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Parenting
Any tips/tricks to help a cough?
DS doesn't really have a cold... but this lingering cough from when he had the flu 2 weeks ago. He only really coughs at night (a few times during the day but nothing that needs attention). He also has asthma which makes it worse.
I've been giving him albuterol in his neb machine before bed, and last night and tonight I have him Delsym, but neither seem to be helping. Tonight I did the vicks on his feet before socks... still coughing. We don't have any honey but I will get some tomorrow to try tomorrow night.
Any other tips/tricks? I'm thinking maybe I should take him back to the pedi to make sure he's not getting pnuemonia or something (but wouldn't he be MUCH worse if that was the case?).
Spring cannot come fast enough...
ETA: This is DS1 that is coughing (didn't want peeps to thinking I'm handing out doses of cough meds to my 18 month old ;-)
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Re: Any tips/tricks to help a cough?
Do you have a humidifier in his room? That seems to help. Also try elevating the head of his bed.
Pnuemonia doesn't always sound horrible at the start but my DD has always had a fever when she has pnuemonia.
Yeah, my kids have had fevers too with pneumonia. 1. Are you doing nebs through the night if needed? I used to just wake up and hold the mask in front of them while they are sleeping if they are coughing a lot through the night.
2. My kids are always on 2 neb tx.....pulmicort is the "maintenance" rx and xopenex is rescue. Which of these is albuterol? Could giving both maintenance and rescue help a bit more?
This!
He is on Pulmicort 2x/day (1x/day when not sick). Albuterol is his "rescue" med. I have been doing nebs overnight if needed (I do the same... sit on his bed and just hold it in front of his face while he's sleeping). My concern is that he shouldn't NEED rescue meds more than every 4 hours and he had a neb at 630p... within 2 hours he was coughing like crazy again. That's why I'm not sure if it's the asthma or something bigger?
I had been giving him Mucinex for a few days as well. 3 night ago when he started coughing worse (again, only at night) I had given him Mucinex right before bed so I tried NOT giving it before bed the last 2 nights to see if that helped or not.
He is elevated... I didn't put the humidifier on though. I will have to do that too!
I would bring him in. But I wanted to say, ask your pedi about the Mucinex, because my son is on pulmicort/xopenox and she told me not to give Mucinex. They are doing opposite things she told me, so they would be working against each other.
Sometimes at night, DS needs a back to back treatment or one after 2 hours to get him through the night. Hope he feels better.
Wow... that is interesting! now i feel bad
I think I will take him in tomorrow. I called to talk to the pedi this am and told the receptionist that I wanted to ask about his pulmicort (when we could go back to 1x/day b/c he is EVIL on it 2x/day) and the pedi didn't call me back but had the receptionist call me back. I had kind of hoped to talk to her about the cough too, but no such luck.
My 3yo is asthmatic w/her trigger being colds & her asthma only presents as a cough. When she's sick, we go full bore on either flo-vent or pulmicort/neb plus albuterol in the neb as needed. She ended up in the ER a couple of months ago because she had uncontrollable coughing & literally couldn't catch a breath & after double doses of her asthma meds (ordered on the phone by the on-call doc) she puked & still couldn't stop coughing. Super scary. What we learned at the hospital was that she was coughing on inspiration not expiration- inspiration coughs are generally due to upper airway, so it was actually not her asthma.
So we have learned from her specialist that her asthma makes the upper airway more 'reactive' and once she starts coughing, it gets irritated & more inflamed & then we get into an emergency situation. It happened once more after that- oh, and both times it was a secondary infection (sinus) that triggered the bad episodes. Sorry for the long answer, but I think you need to have him seen & make sure there isn't some secondary infection going on. We had her asthma all under control & then this started happening this winter- but we've got a good plan of care in place now!
::ahem:: Riiiiiiiiicooooolaaaaaaaaa
I just wanted to add that DS is sick with a bad cough right now, and one thing we're doing differently is having the humidifier going all day long in whatever room he's in. We normally just do it in his room at night, but now I'm bringing it into the living room with him during the day. It seems to be helping. Sucks having to move it around, but whatever.
Honey never helps DS, but it's worth a shot. We use Robitussen which helps some. Vicks on his feet seems to help alot, as does elevating his bed. I also steam up the bathroom really good before bath to help break up his congestion.
And seriously, a sucker works wonders. I guess it's like a cough drop, without the menthol. Obviously not a night time option, but good for coughing fits during the day.