Habitual cough, stress, anxiety

7 February 2012

I met with Mr and Mrs B in February 2012 in relation to their 7 year old son who at the time had a habitual cough.  The cough was believed to be in relation to anxiety and personal confidence and parents ruled out any allergies or medical conditions.

B was using an inhaler for asthma and was taking vitamins.

B’s Mum spoke about B’s habitual behaviours such as chewing of clothes, smelling hands and more recently a persistent cough that teachers were noticing at school as were B’s peers. It was something that was causing anxiety and upset for parents and was very obvious at school and at home.

Aside from this behaviour, B was also tearful in class and would complain about having tummy aches and headaches. Mum and Dad said that B was quite irrational at times and was tearful and would rage.

I spoke with parents at the end of March and B’s teacher had said that B had had a good term, the cough had decreased and that she had noticed improvements whilst in the classroom.  During the Easter holidays parents reported that the cough was minimal.  B then started back to school and the weekend prior to going back to school the cough had returned.

To note – the process was stopped over the Easter holidays as parents went away on holiday and were unable to fit the technique in with routine.

I advised that behaviour may have reverted as the process had stopped for two weeks and with this in mind it was suggested to continue with the basic foundation words for a further two weeks until we had seen improvements in the cough again for us to then move onto the support stage where we would add specific words for B to the foundation words. Parents had also had a consultant check up prior to their holiday abroad and B had been weaned off the inhaler that he was on and all allergies had been tested and it was shown that there were no food allergies, milk allergies and no environment allergies.  Mum was advised by Doctor that it was possibly anxiety related and that B would grow out of it.
17 April 2012

I met with B’s Mum mid April and there had been a further improvement again in the cough within the two weeks of delivering the foundation words again. Mum reported that the cough had decreased again and commented that they had watched a program the week prior and couldn’t hear it as B was coughing so much through it. One week later they watched the same program with ease as B’s habitual cough had decreased.

Other things that were reported by Mum were that B was now more receptive to going to other children’s houses to play, talking more expressively and displaying through words that he was able to rationalise more in his mind.  B was also happy to read with more confidence and was applying himself more in his studies.

The behaviour of hand smelling had stopped in the first 6 weeks and although B was still having outbursts they were more stable than they had been before. We decided on the support words to add to the foundation words which were: You are calm, safe and in control.

22 May 2012

I spoke with B’s Mum to check progress and Mum reported that she couldn’t remember the last time that B had coughed. It was recommended to continue with the process for a further two months.

Consultant: Jenny Harrison UK