coughing as a symptom? (sorry, kind of long)
LindseyJW
member
i suspect my 5-yro son has some psychological responses to stress that mimic allergies. at the mention of bedtime, eat your veggies, time to go home, or anything else of the like that he objects to, he will begin coughing. often, the coughing goes on long enough that he begins wheezing.
a few weeks ago, i took him to the pedi for an allergy test. they did a blood screen which resulted in readings for sensitivities to pretty much all the foods on the test and about half of the environmental allergens: peanuts, milk, soy, corn, eggs, shellfish, etc.
after consulting with a friend who is also a pedi, i'm hesitant to move forward with our pedi's treatment plan - she said that the test we did only measures sensitivities and not actual allergies (need to do the skin prick test for that) and that given the behavioral issues i mention, she believes it has more to do with that. my pedi is quick to prescribe medicine and tends away from more proactive approaches to avoid the need for medication. i would prefer to change lifestyle (and see if that helps) before i put my child on medication for the rest of his life.
my son has determined that we are tired of his coughing fits (and i'm not a terrible mom, i swear they ONLY occur when it is time to do something he doesn't want to do), and he also really doesn't like using the inhaler we brought home from the pedi. so he has moved on to doubling over, holding his stomach and moaning about how his belly hurts and he's going to vomit.
is this a phase?
does anyone else have a kid this age who has these types of symptoms to food allergies?
none of the other kids i know with food allergies has shown coughing to be a symptom. i feel at a total loss. i want to believe my child when he says he's hurting, but i feel like he is pulling my leg. just don't know what to do anymore. 
ETA: the coughing has been going on for about 2 months. before that it was rubbing his nose until it bled - about 10 months. before that it was rubbing his eyes until they swelled. these symptoms would "set in" immediately after we say it's time to do something he doesn't want to do (go to bed, etc...)
Re: coughing as a symptom? (sorry, kind of long)
My kid is way younger than yours. So I'm not sure about behavioral issues.
K is allergic to dairy, eggs, dust, horses, birds and grass. (prick test @ 1 year old)
But the way she reacts to the allergens cited above is trough asma crisis, that involve coughing. She had the worst crisis when we introduced egg at 11 1/2 months. Ended up in ER with nebulizations and all that jazz. She had another episode earlier that involved milk, dust, bird feathers and grass in october 10.
Also in this time of the year, it gets worse. This year has been better, as we are controlling better the environment and her allergies.
HTH, let me know if you have any other questions.
Not a kid trying to avoid my veggies - but my asthma presents as a cough (i.e., cough variant asthma). I only have wheezing when things get really bad or I have a prolonged coughing fit. Most of the time, it is just an annoying cough. Stressful situations can, however, trigger an attack for me. (I don't have food allergies so not sure if it would be a typical response to an ingested allergen v. an inhaled allergen.) So it is possible that it is a symptom of a medical condition or it could be bahavioral.
Sorry.
getting super snot faced or your regular allergy-ness w/wo coughing until you're going to hack up either dinner or a lung AFTER exposure to an allergen can be a reaction.
RASTs and skin tests are equally (in)valid depending on which ped / allergist you talk to. What is your actual doctor recommending? Are both he and your friend board cert'd MD/DOs?
These are my thoughts:
- he has uncontrolled environmental allergies, possibly asthma, and your ped should be able to recommend a med and a method to work on that... they may have access to someone who can talk your son through his issues... allergies and being 5 are not a great combination.
- he's 5, bedtime is stressful. he's already under physiological stress due to the allergies / asthma, so adding bedtime makes him feel worse and he can't really adequately describe / respond to the symptoms he's feeling.
- from your post, he doesn't have anaphylactic reactions to anything. what was your ped's rec on eliminating foods? i would keep a log of what he eats and if they correlate consistently with his displays, especially after you start controlling the allergies. if he's got an intolerance or something (celiac, lactose), then you might not notice symptoms until later... like when you start talking about bed... or if he's allergic to say, dust mites, and he's got 305982 stuffies and pillows, and his allergies get super bad when he goes to bed because of that, then he's not going to want to go to bed. the other thing-- with veggies -- if he has environmental allergies, they can cause cross reactions with other veg/fruit, so that's something to consider
this is super disjointed, sorry...
thanks so much for all the thoughtful responses.
yes, both my pedi and my friend who is a pedi are board certified MDs.
our pedi recommended taking singulair daily and using an inhaler for wheezing. as i said, i'd rather try an elimination diet and control environmental exposures before just resorting to daily medication.
much to think about in the above posts, thanks again!