Coconut and coughs

Perhaps she meant desiccated coconut. The bits could irritate your throat as they went down. Or even non-desiccated, if you didn't chew it enough.

Maybe check Chinese medicine to see how it's used-

I would agree with Gonegirl, simply because in your Mum's day (and mine), the only whole coconuts around were ones people won at fairs (if the nuts hadn't been glued to the cups)

Dessicated coconut often used to make my father cough !

Yes I think you’re right Gonegirl. It’s so hard to shake off a belief that’s been with you for life though! It’s an almost auto response with me - ‘oh no, got a cough so can’t eat that - it’s got coconut in it!’ Need to retrain my brain, haha!