When will his coughing stop and he put weight on again??

My son is now 6 and a half months old and his weight was steadily increasing until about 6 weeks ago. We all had a really nasty cold/cough that for my 3 year old lasted a good 6 weeks and 3 weeks for my husband and I. However although my youngest was the last to get it he's still got his (this is his first real cold).

He has been exclusively breast fed and we started weaning him onto solids when he was 6 months old. We've visited the doctor 3 times and been told that there is no infection (so no antibiotics given - ) but he just can't shift his cough. His cough is worse at night and sometimes he brings up part of his feed with his coughing. He is fine in himself (which the doctor said was the most important thing) but he hasn't put any weight on in 6 weeks and has gone down a 25%th percentile. As he suffers from mild eczema then the doctor has suggested that he could have asthma - so to go back to see him if he has his cough in 3 to 4 weeks.

I know I shouldn't get obsessed with weight gain but is there anything I can do to help him and his cold? I so want him to put weight on again.

Poor little mite.
I think you should go back to your gp and insist that they do something to help him. Could it be bronchiolitis? I don't know much about it but I know it's a common problem with young babies in the winter.
The problem is when they are so young there aren't many medicines you can give really. You could try and put a glass of water on the radiator at night so that the air in the room is a but humid, which would help with the cough. I can't really think of anything else.
Hope he gets better soon.

going back to exclusive bf will make his overall intake more calorific and boost his antibodies too. And as long as he's not actually losing weight it won't harm him. You could look into holistic therapies, homeopathy or something, might help him kick it sooner

[clothmama]

Poor little fella . It's horrid when they are ill isn't it! Have you got his cot tilted a little? Agree with trying to bf more, lots of cals there! Their weight gain slows down naturally at around this time so may be a coincidence of timing on top of not eating as much and as pp said as hard as it it I would try not to worry unless he is loosing weight.

Hope he is feeling better soon. Let us know how you get on

Thanks for your advice. His weight has fluctuated (with minor losses 2-3 oz) between his fortnightly weighings, although it is the same as it was 6 weeks ago when his cold/cough first started. We have tilited his matress but will try with humidifying his room. We're going to see an osteopath next week, so I'll talk to her about other remedies e.g. homeopathy.

I don't feel that he's BF any less than normal even though he's having a few teaspoons of solids 3 times a day (if we're lucky?!). Certainly we've been told not to increase his solids at the moment (not that he's really all that intrerested at the moment anyway).

I'm going to see the GP next week anyway so will talk it over with him again.

Sarah

HVs always say increase solids and its balderdash, lots more calories in milk, especially bm! Are they using the BF babies weight chart too?

Hope he gets better soon, I should think if it carries on your Gp will prescribe him atrovent to help/