has never had those types of symptoms ever again (she's almost 7 now!). So you might want to switch to more natural cleaners (baking soda, vinegar, etc....), and see if that helps.
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
My husband has the same cough and has had it for months. He is getting tested for acid reflux next. The cough is driving me insane! I hope you find out what is causing it for your daughter.
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"There's a big difference in playing the victim than in causing your own personal drama." -BK
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
Ragweed is the big cause of allergy symptoms right now she can be allergic to that.
She can have post nasal drip, or gerd, or asthma, there is even cough variant asthma without the wheezing. You should get your child to see an ent doctor and have her scoped and have a croup series xray done, also get her to an allergist.
In the meantime i would most likely avoid any meds that are over the counter, try using hydrasense it is salt water solution that really cleans out the nostrils.
Re: need some help with my 7-year old daughter. allergies?
Ragweed is the big cause of allergy symptoms right now she can be allergic to that.
She can have post nasal drip, or gerd, or asthma, there is even cough variant asthma without the wheezing. You should get your child to see an ent doctor and have her scoped and have a croup series xray done, also get her to an allergist.
In the meantime i would most likely avoid any meds that are over the counter, try using hydrasense it is salt water solution that really cleans out the nostrils, and try using a
humidifier in her room at night, it should help somewhat.
