Ashma - what causes DS's early morning coughing?

[Berrie]

Is it the fact he's been lying down all night or is it the dust mites in the bedding. He's taking becotide and although things have improved, he still sometimes wakes terribly wheezy and coughing.
I feel guilty it's because of the dust though I read a couple of weeks ago and expert saying that all the anti dust stuff people do is largly inafective.

is becotide the brown preventer? My dd has the brown preventer every night from September to April. She often wakes sneezing in the morning and yes, I reckon if your ds always has this in the morning then there's something in the bedroom irritating his airways.

You've done the usual have you, take books and fluffy toys out, vac the mattress, no blankets, only cotton bedding, washed at 60, little or no carpeting?? I'm not sure how effective it is...so difficult to measure these things, but I reckon it helps.

asthma often is worse at night. I remember when I was young, I used to get attacks at night, but not in the daytime. Even now my asthma can be fine, but I may need my inhaler first thing in themorning.

I suggest you go to the doctors and get his asthma reviewed. You may need to increase his becotide or get a ventolin inhaler too.

Thanks. We have the ventolin too and he's recently seen the Doctor and been prescribed the brown inhaler.
I've not done 'the usual'. It's all quite new. I was thinking of it before I read this piece that suggested it wasn't as useful as people believe. Will look into it further...thanks.

GP told us to start by using anti allergy mattress/duvet/pillow covers (got them from Boots) and then only if that didn't work consider moving out the soft toys/carpeting - DS used to wheeze all night. Changing the bedding really worked well, we didn't need to do anything more drastic.

Thanks...will do that this weekend! Fingers crossed!

Another thing to try, if it's affordable, is to get a dehumidifier (or borrow one). Some people are allergic to dust mite/their faeces and if you dry out the room the mites find it harder to survive. They don't exist in the Alps because it's cold and dry, for instance.

We're trying this at the moment. It's shocking how much moisture we suck out of bedrooms. Too early to see if we're making a difference.

ANd the other thing I do, on clear sunny days like today, is to hang out the children's duvets on the line to air. This helps to kill off dust mites, too.

Thanks...we have a dehumidifier to try and combat the condensation which creates mould which can't help!

three things - an air purifier will help to kill mold spores and dust mite. Secondly I've recently come across suggestions that asthma can be helped by ensuring you are well hydrated. While this is fringe medicine it isn't going to do any harm. Third morning coughing can be relux - you may want to put something under the bed to raise the head. Good luck.

you can get anti-dust mite mattress, pillow and duvet protectors

Our dd1 always wakes up coughing, she was recently put on a brown inhaler, which has imroved things. It also seems to have improved by putting a pillow under her mattress to raise the head, so would suggest that. The asthma nurse said it was a good idea to keep her cot free of toys, but if there are any in there ( I don't think she would sleep if she didn't have her small army of teddies at the end of the bed - only 3 of them) to put them in the freezer sometime during the day as the cold will kill the dust mites. We too are learners with asthma, as only just diagnosed, but does anyone know whether ionisers/air ourifiers are any good?