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Danielle L.
Could anyone offer advice for an almost four year-old who has a tendency to, at the later stage of being sick with either cold or flu, develop the most nagging and uncontrollable nighttime cough? It’s not wet; it’s dry, but not croupy or hacking. It’s incredibly spasmodic and persistent, and he doesn’t seem to be able to control it while trying to sleep, unless interrupted by being woken up or spoken to. If not interrupted in the middle of a coughing spasm, coughing often continues to the point of vomiting.
During illness, the child gets homemade elderberry syrup 3x a day, a cup of tea drank throughout the day consisting of either 1) yarrow, elderflower, spearmint, cinnamon, and ginger or 2) catnip, chamomile, and lemon balm, cinnamon, and ginger. Warm epsom salt bath before bed. During sleep, we run a humidifier. Before and during sleep we have tried the following remedies to help calm his coughing, but with little success:
- Red onion and honey cough syrup
- a cough syrup consisting of a strong infusion of: cherry bark, mullein, lemon balm, pine needle, gumweed, marshmallow root, ginger, a pinch of cayenne, and honey
- chamomile tincture
- cramp bark tincture
We are really feeling stumped with this. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much!
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Greg Boggs
I see that you’ve got quite a bit in your cough syrup. Mullein always kicks my cough quick, perhaps your dosage is too small? Could you try just doing like a teaspoon of mullein mixed with some applesauce?
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Michele Miller
Can i make a suggestion? I had a few kids that had night time coughing. I made a shaker bottle ( old parmasan can ) with 1 C baking soda 8 drops of lavender and 8 droos of tea tree oils. Mix and sprinkle on mattress. Let sit 2 hours. I read it kills 100% of dust mites. The kids were on asthma meds. It totally made it stop. No meds needed.
Michele Miller
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Michele, I can’t (belatedly) thank you enough for this recommendation. I tried it, and it WORKED. I was honestly shocked at the difference when he went to bed that night. He went from coughing nonstop the night before to almost ZERO coughs that night. I will absolutely keep this in my back pocket for the future. THANK YOU!!!
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Darcy Shoff
Hello, There is a cough syrup called ‘Nim Jiom’ that has worked well for my children. Also, mullein tea or tincture seems to have helped. And when you mentioned onion syrup, did you cut open an onion and cover it with honey and take the liquid portion that seeped from the onion (it’s clear and runny)? Hope this helps!
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Wendy Dyk
Hi Danielle!
Your poor little boy! When I was a little kid I had the same problem. After countless allergy test that came back negative, I was diagnosed with viral induced asthma. I was given an inhaler to use when I was sick. Thankfully I outgrew it.
The herb that comes to my mind first for the spasmodic, asthma like nature of his cough would be lobelia. The adult dose of tincture is as little as 1/4-1/2 teaspoon, so for a little 4 year old who probably weighs 40ish pounds, just a couple drops. I didn’t come across any contraindications in the lessons for children, but see what you think.
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A follow up:
Thank you so much for all the recommendations! What I did that ended up working was:
- Michele’s baking soda mattress trick, which made an immense and immediate difference.
- Supporting his recovery with a few days of mullein tincture added to his elderberry syrup, 3-4x a day.
- Dropping the cough syrup I’d been using (after the baking soda trick, it wasn’t even needed!)
I also intend to make a lobelia tincture ASAP, because I think this did seem to be asthmatic in nature, and I wan’t to be able to offer that kind of support.
Thank you all again SO much for your help!!
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