Seeking Advice on Persistent (Chronic?) Cough in Infants

Sounds more like asthma. Is it possible to send him to grandma's or you work from home for a few weeks to see if his condition clears up? Could be allergic to something at daycare. And, if it's bronchiolitis, did they give him an antibiotic as well as nebulizer treatment? My 5-yr-old is being treated for something similar. For some asthmatics, a simple bout of cold can turn into bronchiolitis (or inflammation of the lungs), and the mucous sitting there can build up. My daughter has history of pneumonia (2 ER trips, 1 hospitalization), so when her cough went beyond 10 days, the dr put her on antibiotics. (Btw, my daughter had problems with coughs since she was 2 yrs old. It took 2 yrs of visits to pulmonary specialist, ERs, and peds to be labeled asthmatic. Not sure why, but the same with my son. Neither ever had a true "wheeze", very slight only detected sometimes with stethoscope. Cold-induced and allergy-induced only. Make sure your baby is not allergic to mold or dust at daycare facility. That, along with a cold, can make him miserable.)

Just two quick thoughts -- Did the doctor recommend the warm mist humidifier? We always use cool mist, on our doctor's recommendation (though our child does not have the issues yours does). Also, have you checked out the day care situation to ensure that nothing there exacerbates his problems? I'm not saying that something at day care necessarily is causing it, just that something there (allergens, pets if it's a home day care, etc.) could aggravate symptoms that come from other causes. Bet you've thought of it already! Let us know "what happened."

We have had similar challenges with a persistent and strong cough. What has worked for us: albuterol to open up the lungs, and singulair for children to dry up the mucus. However, we weren't able to start that until our daughter was ~18 mos, and she was almost 30lbs at that point. I'm not sure if either are an option for your son at this point.

I really don't know a whole lot. But I do know that persistent coughing can be a sign of heartburn / reflux, especially at night. Does his breath smell sour, especially when coughing?

hang in there you'll figure this out!
R.

Hi there, we have also been battling a similar problem. I too went back to work when my sone was 4 months old and he has been in day care 2 days a week since. He is now 9 months old. He too was exclusively bf until about a month ago. Now he is bf morning and night an has 2 bottles of formula during the day. I also make all his food from scratch. He doesn't have any jar food, etc. at about 5 months old he came down with a really bad cold and a chest infection that he could not shift. I too am reluctant to use antibiotics etc. however after a month or persistent coughing he was put on antibiotics. These had no effect on the cough and only cleared up a runny nose he had. 4 months on he still ha a chesty cough that is wet sounding and he constantly has a rattle in his chest. He is on one last lot of antibiotics to rule out it isn't an infection (only the 3rd set of antibiotics). We too use a humidifier in his room, have raised his mattress on an angle, use saline drops and suction. Nothing seems to work. The dr also now has him on ventalin 4 times a day to help break up the mucus. We are now tryin to remove lactose from his diet by putting him on lactose free formula and yogurt and eliminating cheese. I am also eliminating lactose from my diet to limit the amount in my breastmilk. If none of this works he will be getting chest X-rays and will be seeing a pediatrician. I am so exhausted and tired due to lack of sleep from his constant coughing bouts. When he I really bad he doesn't eat either so his growh has slowed right down and has dropped off his growth curve which is also now a concern. It does give me some comfort that we are not the only ones going through this. I too hope that it is my asthma but it does not look good considering my and I both had childhood asthma. Good luck!

it can be a food allergy (milk protein allergy)
or he could have asthma. Ours had a cough for 9 weeks and 6 doc visits- and we finally found out she has asthma!

if u check out the symptoms of childhood asthma, you may find some coincidences.

My youngest son had similar symptoms following chest colds or bronchitis. It turned out that he has a tendancy toward bronchitis-induced temporary asthma, but more mucos-related than true asthma. It does pass, but it often takes a month or two after any chest cold. It can flare up after a feeding, which seems to stimulate the mucus. In the meantime, albuterol treatments are a really good idea. Even if the baby isn't wheezing, the treatments thin the mucos so the cough eases. My son has had no ill effects from the albuterol treatments, which he had as often as 3-4 times daily after a cold. He largely grew out of it after his toddler years, but it can still reoccur after he's had bronchitis. He's 8 years old now. Good luck!

Hi M.,
I have a 10 month old that has had a very similar history. He got a cold from his older brother when he was only a few weeks old and the cough never went away. I mentioned it at every visit to the ped and no one really did anything about it until he was about 6 months old and got sick again, stopped eating, etc. Finally, they took me seriously. We started him on prevacid b/c they thought that maybe he had "silent" reflux. (he never vomited after eating at this point). An upper gi series confirmed it. He did have some wheezing though so he was also diagnosed with bronchiolitis and was started on albuterol and Flovent. He was given zithromax and after that the cough seemed to clear up for the most part. He is still on prevacid. He was hospitalized for RSV at 8 months and at that time he would start to vomit when nursing. He is also a BF baby. I don't think the BF has anything to do with it. He recently had a cold and the cough made him vomit. My ped has also explained to us that colds will make reflux worse b/c of all the mucus, etc. So, I would suggest getting him checked out a little more for reflux, either by just trying the meds to see if it helps or getting an upper gi done. Our little boy has had a rough winter and it did slow down his growth a little but overall he is doing great. I can't wait for winter to be over.
Good luck. I hope this helps.

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