Nothing Works with Coughing

[deetee45]

My son is 12 years old and has had a terrible consistent cough for over a week now.  It goes on all day and all night.  I have tried cough medicines, we have been for x-rays and other things. Doctors think we are overexagerating.  This child has not slept.  It seems to not subside at all.  Cough meds are not working and we are at the end of our rope.  He is tired and fed up and I am too.  He's had stomach problems, gassy and has taken tums and zantac for this.  He is on amoxicillin but it doesn't seem to help.  He blows his nose and this doesn't help.  What can we do?  We are at each others throats about this and I am profusly worried about my son. He doesn't have asthma, bronchitis or allergies. (as far as we know)  What can I try or what can I give him. Please HELP!!!!

[Mitch100]

A related discussion, Persistant cough was started.

[starrysky]

Hi.Sounds like asthma to me.My 12 year old son also had a really annoying persistant dry cougth a few years back.He seemed to cougth just non-stop.An asthma inhaler helped him,he stopped useing it after a while.Then I had a persistant cougth dragging on 8 weeks,mucus type,cougthing till I choked and vomited,felt like my lungs were drowning.SO TIRED>I found his old expired asthma inhalers and although it took 2 days to actually work,WOWza!It felt so good to breathe again!My cougth has now nearly completly gone.The drowning feeling-gone. Whatever I have,its working.?

[smichael81]

Check out my post on the main page.  It's toward the bottom of the page.

[National Jewish]

Coughing is a very common symptom of infection during the winter and spring.  It is most likely a result of an infection such as acute bronchitis, but sometimes is from a bacterial sinus infection.  When the cough is difficult to manage as you have described, it sometimes takes a combination of central nervous system cough suppressant and a short course of oral steroids.  If your son has stomach problems, the steroids may not be a good choice for this.  The most important factor is time for the inflammation to subside.  This may take weeks to occur, in some people.

If this was a sinus infection, it should respond to antibiotics.  However it may not respond to amoxicillin.

While it is obvious that the cough is very troublesome to the entire family, it is usually controllable.  It may require further communication with your family doctor.

[myproblem]

It may be caused by reflux since you mentioned tummy trouble. If it is, then taking prevacid or something similar on a daily basis may help. If you feel that it is caused  by something respiratory, you should check what's in the cough medicine he's taking. Vicks 44 is a good one that lasts 6 hours. it has only one ingredient - Dextromorphan. Do not get one with a decongestant or an expectorant, just a plain cough supressant. A prescription choice would be Phenergan with Codeine. Obviously this is only good at night, or if he is staying home from school. It works well though.