What will actually work to kill this cough?

Take some benadryl. The tickle is likely caused by drainage from your sinuses. Dry that up, and you’ll stop coughing.

That damn tickle. Persistent. Annoying. Try this: Chew two aspirin (Don’t swallow…I hate the taste too) and then gargle with warm water/aspirin. The aspirin takes away the tickle for a good long time. I use this remedy often.

Buckleys I promise you this stuff is the worst tasting crap you’ll ever force yourself to down, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work. A whiskey or brandy chaser is definitely recommended, although I’m not sure that mixing cough syrup and either of those two is a good idea.

At the moment I’m battling a slight cold with:
Lemsip
Water
Icetea
Soup
.....fingers crossed for it having the desired effect so I’m back to normal(ish) tomorrow!

Vick’s Vaporub on the bottom of your feet, then put on socks. Super great aunt remedy and it worked for me!

I agree with tWrex – Buckleys will work if you can get it. The threat of Buckleys is almost enough to make my coughs stop.

If you aren’t near the Canadian border (and so probably can’t get it), Robitussin really does work, I found. I usually get the stuff with sudafed in it for the one-two punch. But you have to use it consistently.

Get the stuff that is now sold behind the shelf. The ingredient (spelled phonetically because I can’t figure it out) is Dyfen hydro mean (all one word, but my spell check can’t find it!) It will kick your cough’s butt.

@EmpressPixie LoL. I definitely know that feeling. My wife pretty much threw it into my mouth to get me to take it.

Okay, I’m doing the Vick’s/socks for the novelty factor, and since I haven’t used Vick’s since I was a kid.

Aspirin gargle is next on the list, because it reminds me of my forbidden love for BC Powder.

The Benadryl has been working, but it makes me sleepy.

Thank you one and all.

I hope you feel better kevbo. I know how annoying a persistent cough can be (getting over Bronchitis, myself).

ice cold pineapple juice helps me. and lots of vit c. 2500 mg 3 x’s a day.feel better.

Emergen-C and Zycam if taken soon enough. It sounds like you’re beyond that though.

@mamasu- thanks. I’m getting there. Hope you’re feeling better, too.

Core an Asian pear set it in a pan of boiling water and fill the hole left by the coring with sugar. Boil it like that until it’s soft. Then eat the pear. Magic.

But if it’s bronchitis (doesn’t sound like it) it will take a long time no matter what you do,
because those little bronchi take a long time to heal once they’re raw. It’s their nature.
Easy to disturb doesn’t mean they’re not getting better.

That Asian-pear thing sounds like a nice way to pass the intervening time.

Yes it does.

Okay, this is nuts, but I seem to remember a doctor telling me to gargle with a combination of…oh crap! I can’t remember exactly right now. I think it was children’s benadryl (the pink bubble gum kind) and Maalox. Okay, maybe this is terrible advice. But it was something like that, which would coat the throat and prevent cough. But this is like worse than an old wive’s tale…it’s like the tale of an old senile wife who can’t remember the ingredients right. Anyone else ever heard of this concoction?

…and @autumn43 my mom used to use that vick’s vaporub remedy too! I don’t know if it stops a cough but it does help with a cold in general.

@emily, ooh! my sister and I used to play that game as kids. We’d pour different medicines into her Fisher Price blender and take swigs of the concoctions. It’s a miracle we didn’t become wards of the state.

Make real homemade chicken soup. It will help and it also tastes great!