It's Just a Cough

It’s ba-a-a-a-ck. (Cue creepy music.) The Cough is back. I thought we'd at least make it till Oct., but no.

Did you know that a chronic cough is often one of the only symptoms of asthma in young children? I do now. Last year, when my son Miles started preschool, he started getting more colds. And with these colds came a cough that would linger… and linger… and linger.

We’d find ourselves in the pediatrician’s office about once every month or two. And each time she’d say, “Does he have a fever? No. Is his nose running clear? Yes. I don’t hear anything in his lungs. He’s fine. The cough will go away in a few weeks.” A few WEEKS? And in the meantime, he has to walk around sounding like a tuberculosis patient?

Eventually, the pediatrician referred us to an allergist, who did all kinds of tests and determined that Miles has mild asthma and allergies. This means that anytime he gets the slightest cold or his allergies act up, it causes an awful-sounding cough. So now he takes Singulair every night, and he has a nebulizer (a.k.a. his “breathing machine”) that he uses when the cough flares up.

But try explaining all this to his teachers, the daycare workers at the gym, or strangers we encounter at the library or mall. All they know is, he sounds sick. And let me tell you, you get some evil looks when you walk around in public with a sick kid. Especially since this whole swine flu frenzy.

Last year, Miles went to school two mornings a week. One of those mornings was Monday, which happens to be the day of the week on which 90% of holidays fall. So if I were to keep him home from school one day, that sometimes meant he’d miss school for an entire week. (I don’t know who was more upset about that, him or me.) And if I kept him home every time he had a cough, he would’ve attended maybe 19 days of school, total.

So imagine my chagrin when the baby woke up two nights ago with a fever, encrusted in mucus. And Miles started sniffling and coughing. He’s been to school 2 DAYS and he already brought home germs!! AND his class is even doing a unit on handwashing and germ-prevention!

Everybody knows that kids are germ magnets. And when they start school, it’s 10 times worse. But it’s only the beginning of Sept! I’m SO not ready for the cycle of sickness to start already.

So we’ll be bathing in Purell, chugging orange juice and vitamins, and praying that we nip this thing in the bud. In the meantime, I’m thinking of getting a shirt made for Miles that says: “Relax, people, it’s just asthma!”

LINK O’ THE WEEK: Most kids average between 6-10 colds a year. But does your baby have a cold or the flu? How do you treat it? And when should you call the doctor? All about babies and colds.