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NIGHT COUGHING AAAGH!! |
Our daughter Katie has had a night cough to varying degrees for 4 months now. The last 2 months have been terrible. It starts as soon as she lies down and she finally gets to sleep properly about 3 hours later and then her cough wakes her up about 6 hours later again. About half of the time we also get a couple of coughing bouts in the night which each take half hour to hour to clear. She does not cough during the day EXCEPT when in the car! WHY?!!!
I have consulted the Brompton (via the phone) who say it's reflux and have prescribed 2 medicines - 3 weeks later and no improvement. They also say stop her night feeds (which we won't) but the dietician says 45ml per hour of feed would no way make the difference. We have put her on her ventilator for 8 hours per night over the last 9 days and no improvement except that she coughs up loads of juice for the first hour of the day. She can't tolerate having her ventilator on whilst coughing so that restricts when it can be put on but it does for the most part allow her to sleep the full 8 hours once she has gone. (but she need about 11 hours!) She already has a steroid inhaler and it is not an astmatic cough but a juicy one. We have her top half propped up as much as we can when in bed and we do a bit of chest physio when she tolerates it. The GP has done a sputum sample and it has come back normal and we have changed her prophylactic antibiotic.
My question is - what are we missing? Would the ventilator clear it eventually it's just a long haul? Or would a suction or cough assist machine help? Or is it something else? Has anyone else had the same experience and if so what did you do to help??
ANY ideas at all would be gratefully received as we are all suffering from severe sleep deprivation and not enjoying our summer holidays!!
Steph |
| Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 7:16 am |
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Re: NIGHT COUGHING AAAGH!! |
Hi Steph
Our daughter Sian is 3 years old and for the last 4month has had the same problem. She has had a nissians and g-peg. She is feed over night by a pump but it doesn't make a difference weather it is on or off, 1-2 hours into sleep she needs clearing through chest physio then once cleared may wake us 4 hours later for the next clearence then for some reason from 3-4pm on probs and sleeps through till morning when she may wake chesty. Sian is on Trimethroprin only! She is allowed to eat for pleasure. I was woundering if it is because for some reason she cannot clear her own serliver(Can't Spell) During the day she is fine but occationally in the car if she falls a sleep has the same prop. Since the op. we have manage to clear her though chest physio and postioning no suction. I am suffering the same from sleep deprivation and even think i have insommina. (prop spelt wrong) I like to ask with you does anyone have an answer? |
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| Tue Aug 15, 2006 11:25 pm |
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Re: NIGHT COUGHING AAAGH!! |
Dear Sleep deprived parents,
There may be several reasons for night coughing which are actually quite common in children.
Firstly, when the child relaxes, the airways may also relax and allow some of the normal sputum to move about and cause a cough. Secondly a very mild allergy may be a problem.
Firstly try and remove any fluffy toys that the child sleep with very close to their face, try and remove feather pillows, feather or down duvets and see if this helps.
You could also try sleeping the child slightly propped head up with either a pillow under the head end of the mattress or using an extra pillow or v shaped pillow.
In the morning when the child may have lots of pooled secretions, just give them a drink of water in the first half hour of waking. They may then get these secretions up witht too much distress.
Hope these suggestions are helpful. |
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Re: NIGHT COUGHING AAAGH!! |
My husband's parents have just helped us buy a cough assist machine he is 30 and got several bad chests over the past year from travelling to and from the States to here but it has made a difference within the first few uses and we borrowed one off the jeniffer trust it was great. If you can get one on the NHS you should try I have to say it has really helped my husband and me as I do not have to give such intense chest and back physio now, My husband also has a lot of phlem we do not know why as with you the test came back clear of infection.
Good luck |
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| Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:29 pm |
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Re: NIGHT COUGHING AAAGH!! |
My 7 year old son Simon has had similar bouts, mainly due to sputum building up in his lungs. After doing lots of physio every night, we found that the problem resolved itself. However, we found a machine called the Hayek RTX on the internet, that does the physiotherapy and has a built in cough type system.
It basically vibrates the chest area using a plastic jacket, and then does this suck and push motion using air. we found this really really works, and makes breathing easier too. I found the machine on www.deminax.com |
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