Endless cough in 18 month old and being sick in the car?

[Mrs_Glennie]

Afternoon EDF,

My 18 month old is on her umpteenth cold since starting nursery last September and has had a lingering cough for about 6 weeks now. She's pretty much fine during the day and goes to sleep at bedtime as normal but at various points throughout the night - I'm guessing when she enters lighter sleep - she had prolonged coughing fits that sound like she's choking. I go in to her and hgold her upright and she coughs while still asleep and I'm able to pop her back down but this happens 2-3 times a night and I'm worried about it being somehting more serious than the GP telling us 'it's just a cold' last GP vist was on monday and her chest and throat are clear but she just sounds so awful poor thinga nd really phlegmy hacking cough :(

The icing on the cake is also that the last two times she has been in a car in the last 6 weeks(we don't have one) she's had coughing fits and then proceeded to choke and projectile vomit everywhere! Prior to that she's been absolutely fine in cars on teh occasions we drove and was in fact getting happier to spot things out of the window and sing and play games. I'm concerned she might have carsickness or is it just this cough that seems to be triggering the vomiting.

Any tips on how to end the night time coughing or advice on whether the cough and the car sickness are linked or just a coincidence?

Thanks,

MrsG

[Saila]

We had undiagnosed whooping cough for weeks, possibly months

I had vaccination while pregnant and my son has also been vaccinated

We have been offered all sorts of explainations incl reflux etc

In btw fits, my son was fine too, but then it got really acute, prob cos he had a viral infection which exacerbated the underlying cough

He stopped feeding and began to lose weight which triggered a hospital stay and week of erythromycin antibiotic (targets wc)

That has worked! And we are back on track

I found videoing the coughing fit allowed the gp to see the seriouness of the fits, really helped, and he sent me to a&e

In a&e the video helped but what really did it was the fact they saw a fit first hand

I have been taking my son to all the usual places around east dulwich, so god knows who he infected during that time...

Keep perservering with gp and explain you know it's out there

Good luck

[susyp]

Hi no advice to offer but just to say my daughter does this and she is now nearly 5 - it's very frustrating as she gets sent home from school as when she coughs it is very dramatic and she vomits , so i understand, but she misses an awful lot of school because of it. When she gets a cough the first few days she always vomits quite a lot, huge amounts too - and we think it is because she can't tolerate the mucus in her stomach - she always has a tummy ache during a cold and then it turns into a cough and she vomits many, many times! Our entire back seat of the car has been covered in vomit on occasion.

not much fun, she doesn't sleep at all really when her cough is very acute,

susyp

[Saffron]

My little girl starting getting carsick around this age, not related to illness as far as I could tell. But having a cold could probably make it worse.

We noticed a difference when we moved her from her infant carseat to a larger carseat. The new carseat has the option of being in an upright or reclined position. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the reclined position is better. Too upright = carsick, everytime. I think it's less stressful on their posture when they're reclined, and it makes it easier for them to clear mucus or bring up wind without vomitting.

Always leave the back window down next to your child. Leaving a front window down may mean the airflow goes over your LO's head, which doesn't help. The air needs to go on her face. Also, wiping the face with a babywipe or wet towels helps. No food or milk ~20 min before travelling, and only water to drink in the car. If your LO starts to look sick, don't wait. Pull over asap and take her out of the carseat for ten minutes.

Make sure you have a sick back, muslins, spare wipes, change of clothes all ready for accidents. The one time DH was like, "Meh, she'll be fine. She hasn't been sick in a while." Sure enough, she vomitted everywhere.

[Mrs_Glennie]

Thanks everyone for your replies and for those who PM'd me.

I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your son Salia, I'm glad he's on the mend now.

Her cough *seems* to be getting better and we've had no more vomiting so it must be a leathal combiantion fo the two together. I'm hoping that when (if) the weather gets warmer that will make a difference too.

Your tips are all really useful Saffron, thank you. We have to drive from London to Bristol next week and then from Bristol to Cambridge a few days after that so I am steeling myself for vomit...

Thanks again everyone.

Mrs G