child constantly coughing at night

[mamunia]

i am new here.. and am posting because i am at my wits end! please if anyone can shed a little light into whats happening to my little boy, i would be very grateful.. i have shed a lot of tears over this recently.
my son (19 months) is perfectly happy, healthy etc throughout the day.. but spend anywhere between 2-8 hours coughing at night.. it is not a dry cough, in fact he seems to be bringing up a lot of mucus.. people have described it as an old mans cough and I would agree.
it all started when he has a severe throat and chest infection... which cleared up with antibiotics, but the cough stayed.. this was 6 MONTHS AGO.. and he has not had one night since where he hasnt coughed. I have taken him to the doctors more times then i can remember.. he has been given inhalers for asthma.. but these do not work. the doctor said that when he listens to his chest it is not totally clear.. but because he is happy and healthy, not to worry. Children and adults sometimes have persitant coughs.. the doctor even said that he may be doing this through habit.. but I just cannot believe that.. My son dylan seems to now be so used to coughing that he can sleep through, me and my hubby however cannot and take turns sleeping downstairs in order to get some rest. he does not cough in the day. I tried elevating his bed.. it did not work. i have searched the internet and found nothing like this.. is it possible that his lungs could be full of mucus and he just cannot get it out? he has been on 4 rounds of antibiotics bit nothing has shifted it.. I have told the docs that I will not give him anymore antibiotics.. would I be completely over the top to ask for an x-ray?  

[jackie44416]

I have a 5 year old with same sympthoms that got worse the older she got because she coughs all day now.  She has a hard time just doing her normal activities for the day.  I am lucky she is not in school yet but putting her in any daycare or preschool atmosphere is out of the question because others do not understand her situation.  It is not viral but others assume it is a bad cold.  She has been working with a allergy specialist for about 8 months who has now referred her to a ent specialist.  I feel for you and undestand your frustration as we have been living with this for 5 years now.  She just got off using 5 different meds and not 3 days later the coughing comes back again.  To make it worse she has alow immune situation so catching a cold from someonelse brings the nightmare back again.  I hope we find the answer the the ent specialist and I will be happy to post any answers we get.  Im sure they will stat by removing her tonsils and adenoids and maybe it willl be as simple as that. jackie

[rawveg196]

hi,i can unerstand your frustration my son inlaw teaches anatomy at a university he is so against the medical pfofession its a wander he still has a job,anyways hes come to the conclusion that they mostly treat u and not cure u.He believes they dont have or endorse aprevention programme where most of the goodness and heathy cures for diseases come from the food we eat prefably organic and sparing amounts of meat.His oldr brother is a doctor and for the first time he is starting to look outside the medical square.His younger brother is a corperate lawyer in Quatar,who believes in the medical system who tragically,lost his first two healthy 3 month boys after immunization shots,a very traumatic experience i can asure you.As a consequence my daughter nver immunized her children and they  are fine ,but i do worry if the go to some of those third world countries,Just recently her 6 mnth baby boy contracted whopping cough,i advised her to take him to the emergency she would not, and proceeded to give him wheat grass treatment after a week he is fine in so saying my advice to u is try everything and not just what the doctor prescribes,i hope this may help and good luck on endeavuors ...

[etrain39]

I have had the same problem with my son for a few months and I said screw the family doctor and made an appointment with a pulmonary doctor.  He had his chest X-ray today and will see the pulmonary doctor in a week.  I was sick of the family doctor saying the same stuff and telling us to give him allergy and cough medicines.