How We Controlled my Child's Cough Variant Asthma - Cold Induced

My son used to have what most doctors would probably call 'cough variant asthma'. His own doctor just called it 'asthma' to us but I'm sure that in her notes or maybe if she were to write a paper or discuss it with other doctors she would have called it 'cough variant astha'. I had to discover the cough variant part for myself when all she could offer me was inhaled steroids (flovent). The steroids worked well, but who wants to have their child on steroids forever? NOT ME.

Whenever my son got a cold or an ear infection or threw up - anything that could indicate he was sick, he would cough at night. This would start gradually with only a few coughs at night, and then work up to coughing for 10 minutes at a time 6 or 7 times at night, and then over a few nights it would taper out and go away. When he was a baby it would go away by itself.

But after he turned about a year old, he got a cold and the coughing just wouldn't stop. For two weeks he coughed. Finally, I took him to the doctor, she heard wheezing in his lungs, and diagnosed him with 'asthma' and gave us steroids.

He NEVER wheezes in the way you think of a regular asthmatic doing. He only has wheezing deep in his lungs. Sometimes I wonder if we hadn't have gotten this under control if he would have eventually progressed to having 'regular' asthma that was triggered by many more things than just colds.

I also think that many of the colds and ear infections that he got when he was younger were actually airway inflammations that eventually manifested symptoms of something else that we would then treat and he would get better. (except fot the throwing up - he had rotavirus a couple of times, and twice threw up after traveling - and I think that was a trigger for airway inflammation).

Ok, so we tried every cough medicine in the beginning, and we tried vicks vaporub and we tried humidifiers and hot showers and I even tried to sleep with him sitting up on my chest at night while I sat up on the couch. NOTHING.

None of this even seemed to help a little bit.

He seemed to be able to sleep fairly well through the coughing, but I never could sleep through him coughing, and it was obvious that it wasn't a normal cough - nothing could stop it.

At about two years of age the doctor gave me liquid albuterol, and this made him puke. It was horrible. He got liquid albuterol twice, and both times he coughed so hard he threw up within 30 minutes.

Never again.

The Inhaled albuterol ALSO made him cough so hard he would vomit within minutes ... so he didn't get that more than once.

The doctor gave us inhaled Flovent for him and said give it to him twice a day whlie you notice symptoms and then you can slowly wean him off of it. (Note, these are my doctors instructions for my son and his condition - I am certain that no one else should try this without their doctor's OK).

So the flovent worked well. Within days of starting it his coughing would slow and stop at night. We would slowly wean him off of it over the course of a month or so and then when the next episode would start we would start him back on it and it would go in cycles like this - maybe 4 to 6 times a year.

I discovered that the slower I weaned him off it, normally the longer we could go between cycles. Like maybe the viruses would cause the coughing, but some sort of hyperactiveness in his lungs would make him more susceptible to viruses.

So, I started giving him a once a week dose instead of stopping it all together, and then a once every two weeks, and then once a month before stopping.

I discovered that if I gave Joe decongestants while he was in a cycle I could start weaning off the steroids a lot quicker. Decongestants alone would not control or stop his coughing, but they would help a lot.

Years ago, he got pseudoephedrine, when that was what was still in sudafed, but now he gets phenelyphrine, since that is what is in sudafed (we give him sudafed).

It does NOT make him hyper or crazy, and I will give it to him, orally, before bed if he's not bad, before bed and in the morning if his coughing is moderate, and three times a day if I can actually hear congestion in his voice while he is awake.

I tried homeopathic decongestant, I tried tinctures, herbs, and anything else I found that looked promising. So far at this point, sudafed and flovent was ALL that helped.

Then I went to the naturapath and hit paydirt in the form of quercetin.

So, I took my son to a naturopathic doctor in the hopes that she could help us get off or reduce the use of steroids. She recommended Quercetin and a homepathic Quercetin Nasal Spray.

I COULD SING THIS NASAL SPRAY TO THE HEAVENS! It helped SO MUCH. This is the nasal spray at amazon. That's a great price. I buy them 5 at a time and reorder when I am down to 2, just to be sure I never run out

After Joe started taking the nasal spray, the first thing that happened was some ecxema on his scalp cleared up. AND, I didn't have to give him flovent for SIX MONTHS!!!

This was absolutely astonishing to me. 6 months! and it was so wonderful. :) I am so happy about it.

*** Update - I'm no longer certain I recommend these. I have found something better I think. Either read all the way to the update, or just skip to it here to read about nasal washing. I no longer give Joe this nasal spray, although if he started getting ecxema again I would again.

He normally takes 2 sprays in each nostril in the morning and evening. If I am nervous about something (indoor swimming pool or friend with a virus) maybe I will ask him to take it 3 or 4 times a day.

She also recommended that he take these quercetin tablets. I would try to put him in his yogurt or something and sometimes he would take it, but he didn't like it, so I don't ask him to take these too much anymore.

In the beginning I would give him as much as I could, but now he gets very little, even though I have discovered he can swallow size 4 capsules so sometimes I take it out of the adult sized capsule and put it in one of those.

Quercetin is an antioxident found in the skin of red apples and in red onions. The doctor said it "strengthens wet linings", so I guess that means the inside of your nose and mouth all the way down to the very smallest parts of your lungs.

One day when he had fifths disease, and hence the coughing and congestion was triggered, I gave him mucinex to see what would happen. I was a little worried because the sudafed hadn't been working to well and I had been giving it to him for a few days longer than normal, so I wanted to see if mucinex would help.

I tried it, and it immediately changed the sound of his cough and that night he didn't cough at all. (He was 6 when we discovered mucinex)

So, I started giving him mucinex instead of sudafed and it cleared things up quickly and nicely. I think mucinex is WONDERFUL, and since I took it long term to help reverse fibromyalgia in my body, I am not scared of it.

So, that's it. These days, I still have some flovent in my drawer, and I hope to never, ever use it again. I will if I need to, and I have nothing against it because it's been wonderful for us, but I am so happy to have found all these other options that work well and seem to give my son something he needs.

I have has someone recently recommend colloidal silver and although I haven't tried it yet, it may be the next thing I look into if I ever decide I want to keep looking for a greater level of wellness for my wonderful son. :)

One more thing to think about, as an overall wellness idea. - I have also been giving him enzymes and probiotics. Have you heard that 90% of immunity starts in the gut? Well, from what I have read, enzymes will help his body digest cooked food (because cooked food doesn't have the enzymes in it anymore that raw does). And, probiotics will keep his gut stocked with the healthy foods. He doesn't eat too many fermented foods, so I know this is important too. (I like pearls)

"The good news is that health risks of asthma may be reduced with enzyme therapy." In her lectures, Dr. Cutler describes that many children who suffer with asthma are plagued with food allergies. The most common food allergies are: milk, corn, soy, tree nuts, wheat, fish and shellfish, and eggs. But there are many other food sensitivities that are delayed and chronic. For example, fruits, spices, alcohol, beans, chocolate, yeast and sulfites in foods. These sensitivities added to the more common food allergies are triggers for sinusitis, and respiratory problems.

Enzymes can cut these allergies considerably and consequently reduce asthma. Enzymes are safe, natural, easy to use and there are even chewable enzymes for children who can't swallow capsules. A case history from Dr. Cutler's clinical practice can help illustrate the impact of enzyme therapy for asthmatic conditions. from this article on enzyme therapy for kids with asthma

....

Asthma is often the result of systemic inflammation caused by food allergies. Probiotics, it turns out, can help deal with food allergies, calming the inflammation and helping to eliminate many health problems (not just asthma, but also some skin conditions and intestinal disorders as well). from this article on probiotics

So, about 4 days ago, my son came down with some sort of virus. Mild sore throat, hoarse voice, congestion, and the coughing started.

This time, I managed to get his coughing on the downswing within THREE DAYS, instead of 1 to 2 weeks. If he keeps going as he is going now I think he will not be coughing at all within another two days.

What I think did it for us this time around is

1) The normal dose of sudafed every 4 hours
2) Mucinex every 4 hours. I was a lot more aggressive with the mucinex this time. I gave him the maximum allowable dose as much as the box said he could take it.
3) frequent Quercetin. I have a big bottle of Quercetin, and I open the tablets and put the contents in gelcaps that my son can swallow, so every 4 hours when he was getting mucinex and sudafed he was getting quercetin too.

and he is doing so well, so quickly. I love it.

As you can see from the comment below, Russell Faust, a sinus doctor has mentioned reflux and cough variant asthma. I am pulling this out so everyone sees it.

Russ Jul 10, 2010 @ 1:35 pm | delete
Lisa, thanks for an excellent lens! The only thing I can think to add is that I usually also consider the possibility of reflux in my patients with "cough-variant asthma". That is, with their reactive, very sensitive airways, any cause of inflammation - allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, otitis, and reflux - can trigger an asthma exacerbation. The symptom of cough can be from reflux. When the cough is limited to nighttime I am especially suspicious of reflux. Given a choice of giving my patients systemic steroids or an anti-reflux med, I will often put them on a trial of the anti-reflux med. If that reduces their symptoms, we have made the diagnosis, and have a decent treatment.
Thanks again for some great tips. I especially appreciate the Quercetin suggestion, great alternative.
Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD, FAAP
http://www.boogordoctor.com

This makes great sense to me, because Joe's father has reflux, and from what I have read at Dr. Faust's website, it may be a contributing factor in Joe's coughing. I am going to check into it and report back, but in the meantime, please check out Dr. Faust's website for some great information.

As you may have noticed above, a sinus doctor stopped in and suggested I look into whether my son has reflux and if that could be contributing to his coughing.

Well, I did and he does and now I think we have this whole thing totally under control. I have added more enzymes, apple cider vinegar, and more probiotics to his treatment, and the last time his circle of friends all got a cold, he got a little congestion and that was it - no coughing at all.

Well, it's now a year since I first wrote this information. I have updated many things in that time but this may be the most important of all. I don't know if my son will always have a tendency to have airway issues, or if he will grow out of it. I don't know if it's finally over for now, or if we are currently in another lull.

I do know, that I think I have discovered the absolute most important thing of all to help him: A way to wash his nose.

Let me first give a little backstory. Despite all of the successes I described above about how we have successfully treated his coughing we still went through a whopper of an illness about 6 weeks ago. It started on a Sunday. All his friends were sick with a sore throat - coughing virus - and then he got it. He coughed about once ever 15 seconds.

The first night we slept for about 3 hours - joe sitting up ina recliner. The next day we went to urgent care. They gave him a breathing treatment that helped *not at all*. The second day we slept for about 6 hours and he coughed for a lot of it, and again he slept sitting up in a recliner. If we tried to lay him down he coughed so hard he puked. The third day he was starting to get a bit better thanks to the oral prednisone and the antibiotic. He still slept sitting up.

On Thursday, I ran across the nasopure on a recommendation from the booger doctor. Now, I have mentioned him before because he came here and talked about the link between night-time cough variant asthma and reflux. At that time he did mention nasal irrigation as a good treatment for these kinds of issues but I had a hard head and thought the quercitin nose spray was probably sufficient.

After this several day long fest of my son sleeping upright in a chair, I was willing to try new stuff. I sent my husband on a 2 hour drive each way to get one because there weren't any available near us. I showed my son the videos on the website of the young kids washing their noses. He said "yeah, let's get that".

When my husband came home with it we tried it first thing. Now keep in mind, this is the 5th day AFTER antibiotics and oral prednisone were started.

My son put that thing in his nose and squirted a small bit of the solution up there and had to actually *jump his body back* because rivers of snot started pouring out of his nostril. We'd been blowing all day and almost nothing came out any time. When he used the nasopure I was actually taken aback by how much snot was inside his head. I couldn't believe it. So much came out. I was so, so greatful that we had found the nasopure.

The worst part was when I considered how little the medicines actually did for him. I appreciate them for sure, but if that much snot was left inside him after 4 days of antibiotics and liquid steroids, they must really just be like a band-aid!

So over the next few days we used the nasopure twice a day and always got out a lot of snot. Eventually, there came a point where no snot came out. At that point we switched to using it once a day.

We have not had once hint of an issue since then. Joe uses the nasopure once a day (so do I actually) and I am confident that this will be the tool that truly saves us from more coughing misery. In another year I'll post about our cough-free year :).

I have personally talked to Dr. Hana about the nasopure (she developed it). She's very sweet and helpful. You can get it off her website or here at amazon. Best prices are at amazon.

p.s. I still use enzymes and probiotics and sometimes quercetin pills. I would use decongestants and mucinex if I thought Joe needed it. I no longer use the nose spray. I am very appreciative to that nose spray and I think it was very helpful at one point, but I don't think it is useful anymore now that we have the nasopure so I don't use it anymore.

I don't know if I 'recommend' it to others still. It was an important part of our journey towards where we are now, so I guess all I can say is we used it for a long time and it helped.

The last time I updated this page was in March. That was a month or two after we got the Nasopure. It is now late July, and besides that one small incident in March, there has been NO COUGHING in this house :). AND ... this is a big and here ... I haven't given my son ANY flovent since April. :) :) :) oh my gosh it's so wonderful. I'm so happy about it. :)

So can cough variant asthma be cured? I honestly don't know. I think time can cure it (when kids become adults - they sometimes 'grow out of it') - but I don't think I consider my boy cured. I think that if we didn't wash his nose with the nasopure for a week we'd have issues. So we won't try that.

I also still sometimes notice cycles in him - where he picks his nose a lot and his breath smells a little fruity and his lips get chapped. I think these are cycles his body goes through for whatever reason and they used to put him in a CVA flare, but now with the nasopure they just irritate him a bit. sometimes I put raw manuka honey in the nasopure when this is going on, just for a little extra infection fighting power. I got this idea from the boogor doctor.

*** Update - it's now September and we still haven't had any coughing or had to use the flovent. Our circle of friends recently got a nasty respiratory illness - maybe the flu - I'm not sure. Joe did get it, but he did not cough at all.

What was surprising to me was that out of all of us, he was the one who got it the least badly. He was mildly sick for about 4 days. I was sick for over a week and I STILL, 3 weeks later, have congestion and a runny nose. My friend said simply 'this is the sickest I've been in a long time.' Her kids were sick for about 2 weeks

Since it was respiratory Joe should have gotten it the worst. Instead, he got it the least. The only thing that he was doing that I wasn't doing was I gave him kid's calm multivitamin every day. (other than that I wash my nose and I take probiotics like he does). So I've started to drink the kids' calm - thinking maybe that really helped him out a lot.

He stopped being willing to take quercetin in pill form so this was my solution. this is a liquid. It may help the immune system.

*** update - it's now december and we've had no coughing and no flovent

I don't know if the methods I have described here would be effective for an adult, but I do know that Quercetin seems to be very effective for me, whenever my throat seems a little sore or I think I am getting sick. My friend likes to take echinacia when she thinks she is coming down with something, but I think quercetin is MUCH more effective.

When not discuss the nasal spray or the quercetin supplement with a naturopath and see what they say?