Coughing

Question

My 10 years old CF son has strong coughs that could last 3-4 hours in a raw. He says that it scratches his throat; I think that it might be an irritating cough? What could we do? As he must not take syrup, I tried honey but with no improvement. It tires him a lot! Thanks!

Answer

Hello

The coughs of your son could be due to several different factors, particularly infectious (virus, bacteria, fungi) and/or allergic (bronchial hyper-responsiveness). It’s very difficult to give you advices with so few details.

Since when have started the coughs: several days, several weeks or several months? Is there a particular schedule (in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at night)? Do effort increases them? Are they increased during the night? Have you already tried some medicines that decrease them? Does he make regular respiratory physio sessions? Are his airways intermittently or chronically infected or colonized? How are his respiratory function tests?

I think that the simplest is to speak with the doctor who follows your child in your CF center. This one will proceed to an interrogation, a clinical examination and will prescribe him the adapted additional examinations. So, a targeted treatment could be started.

Indeed, “cough syrups" are not indicated in cystic fibrosis because they do not favour the bronchial drainage but other medicine could be prescribed to decrease these tiring coughs.

Best wishes

Harriet Corvol

04.02.2013