cough

[Guest guest]

Anyone else's child have a cough most of the time? When gets

a cold, she continues to cough for a long time after the cold is gone.

It sounds deep and horrible, but when I take her in, they listen and say

" her lungs are totally clear. " Apparently, the hacking cough is coming

more from her throat. We've tried a lot of things, but nothing works

very well, and she just gets exhausted from coughing bouts. Over the

years I've had to send in doctor's notes that she's not sick, let her

come to school, etc. There are no other signs of illness, no fever,

nose snot, vomiting or diareaha.... only thing she has been saying

lately is her tummy hurts, but she's pointing to the area below her

ribs, where you get really sore muscles from coughing a lot!

This last bout has lasted a long time.... she had a cold around

Thanksgiving, and has coughed on and off since then. It was getting

better, but after her week at camp, it's really bad. We happened to be

at a new encodrinologist yesterday, and I said " hey, check out her

lungs " and she said " you bet, she sounds bad " and then after extensive

listening, before, during, after coughing, she said the exact same thing

that 3 different pediatrians have said over they years... " her lungs are

totally clear.... it sounds higher, like in her throat. "

I've been told to give her Benadryl (to dry it up), Sudafed (to loosen

up the suspected post-nasal drip), OTC cough medicines, etc. Obviously,

she can't go to school with Benadryl or cough meds (she falls asleep)

and it doesn't seem like a good long term solution.... she'd be taking

this stuff virtually all the time. Any suggestions or advice would be

helpful.... she's tired, I'm tired (because we all know mom's can't

sleep well when kids make noises at night!).

Thanks,

, mom to (14), (12 DS), and Sammy (10)