excess mucous, hoarse voice in teenage singing boy

My son is 13 and a professional singer.  About 6 months ago I noticed his raspy sounding voice accompanied by mucous in his throat.  I thought it was a cold and waited for it to pass.  It did not pass. At this same time his voice when through a major voice change where it went down by an octave.  He has had to stop performing completely and works on vocal exercises.  He has been to 2 ENT's both of which said he had acid reflux causing excess mucous on his vocal chords.  He took mucinex first, and now is on prilosec.  While the symptoms of excess mucous seem to have gotten just a little bit better, his voice is still hoarse and he is constantly fighting back the excess mucous in his throat.  He drinks liters and liters of water and still his voice is hoarse.  In the morning he can barely speak.  Needless to say this has negatively impacted his singing career and his self esteem.  Even his speaking voice is affected.  He has done the food allergy test and they found nothing.  Now he will do an environmental allergy test.  We'll see. In the meantime I don't know what to do.  Whe he sings somethimes nothing comes out in his chest voice (his head voice is not impacted). Is there anything you can recommend for this excess mucous?  Yesterday he had a long piece of thich mucous hanging from his uvula.  Yes, he's going through a voice change but I don't remember this happening with my older son.  Please help.  He is so very upset.  Singing is his life.  I would appreciat ANY suggestions.  Thanks in advance!

[Vivek V Gurudutt, MD]

It sounds like you and your son have been taking the appropriate steps to combat this issue.  His entering puberty is definitely a complicating factor.  Completing the host of allergy testing is a good place to start.  As you are doing, trying to control his mucus may help.  Ruling out post nasal drip from nasal drainage would be important.  Further evaluation by a laryngologist (an ent that specializes in voice) may also be worthwhile.  As you know, working with a good voice coach to maintain good vocal technique is important as well.  Best wishes.

[Oliveoil07]

A related discussion, Hoarse Throat/Vocal Cords was started.