habitual cough

my Y1/1stGrade daughter has a habitual cough. Think it's from an actual real cough she had awhile ago, and she's just gotten into the habit of coughing and she THINKS she needs to even though she doesn't anymore. it sounds like its forced, she doesn't do it when she's sleeping or when she's distracted, if you point it out to her it exacerbates it coz it makes her more aware.

I've even tried pholcodine as she said it was tickly but it made no difference, and taken her to the doctors just to be sure. and with my mother's intuition to boot, I have no doubt that this cough she has is habitual/psychological.

So, how do I handle this? I'm worried she'll damage her vocal cords! but like I said, if I ask her to try not to cough like that she just does it even more. no meds work because it's not physical... what would you do?

Could be the beginning of tics or Tourette's. coughing and blinking are the most common tics to start with.

My friends dd did this as well as clearing her throat every 2 sec, super annoying to hear all the time. She did it without even noticing it. She started around 2 yrs old, did it till about 6ish. She is 7 now and no longer does it anymore.

My son is 4 and did the same annoying thing. He had this fake forced cough that drove me up the wall so I would tell him to stop which he usually did or I would tell him he can't do whatever until he stops, and if he started up again while in the middle of whatever activity it was I would stop him from doing it until he stopped the coughing. Pretty much just took privledges away until he got understood if he keeps it up he won't be allowed to do anything.

thanks for your replies!