My six year old coughs until she vomits

I live a long way from the nearest homeopath so I'm hoping to get some initial pointers from here before committing to a trip! Thanks in advance for reading.

My daughter is nearly six years old and has been battling with a chronic cough that leads to vomiting for the last month or so. At the same time (but possibly not related) she has had an ear infection and her tonsils and adenoids are inflamed. Until this started, she has been a relatively health child although we were aware that she had a bit of a post nasal drip and had assumed it was a slight dust or pollen allergy, which is the same as mine. We hadn’t bothered treating it because it didn’t seem to cause her any particular problems. She also had very dry sensitive skin but, again, this just seemed to be a genetic thing inherited from my husband – she is red headed and has pale skin with freckles. Other than that, she has had recurrent wax build-up in her ears. We simply flushed them out from time to time to avoid infections, and that has been sufficient up until now.

The coughing started without any significant other symptoms – it didn’t appear to be part of a cold. She has no definite fever, but her temperature is fractionally higher than normal – 37.2C perhaps.

So far we have been to the general practitioner and the paediatrician quite a few times but none of the diagnoses or prescriptions have helped. We have had head x-rays taken that show considerable sinus problems behind the cheeks and eyes; we now know that the post-nasal drip is possibly caused by an allergy to artificial food colourings, flavourings and preservatives, since those tested positive in a blood test for allergy count.

We have removed (as far as we can tell) all the allergens in her diet and she is taking antihistamines daily. She has also been given Singulair (some kind of sinus thing for asthmatics – although she hasn’t been diagnosed with asthma) and a corticosteroid nasal spray (Flixonase). On top of that, she has been prescribed 4 different courses of antibiotics since these symptoms began – she is on two courses at the same time right now, because the last lot aren’t working and her tonsils/ear are getting worse.

I am becoming deeply unhappy with the amount of drugs going through her system, particularly since none of it seems to help. I have been given various explanations, ranging from the allergy to whooping cough syndrome.

Background? We have allergies in the family, mostly on my side. My husband has sensitive skin but no real allergies or syndromes that we know about. My side of the family is more sickly. My mother suffers regular chest colds, pneumonia etc, as did her father. She also has irritable bowel syndrome and several allergies. My father has some problems with a cough which, until he gave up smoking, we had thought was a smoker’s cough. He may also have post nasal drip, but we don’t know what causes it. He doesn’t have any obvious allergies.

Both my parents and myself have back problems, and my mother has had mild arthritis since her 20s. My mother’s mother died of stomach cancer. Her father died of old age after many years of chronic bronchitis. My father’s mother died of a heart attack very young, and his father is an elderly man now with Alzheimer’s.

My health has always been up and down. I suffer from depression which was largely prompted by the birth of my children – it first manifested as post natal depression but has still never gone away even though they are 8 and nearly 6. I have had reasonably good health apart from the depression – no major illnesses or injuries, but I’m rather prone to colds and suffer more or less constantly with an allergy to dust and pollen.
My husband’s health is good apart from some minor skin issues (dryness). My son’s health is excellent, although he went through a phase at about age 2-3 of having a lot of chest infections. It was severe enough for him to be sent for chest x-rays at one stage, but nothing was ever found and he eventually grew out of the infections.

My daughter was born naturally in water at home. There were no complications but she came very quickly (2.5 hours). She was breastfed until 18 months. She fed well and never had any childhood diseases except for mild chickenpox at age 3. She was vaccinated more slowly than the normal schedule but did eventually have all the mandatory vaccs for diptheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough and meningitis C. She also had the first set of jabs for measles and rubella, but not mumps (the vaccine was unavailable at the time of our appointment).

She had delayed speech but we were told she had no hearing problems until she was tested again at age 5. At that point, we were told that she had slight hearing impairment caused by wax. She has caught up now with all but a couple of sounds and is undergoing speech therapy to sort out those last sounds. She is a very independent little girl but shows a great need for affection. She is particularly close to me, but is quite happy to be separated from me most of the time. She is very bright for her age and is mature in many ways (eg empathy), although still childish in others (eg getting her own way). She cries easily to get her own way but is immensely brave about enduring pain – she hardly ever cries with pain, although she’ll sometimes cry with shock when she gets hurt mildly. She is a happy child generally and spends a lot of time in her own little world with her imagination. She forgives quickly.

Apart from that, she likes to wear as few clothes as possible (we live in a hot climate) but when she dresses up, she loves bright colours and patterns. She likes to sleep without anything over her. She drinks a lot but has poor appetite for food. She has a remarkable interest in small details, is a very visual person. She loves music and drawing or colouring.

Can't think of anything else - I think that's enough now anyway! Please help if you can. Thanks.