Chronic cough

Hi
My son is 4 years old, and developed a chronic barking cough in july 2008 that went on until march this year. He had an x-ray of the lungs and sinuses but nothing was found. The pediatrician thought it was a habit cough as the cough is completely absent at night, so we stopped talking about the cough to his ears.  It then completely stopped but returned in July 2009. The doctor then did an allergy test (food and pollens) which came back negative. He burps quite a lot so we suspected acid reflux and gave him Rennie tablets which he responded to and the cough was reduced. The cough came back and now he´s been taking losec mups 10 mg. for 9 days with not much improvement.  Would the losec be working allready if it is indeed gerd and is it possible for the cough to be absent at night? Thanks!

[Ratnakar Kini, MD]

Hi,
Chronic cough with normal chest xray can be due to asthma or GERD.
Long term severe GERD itself can lead to asthma.
Cough due to GERD occurs during episodes of reflux. So it may or may not be present during night ( and this depends on whether reflux episodes occurs during night or not).