Kiddie tickly cough - any tips??

[nunheadmum]

My 4.5yr daughter has a really bad cough following the flu earlier in the week. She's geting herself in a real tizz about it which is keeping her awake at night as much as the cough itself. And generally she doesn't want to do anything '.....because of my cough' (said in a particularly high pitched whine).

She's been checked by the doctor so we know it's nothing more than the flu taking it's course - she's on antibiotics due to a possible wheeze but it was precautionary as much as totally necessary. We took her to nursery for a couple of hours of distraction and they agreed that her behaviour was inkeeping with a child playing on something rather than a real problem as it was much reduced when she got distracted by play.

But the reality is that she does have a tickly cough and if I could treat that, it might help. Does anyone know of any good options? She's been refusing medicines (copying little sister, grrrr!!!) and I doubt I'll manage to get calpol night into her. (Not totally sure it works on her either - Night Nurse never worked for me either.) I've tried giving her honey and lemon but she says she doesn't like it. I'm at the end of my tether a little. I want to help her but she won't help herself.

[alieh]

This was the bane of my life back in November. My son would drink a bit of honey and lemon mixture before bed, which seemed to calm it enough to help him get to sleep. But I think the two things that made the biggest difference were a hot mist humidifier and propping up his cot legs at the head end, as I think it was a sort of post-nasal drip irritating his throat that was making him cough. Harder to prop the bed with a 4.5 year old I guess, but maybe she would be okay sleeping propped up on a bunch of pillows?

[pripolla]

I've tried warm orange juice mixed with honey. My 3.8 year old got better with this. Good luck!

[ratty]

I am suffering this at the moment. 3 yr old is coughing every 10 seconds or so! It is really getting him down.

[helena handbasket]

The hot mist humidifier works wonders. We're doing that right now too. Hard to find there, but I think Boots online or Chemist Direct carry them. Amazon too. Also, right before bed I've been running hot water in the bathroom to get it good and steamy before Junior's bath, then adding some Albas (?) drops to the bath. Really seems to loosen things up.

Boots has a nice honey/lemon/glycerine thingy that helps a bit, but I also just recently found (in Canada but you never know) a kid's homeopathic honey/blackberry version that my son kind of accepts. We also "hose the nose" to get as much gunk out as possible. If you do it in the bath you can make a bit of a game out of it. The spray saline works much easier than the squirt kind, because you don't have to get them to tilt their head back. My son actually kind of likes the squirt up the nose game now!

As mentioned, tilting the head up while they sleep makes a big difference as well.

The cough is awful and there's so little you can do about it. Hope it helps!

[nunheadmum]

Might try the OJ and honey as she does like OJ (well, usually...nothing is usual just now tho). And bed is propped up tonight with extra pillow too.

We've done the steam at bathtime before but she's refusing to take a bath at the moment.

I did flip out with her a little earlier (probably scarring her mentally for life, I know but when I say 'I don't suffer fools gladly' as my biggest weakness at interviews, unfortunately I mean it!) and it did seem to help to bring her back on track a little. Just before she went up to bed she said 'I may need to cry a little with my cough'. To which I craftily anwered 'Well, that's good because now if I hear you I know it's just because of your cough and I don't need to rush up.' We'll see if that helps. (I know I'm clutching at straws but this would be our 5th night of having to go to bed at 8pm to keep her company....NOT a habit I want to encourage!)