What's wrong with my daughter?

[skahigh]

My daughter is six weeks old today. From the day she was born she has had a throaty cough that seems to be gradually getting worse, initially it was only when she was upset and crying but now she seems to cough quite regularly even when not upset. It seems to make no difference whether she is lying on her back, front, side or sitting up.

In addition to the cough she quite frequently has been gagging and struggling to catch her breath which, is scary but, so far she has always recovered it after no more than about 10-15 seconds. In all other ways she is quite healthy and seems to be putting on weight and developing nicely.

Every doc we have seen (and we've seen quite a few) have been reticent to simply discharge her as apparently it is very unusual for a newborn to cough.

Investigations they have done so far:
- Laryngoscope at 2 days old (nothing unusual found)
- Barium meal at around 10 days old (everything normal apparently)
- Full blood tests at around 10 days old (mostly normal but a bit Jaundice)
- Was prescribed Ranitidine in case the cough was being caused by reflux (this appears to have been done to rule it out and it made seemingly no difference)
- ECG (found a leaky heart valve and an innocent heart murmur)

She was seen by a consultant paediatrician last week who wants the ENT team to do another Laryngoscope now she's a bit older, she suggested that she could have blood vessels growing around her wind pipe. This doctor noticed that my daughter had a heart murmur and requested an ECG (see above). In the first couple of days a floppy Larynx was also mentioned to us as a possible reason for her coughing but none of the docs who have seen her since seem to think this is a very likely cause.

So, knowledgeable people of Pistonheads, any ideas?

[oakdale]

Formula or breast milk?

[skahigh]

oakdale said:

Formula or breast milk?

Started on breast but Mrs S had a lot of problems and as of last week she's now fully formula fed.

[oakdale]

skahigh said:

oakdale said:

Formula or breast milk?

Started on breast but Mrs S had a lot of problems and as of last week she's now fully formula fed.

It was just a thought, but obviously not the problem here as the coughing was there before.

[The_Doc]

skahigh said:

Investigations they have done so far:
- Laryngoscope at 2 days old (nothing unusual found)
- Barium meal at around 10 days old (everything normal apparently)
- Full blood tests at around 10 days old (mostly normal but a bit Jaundice)
- Was prescribed Ranitidine in case the cough was being caused by reflux (this appears to have been done to rule it out and it made seemingly no difference)
- ECG (found a leaky heart valve and an innocent heart murmur)

She was seen by a consultant paediatrician last week who wants the ENT team to do another Laryngoscope now she's a bit older, she suggested that she could have blood vessels growing around her wind pipe. This doctor noticed that my daughter had a heart murmur and requested an ECG (see above). In the first couple of days a floppy Larynx was also mentioned to us as a possible reason for her coughing but none of the docs who have seen her since seem to think this is a very likely cause.

So, knowledgeable people of Pistonheads, any ideas?

You'd need to be a professor of neonatology to take things on from here. That list of investigations is comprehensive. I would suggest that you don't heed too much to potential guesses from the masses here. Whilst well intentioned, they are more than likely to be behind the curve and worry you unnecessarily. This comment is made with no ill feeling to people just trying to help. There is no such thing as the Wisdom of Crowds in medicine, and I'm not trying to be party pooper.