>The Cough
>Punky’s been sick.
After three straight weeks of coughing and three doctor’s visits, she’s finally been diagnosed with a sinus infection and prescribed an antibiotic. She acts like she feels fine, except that she coughs and hacks about every 30 seconds or so and it’s driving us all out of our minds. There’s not much sadder than a pigtailed, chipmunk-cheeked three-year-old coughing like a three-pack-a-day smoker for weeks on end.
Unless you count the times she said to me sadly as we walked out of the doctor’s office, “Mommy, I’m still coughing.”
The other night, she was coughing so much at 2 am that I went to her room and brought her some juice and lay down beside her. With her eyes still closed, she whispered, “Mommy, I want you to scratch my back.” I complied and after a few minutes, she whispered, “Maybe I want you to scratch my back all the time,” before launching into another coughing fit. And at that moment, I would have. I would have followed her everywhere, scratching away. I’d have to accompany her to kindergarten, of course, and onto grade school, junior high, high school and her first date. I’d go with her to college and follow her down the wedding aisle, a satin glove on my scratching hand. And in that distant time, the way things are going now, I’m quite sure she’ll still be coughing and I’ll still be feeling like the worst, most ineffective mother of all time.
“We’re going to a party tonight,” I told her on July 4th morning as she ate her cereal. “There’ll be fireworks and music and cookies to eat!”
“A birthday party?” she said eagerly.
“Yes!” I said, after a pause. “It’s America’s birthday!”
“America!” she laughed. “What is America?”
“It where we live,” I said. “It’s our nation.”
She thought for a moment. “Well… I can’t go now because I have to cough.” She paused, then said reassuringly, “But maybe I can go later.”
And that’s when I knew it was bad. Really bad. This three-year-old had “cough” on her to-do list, right up there with “Play with dollies”, “read books” and “go to America’s birthday party.” Sometimes raising kids is so sad.
>I feel for Punky – I’m in that mode right now too…and BOTH my kids went through it too. My son, just about Punky’s age, is still coughing, almost a month after he got his “summer cold” – which he promptly shared with his sister and me. The sister is done, but mom’s still championing the cough…and what’s worse, I’ve become a Phantosmiac – meaning that I have a phantom smell all the time. It happens to be a campfire – but the burning eyes and throat are very real. Sigh.I hope that back scratching makes Punky’s cough go away!
>Poor Punky. Poor Mama.
>Punky is too cute (hope she feels better!)
>Awww, so cute. I feel for punky, too. I had semi-annual sinus infections when I was her age.
>Poor Punky!!As a mom of an allergy ridden, asthma prone kid I feel your pain. We had my Roo on antibiotics and breathing treatments every other week. It seemed like he was always coughing, never well. It broke my heart.We tried everything and nothing worked and I was beginning to lose hope…and then we tried 4 mg of Children’s singulair in his yogurt in the morning. His grandad the pediatrician prescribed it because the other doctors kept begging off saying he was ‘too young for allergy meds’ though he OBVIOUSLY had allergies because he was hacking his head off all the time.In the 7 months since he’s been on Singulair, he’s only been sick once. And for only 2 days and no need for breathing treatments (which was the only thing that would keep him from coughing until he vomited in the middle of the night).I’m never one to push drugs, but this has changed my family’s life. For real. I couldn’t even imagine having another child before we got the Roo’s coughing and hacking under control.If Punky doesn’t have allergies, however, a cool mist humidifier does help with middle of the night coughs. Also taking hot showers with mom or dad before bed helps with relaxing the irritated bronchial tubes.Good luck! Feel for you guys. That lingering kind of sickness is so hard and disheartening.anna
>Poor baby girl. I know how you feel, Mama!
>I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV, but I do have some experience with a child who has that constant cough. It can be asthma (brought on by allergies). Just make sure Punky’s doc listens to her lungs for wheezing when she goes in. The constant dry cough was how my daughter was finally diagnosed with asthma and with just a few breathing treatments and allergy pills, it just goes away. Good luck.
>Maybe you should give her whatever you were drinking the night before :-).Hope she feels better soon!
>I hope she feels better soon. Poor little darlin’.
>Hope she gets better.When my daughter is sick, I think I feel more pain that she does.
>Poor baby! My son had that awful cough, and I found that steam/mist helped at night somewhat. Also, regular showers/baths, keeping his nose clear (so he could breathe through his nose more and not through his mouth so much, which would irritate his throat/lungs). He did have a chest X-ray because the doctor heard some congestion in one part of my son’s lungs, but the X-ray didn’t find anything. Then we got antibiotics and an air purifier, and that helped. Mostly, though, I think it was just time that did the trick. *sigh* It’s so awful when kids are sick and every remedy helps only a little, if at all. I hope your daughter is feeling much better soon.
>Something great to try is rubbing a small amount of Vicks Vapor Rub on her chest at night. It definately helps with the cough. My son has bad seasonal allergies and this has been a life saver. If she doesn’t like it on her chest, you can put some on the bottom of her feet and put socks on to keep the heat in. Hope you all are better soon!