Weird Middle of the Night Coughing... What Is This??

Mucous from anything, be it cold or allergies or whatever always gets worse at night due to laying still and the mucous collects. That being said, humidifiers can actually make this worse in many people. Both my children have issues with humidified air. My son can't have any on or he coughs like you described. Without the humidifier he does much better. My daughter does this with a warm mist humidifier but cold mist seems to help her in some situations. So when she needs it on I have to move one of them into bed to with me as they share a room. My son will even start coughing from it if he is not even sick. I would try stopping the humidifier. What might be better is to give her a warm shower before bed. This helps my son, but like I said he can't take any humidifier. You might find she does better without the moist air.

post nasal drip
I get it at night and so does my son. I find that decongestants help when taken at bed time - helps dry up the mucus that drips down the back of the throat at night. But, I am grown and he is 15 - we have more over the counter options. I did use Triaminic when my son was that age - they had one (yeah, I think it was yellow) that helped dry out the mucus in his nose.

Check, again, with your pediatrician. If he cannot come up with any solutions - try another doctor.

Also, when my son is really congested he will sleep sorta' propped up so the mucus drains properly and that reduces the cough.

Sorry she is feeling bad.

Sounds like post nasal drip. The mucus is sliding down her throat and she is coughing it up. Once her cold is gone it should stop unless she has allergies.

The foamy mucus you've described sounds like post nasal drip which always gets much worse when you lay down. If she continues to get a bad cough with every cold, especially at night and it's more of a dry cough, I would have her re-evaluated for possible reactive airways or asthma. I'm not sure what you can do about the congestion other than it just takes time. She could be getting a new virus before she fully recovers from the previous one. Kids that age often pick up a new cold virus about once a month. She's old enough for honey (none under age 1) and that can be soothing. Try to elevate her head a little when she sleeps.

When you lay down and stay still, all that junk in your head settles in your chest, so you cough to break it up. That's mucus and bile that's coming up.

Take her back to the doc to see what she can take from this going from an ear infection/cold into an upper respiratory infection.

Hope she feels better soon!

I've been doing this since Christmas. I've tried both warm and cold mist humidifiers, cough meds, cold meds, no meds, my doc even gave me an inhaler but that didn't help either. I guess it just has to run it's course. :(

Snot draining from her sinus' into her throat. She coughs until it is loosened and it comes up and out by retching it out. It is understandable. Try giving her some children's liquid sudafed. I get ours at a local family owned pharmacy. They do not carry it at Walmart or Walgreens. They have even argued with me that it is not made anymore. I show them the bottle, still in date and it's a long time off, the receipt showing I just bought it, etc...I always ask when I am taking some other meds if there would be any interactions to watch for.

The sudafed with make the goo runnier, it will drain out of her ears better, out of her sinus' better, etc...she may have a more gooey cough though. I would sit her in the bathroom most likely to make steam then let her breathe that for a while when she wakes up. The moist warm air will loosed the goo much better than the cool moist air.

Also, ask the doc about a nebulizer and some Xophenex to use at night when this happens. The med in it will expand her tubes and allow the goo to come up easier and the sterile water it is mixed with in the vial with moisten the goo too. It really seems to help our kiddos.

Like the other mamas have said, it really is just mucus. My 2.5 yr old daughter has been doing the same thing, goes to bed just fine...wake up coughing like crazy around 1am, spits up, goes back to bed (eventually).

Our ped is REALLY big on not giving OTC cough medicine until 6yrs or so, so we've just been doing the plenty of fluids, humidifier, and hot baths. We do also give her a little bit of honey before bed, prop up her mattress, and keep a sippy cup of water in her bed. She's gotten really good about taking a drink of water when she feels her throat tickle.

You can also try stopping the humidifier to see if that helps too. Like Joanna, I think it sometimes makes the post nasal drip worse (if it's dried out, it's not sliding down the throat so much, right?).

have her checked for asthma. that is a sign of asthma in toddlers and babies. my daughter was like that barely cough durring the day then hacked all night.

I agree it sounds like post nasal drip. I've had this all my life and one of my kids inherited it. If you're open to decongestants, that will be the best way to prevent it. No cough syrup is going to help because it's the throat getting tickled that causes the coughing. The humidifier might actually make it worse because it is moist, and that doesn't allow the mucus to dry out. While she's awake, you want to loosen mucus and get it out, but at night it's better for everything to be dry so it won't accumulate. Hence the decongestants help. I hope you find something that works!

see a doc for sure. could be a croup cough. always hits in the middle of the night. i get my little guy into a steamy bathroom. let hot water in shower run and sit in bathroom and just breath it in.
the doc can give you meds to help too.

Like mentioned before, it is cough caused by postnasal drip. Things that might help are elevating the head of her bed, to help the mucus drain a little better, cleaning out her nose with saline before she goes to bed, and giving her claritin at bedtime, as well as decongestant nose drops, Little Noses has one for kids 2 yrs and older, only thing is it is not recommended to be used for more than 3 days, as it can then have a rebound effect. Once the mucus production decreases as the cold gets better, so will her nighttime cough.

when you lay down at night the mucus pools up in your throat..which starts the coughing..have her take cough meds before bed...and use Gentle Vapors ..its a plug in..u just plug it into the wall..if you use a humidifier you will have to clean it every day with white vinegar...if you use a vaporizer you clean it once a week with white vinegar..but the plug in doesn't need cleaning ..just a small gadget thing..that you put a new white strip in every night you use it..CVS carries it..also try giving her Umcka for children..liquid..you can get it at the vitamin shop..i use that on my son..if he starts to get sick..he's 5..hasn't missed a day of kindergarten yet b/c that stuff cuts the duration of a cold/flu down...and wards it off.
good luck..hope she gets well soon

xo

D.

Google Whooping Cough or Pertussis and you can hear the sound of someone who has this disease. If your daughter sounds anything like that, I would take her to the doctor immediately. Some of what you describe sounds like Pertussis. The vaccine does not guarantee immunity to this disease.
Best of luck and I hope it's nothing as serious as this...