If your toddler was given an inhaler for chronic cough…

[Notnowbarnaby]

…did they still get coughs after taking the preventer regularly?DS had a cough that started end of April, then kept getting a bit better and coming back. We had a bit of a break with it, a week or two, then it started again.
got prescribed brown inhaler and ventolin, the cough got better after two weeks but then a week and a half later he got a cold which turned into an irritable cough a few days later.
it’s now been six days and in the last couple of days the cough has got worse, this morning he was sick from coughing.

my question is, should this still be happening with the use of the inhalers? Or are they just preventing it getting any worse, ie going to his chest? I was under the impression that the coughs would be a lot milder if he did pick them up, because of the preventer inhaler, but am not sure if I’ve misunderstood.

he’s only two and a half so hasn’t been properly diagnosed with asthma but they wanted to try the inhalers to see if they helped. Unfortunately he started nursery in April and has literally picked something every other week and it always seems to turn into a cough.

I double up my toddler's dose of brown inhaler when he gets a cough/cold otherwise his cough gets far worse again.

@bloodywhitecat that’s interesting what’s his normal dose? We are on two puffs morning and two puffs at night. I might call the doctor and ask whether we need to up it.

@bloodywhitecat and I’m presuming that means your toddler still gets coughs?

We’ve had similar tbh, toddler DD has caught everything under the sun and has a ventolin inhaler for what started as a cough from a viral thing. Asthma is really difficult to diagnose at this age and it’s tough to know what’s a viral bug and what’s something more, I understand that covid babies have had a rough year picking up everything!

Have you tried an antihistamine? That helped ours

The current one seems to be quite bad in the morning and worse when he lies down, which is similar to what he’s had previously.

@ShirleyPhallus yes he has Benadryl but I’m not sure it’s making any difference tbh I’ve not noticed a particular improvement

@ShirleyPhallus does yours get frequent coughs with everything?

Yes she does, pretty much every cold she gets seems to go to her chest and she’s had quite a few bugs that have resulted in a long lasting cough which seems to linger. It was manageable until it was waking her up at night so she took ventolin before bed while it lingered which helps.

If yours is still lingering can you try and get a referral from your GP to a paediatrician?

Don't do this on a regular basis. If you'rehaving to increase medication at all then you should speak to a HCP.

OP, talk to your GP's asthma nurse and see what they recommend. If your DS is still getting symptoms then his medication may need to change again. If he's got asthma and he's been poorly it can take months for his lung function to return to normal. However, since many small children get an incident of 'viral induced wheeze' once then never again so you need to keep asking to see an HCP so they know what's going on.

Yes he does still get the chronic cough even on the brown inhaler if he picks up a cough/cold. He's on just on Clenil 50 and has one puff morning and night and is quite well controlled. But my birth children, who were both chronic asthmatics from a very young age, needed a different preventer inhaler. The GP should have guidance that tells them the next steps if the brown inhaler isn't working.

Thanks I’ll speak to the GP to see if we need to change his dose or change inhaler or plod along as we are.
I was unclear as to whether he would still get coughs with the preventer and if they would be as bad as they had been previously, so wasn’t sure if they were working IYSWIM.

My oldest is 2 and a half, and was diagnosed with asthma six months ago. Doesn’t have chronic cough, but every time she has a cold she gets wheezy and needs hospital treatment. She is on the daily brown inhaler and has a wheezing plan where we step up the dose of the blue inhaler until we get it under control.

If she picks up a cold at nursery and I notice a runny nose, that usually gives me two days warning before the wheezing sets in. At this point we double the dose of the steroid inhaler and do 4 puffs of her blue inhaler 4 hourly, sometimes that is increased to 8 puffs to get her wheeze under control. I wonder if your GP might be able to give you some advice about whether it’s appropriate to adjust your sons dosage when the coughing worsens?

Our daughter was diagnosed by a paediatrician at our local hospital, and the advice we were given by that doctor was quite different than what we’d been told by the GP previously, so it might be worth trying to get a referral.

Thank you! That’s really helpful. There’s an asthma nurse at our surgery so I will
see if I can speak to her/GP about dosage when he has a cough/cold. He had a runny nose for a few days before the cough set in but I didn’t change any dosage obviously as I hadn’t been told to, but it seems like we might need a better plan in place.

He’s never had a wheeze or anything it’s all based around the fact he seems to be particularly susceptible to coughs, whether it’s a cold, bacterial or viral infection.

Do I read right he has only been on the preventer for about 3 weeks? It takes 4-6 weeks of regular use for it to be working to its maximum.

I have been told by both of Ds respiratory consultants (he is a complex one!) that it is no longer advised to double dose preventers like the brown inhaler because by the time the increase has kicked in the illness will have passed.

it May be that he needs extra reliever or a dose of oral steroids to help. Or their are medications like montelukast whixh can help too

@Sirzy yes that’s roughly about right. And actually, one of those weeks he decided he hated it so we had a real tussle to get him to take it, and I imagine he wasn’t actually taking it in properly as he would get hysterical. Now he takes it beautifully.

im just unsure whether I need to speak to the GP again or whether to wait it out a bit as he’s not wheezing and he’s not coughing constantly

If your not sure there is no harm asking for a call with the asthma nurse to discuss things.

That’s what I thought. It’s all been a bit backwards the way we got the inhalers so we haven’t got any kind of asthma plan yet, we were just advised to do the preventer twice a day at two puffs a time and the ventolin four times a day at two puffs when he needs it
which we haven’t been doing until he started coughing again

As others have said, try and speak to the asthma nurse.

also, as lying down makes it worse - what’s his sleep set up? Consider propping the end of his bed or mattress up (a rolled towel under the mattress helps) and that will help. I never sleep completely flat if I’ve got the slightest cough as it just irritates more

Thanks. His mattress is already propped which does help.
we have also realised today that air con and fans seem to really exacerbate the cough.

I’ve made an appointment but she’s not free until Monday 🤪

Ah yes - that really wrecks my asthma.

So, if you have a fan then a bowl of water near it so the air isn’t so dry.

i never have mine oscillating overnight - just moving some cooler air around.

Also does he have hay fever? Mine is considerably worse at night and changing my hay fever meds to night time has made sleep much better.