Bronchitis visit my child again
Child, Health, Parenting November 14th, 2007Yes, my child’s “old friend” is back to pay its visit again… yes my elder son has been coughing till his face and ears gone red again….he was diagnosed with Bronchitis when he was only 2 years old.
For those of you who are new to Bronchitis, you can read up here. Allan and I are non-smokers…so please don’t blame us, if you think we could have been the cause of it.
KeatKeat has been coughing before his birthday. He is a very obedient boy, we explained to him that even though it was his birthday, he couldn’t drink cold drinks and eat chocolates and all the sweets that will worsen his cough.
Yes, as you can see from his birthday photo, there were chocolate almost everwhere on his cake…he didn’t even take a bite. That’s how much self-control he has. Yes, he is an amazing boy.
Or maybe he is still haunted by the past experiences he had, whenever he starts to have this “phlegm” cough. I still remember the very first time he started this…he coughed so hard that he started to nose bleed. He burst his tender skin in his nose. We were in total shock, quickly lay him down; in a few moment, he vomitted blood… we didn’t know that by lying down, the blood from his nose could flow backwards and into his stomach which will cause his stomach to have adverse reaction, resulting in vomitting.
My little boy is afraid and he hated the feeling of coughing so hard till he lose his voice sometimes. But he can’t help but vomit occasionally. So we got to make sure that he is not too full during mealtime….or the chances of them coming back out of his mouth is almost 100%, when he starts coughing too hard.
Specialist on Bronchitis said that my son needs to build up his own immunity system to fight against this “enemy”, there isn’t any real medication for it, just normal cough syrup to reduce the intensity of the cough.
So for almost 3 weeks, we tried over best to “eliminate” all the other things that will worsen his condition, like keeping the house as dust-free as possible, no direct fan, no cold drinks, sweet and sour food….the list just goes on….
Its times like these that parents need to control their temper as they hardly get to sleep, cos the coughing gets worse in the night, due to lower temperature; and for 3 weeks, its a challenge.
Do you, or someone close to you, have any experience with such an illness…any new tips to share with me?
November 14th, 2007 at 4:19 am
I get it every year at least once a year, sometimes twice and it hangs on for ever so long… I wish I could tell you there was something that works. Usually I just have to wait it out until it gets better. If I can tell that it’s coming though, I have been able to avoid it by not talking, keeping my throat moist, warm tea with honey works best (once it’s irritated I’m SOL). I know kids aren’t going to take to tea so maybe warm apple juice with a little honey, I know apple juice is already sweet, but the honey helps… even warm water with honey helps. I stay away from acids like orange juice, lemonade, tomatoes, anything that might irritate in the slightly. And try really hard to keep the coughs shallow if possible. If I start the really deep coughs I can’t stop them. I sound like I’m dying then, and they seriously take 2+ months to go away… If it helps, most of the time the coughing sounds much worse than it feels. His back will probably get sore from the coughing, so rubbing it will probably help. My first experience was when I was a senior in high school, I’m 33 now and still get it. So I’m not sure how likely he is to build up an immunity. I just recommend trying to have him take it easy at the first sign of getting sick, basically keep it away rather than trying to fight it after it sets in. Hope this helps. I included my email and I’d be glad to answer any questions I can for you. Not a doctor, just someone that lives with it.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:37 am
Thank you so much….finally I found someone who can completely understand what my child is going through now.
Its hard for a young kid to explain exactly how he feels when he is coughing so hard. It just hurts me so much when I see his face grows red from coughing.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
My son is 4 and having almost the same problem. He has been coughing so hard and vomiting blood for 2 nights in a row. I was really terrified. I am still trying to make sure where did the blood come from. I have talked to the Specialist but he could not assure me.
Finding this site has eased me a lot…I feel that I’ve found a reassurance that my son will be just fine.
Thanks a lot for sharing…God Bless you.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Thanks Delny, Your boy will be fine. God Bless the 2 of you too.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am
43. I get the cough yearly, since a child. Curse of the Irish..no kidding. I had no idea about the chocolate, acidic food/drink and cold beverages. Arg! 3 of my vices too!
I found that Airbourne helps tremendously. I was drinking up to tabs a day for weeks during any seasonal change. Seasonal change seems to set off any and all symptoms. Once the bronchials decide they’re irritated..that’s it..take 2 months off…2 month’s of people’s snide comments of cough-related bafoonery.
December 20th, 2010 at 11:09 am
My daughter is 10, has been getting bronchitis about once a year since we moved into our house six years ago. I didn’t associate her problems with the changes of the season until now- it seems that as soon as the temps shift dramatically downward, that’s when she gets it. Her doctor prescribes tussionex to control the coughing, and adds Advair if she’s still having trouble with the cough after a few days on the tussionex.
February 17th, 2011 at 4:54 am
my little boy has had this now twice he is only six mths old he was two mths prem and has had it bad already i have tryed every thing i possibly can scanned the net i can deffinatly feel for every one on here it is horrible to see these little ones in so much pain and as i can see through scanning the net there is really nothing you can do its horrible