help!! im at my witts end!

Hi mama2missb,

Welcome to Healing Well!  Sorry to hear your little one is struggling.  We don't often get parents of young children on this forum, but someone with a similar experience might spot your post.  Fingers crossed!

I can say that it is difficult to distinguish between asthma caused by allergy and/that caused by GERD/LPR.  Knowing your daughter's history, I'm not surprised that your doctor wants to treat for AR. The reflux can be totally silent, with no symptoms other than creating asthma issues. 

My asthma doctor is always suspicious that my reflux is adding to my asthma problems.  Anyone who has asthma with a history of reflux will be at risk for increased symptoms.  I'm sure it's very frustrating and you don't want your child on so many medications. 

It sounds as if you're doing all the right things.  It makes perfect sense to treat for reflux for the time being, since you'll have a hard time getting her lungs healthy if she's refluxing fairly regularly.  The reflux, even if it's minimal, can cause havoc.  My asthma doc said that most GI docs aren't aware of how a very small amount of reflux can cause real problems in the lungs.

I really hope that you find the right doctor who has the expertise to help your little girl and can get things into control so she can get off some of those meds  As a fellow asthma sufferer, I understand how difficult it can be.  Good luck!

Best wishes,

Denise

Hi! I'm an adult but i'm also a cougher with lpr. I went through every possible test and none was right. In fact I was on a lot of the same meds as your daughter.

My coughing "bouts" usually come whenever I have a cold or sinus infection. What happens is this. This is TRULY what I believe based on a decade of experience with it, a ton of reading and talking to my doc who is an expert in LPR.

I am coughing and coughing because of the cold. Because of my physiology all the coughing creates reflux! I believe the "valve" was already open but who knows what came first. Kind of a chicken and egg scenario.

So the cold or whatever resolves but by then I have so much reflux that I get ATROCIOUS post nasal drip. (I have reflux all the way to my nose) which makes me cough pretty much constantly, mostly during the day but also at night.

To treat the post nasal drip is futile since the reflux will always create more PND. THE ONLY WAY TO TREAT REFLUX COUGH IS BY TREATING THE REFLUX.

Meds didn't work for me but diet, a wedge pillow and not eating large meals, esp close to bedtime did work. I also don't recline during the day. Or try not to. When I drop the ball and go back to my old ways it inevitably comes back esp. with another cold.

Right now I have GERD without cough symptoms (even though I do have an upper resp. infection) Interesting that my gerd came back with an infection! Coughing, sneezing, blowing nose maybe even PND started the reflux again. Can't be a coincidence! The cough is worse than ANYTHING for me because it effects my life so dramatically. And i tend to withdraw until it's gone, but that's another conversation!

ONe last thing. My LPR Doc believes that some people have extremely reactive vagal nerve response so once they start coughing it becomes involuntary and constant. Basically the more you cough the more you cough. This probably wouldn't work for a three year old but she has me on Elavil and I do think it helped calm my system down. Just so you know what we coughers do.

Poor baby, it's the worst. My son had reflux as a baby too and was on zantac but I guess as he matured the valve closed or whatever. Again, nothing worked as much as feeding him upright and not jostling him for a half hour after each meal. I totally believe in lifestyle changes.

The cough does go but it takes a while! Let me know if you want info about the diet. It's tough but probably easy with a three year old who doesn't have caffeine cravings or a love for beer!

Good luck

LPR is when reflux reaches the larynx and upper resp. tract. That area is completely vulnerable to acid (esophagus has lining so can handle it but acid is not supposed to get up further). It only takes a DROP of reflux to cause problems like hoarseness, sore throat, PND and cough.

People with LPR have reflux mostly during day.

It stands for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease

The only odd thing is she was on 5ml of AR meds for at least 3 months and first cold she was coughing out of control.....if it was AR why wouldnt the meds work!?

Good to know! And no it was a once a day med. We do have her bed raised up 6 inches and ill def have to read about diet.

You are to kind thank u so much for all your help!

The only thing she has had was a reg xray...she goes in monday for a scope.
Thanks for the reply! Every time i hear i have an email I hope it is a post so i can get this figured out!

So again nothing is black and white...but with that said the scope showed her adenoids are large and so her tonsils (they are 3 out of 4). This would not cause her coughing fits though...but could cause her not to stay in a deep sleep as she could be snoring and waking herself up out of the rem (think that is what it is call) stage..therefore not getting the right rest and could make her sick more. The vocal cords were red (but again she has been coughing her brains out the last phew days so could be that)..if it is acid reflux causing the redness she has the LRP "silent reflux" and this is the harder one to deal with. So we r going back on AR meds and im going to try and learn more about how we can control it say by changing her diet (even though alcohol/caffeine are the big triggers and unless she is sneaking out at night she does not get this stuff).
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> He did see her in one of her fits and he said she was def refluxing as she coughed and if he did see it he would swear she has whooping cough. He also thinks she has what they call a cough tic...this is were the brain keeps telling her to cough...so while she was in the fit the nurse ran and got her apple juice and while she was drinking it he was asking her about her pretty hat and she stopped coughing.....so more or less she gets herself all worked up and cant stop coughing.
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> He now more or less said he agrees it is prob not asthma...so we are taking away the Albutroil but keeping the pulicort and uping it to twice a day till winter is over (not agree 100% with that..but will do it). We are also taking away the singular.
> So she will only be on AR meds 4 ml twice a day and pulicort 2 times a day.
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> So for now im going to learn all I can on LRP/AR and read more on the cough tic.
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> Thanks for all you posts and support!
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