To wonder if this seems like asthma?

[Dinobab]

DS is two, hes had a really bad cough at night for what seems like ages now, he did have a chest infection over a month or so ago and tonsillitis BUT
His cough started before all that, and I guess I just thought it was from colds/didn't know anything about asthma/thought it was normal to cough at night.
Any cold hes ever had has always made him end up with a horrible cough, hes had croup a few times he just seems to have rubbish lungs.
The reason I'm worried is because DP had awful asthma as a child and spent a lot of his childhood in hospital with it.
His cough is dry and only at night and his breathing seems loud quite a lot of the time.

I'm going to make a gp appointment but what should I say? How do they check for asthma and is it possible they'll just assume it's a cold even though he has no other symptoms (it could be a virus, but im not sure when I think back hes always had coughs and things especially at night )

you're doing the right thing getting him checked by GP. Night cough can be a sign of asthma. If he is struggling to breathe don't delay, and get him seen immediately. Modern medication can control asthma well when used properly.

Hope you get sorted soon, it's never easy with a poorly child overnight x

Is he wheezy when he runs about when he is otherwise well or is it only when he has a cold or is run down?
They are unlikely to diagnose asthma as he is only 2.
DS has been snotty and very very wheezy since birth and was finally given an inhaler last year after a hospital admission (at 18 months old). I was told that they were not diagnosing asthma...just giving him an inhaler to help with the wheezing.
He sucks right in under his ribs on a bad episode and it's utterly terrifying - the inhaler has meant we haven't had a Dr or hospital visit for over a year.
I'm also asthmatic and totally understand why you are concerned...it definitely runs in our family.
Get him to the Dr and tell them everything you can, try to remember exactly what triggers it, and see what they say.

Remember that not everybody wheezes with asthma. A child could be very poorly but not wheezing. The night cough could be a sign of asthma.

My son had a coughing fit that wouldn't stop during his sixth birthday party and ended up hospitalised on a nebuliser. Diagnosis was asthma and atypical pneumonia. He had never been wheezy- his only symptoms where that he often coughed a few times during the night so yes def get it checked out Dinobab. Easily treated if properly managed. Good luck

My dd woke up one day at age 7 and just couldn't breathe. She cried, just wanted to sleep and her pulse was racing. The doctor took one look at her and called an ambulance. Asthma was diagnosed. Prior yo that her only symptom was a night cough.

Mine are 4 and 18mo and both cough every night. Dh has asthma. If your gp is anything like mine, they'll tell you it's a viral induced wheeze/cough and give you an inhaler and spacer and then hope he grows out of it.

Both mine have been hospitalised on several occasions with breathing difficulties when they have colds, they are nebulised, monitored and sent home. Have to wait till they are 5 for a proper asthma diagnosis but the treatment is largely the same anyway and we are really hoping they do grow out of it!

My DS was diagnosed with "let's call it asthma for now, but it's very likely he'll grow out of it in a few years" at about 18 months. He'd wheezed intermittently for months (always triggered by either having a cold/cough, or by the cold air) before then, eventually ending up in A&E with chest recessions. Night cough has usually been his biggest symptom though.
We got the reliever inhaler (with spacer) immediately after the A&E episode, and later on the preventer inhaler. IIRC it was the effectiveness of the preventer that ultimately led to diagnosis, although obviously other things were eliminated along the way and he also had a chest X-ray as part of this.

He's now 3.5 and it's really well controlled. He only needs his preventer over the winter, and so far this winter I think he's only needed the reliever on two occasions. I have every faith he will grow out of it, but I still think it's a really useful label to use in the meantime.

I had exactly the same with dd1, she was 'diagnosed' with asthma at 3ish (in other words it was flagged on the computer), she never wheezed but also had had eczema as a baby. She was given inhalers that definitely helped.

She's 6 now and hasn't taken inhalers for 18 months ......

But the diagnosis is irrelevant really I think you need to try inhalers to see if they help. So I would go to the doctors and say that is what you want them to do.

My dh was also very ill as a child, but even if your lo has asthma it may well be mild, particularly if it's well controlled from the start. A lot of it with my dh was allergies that his mum didnt understand for quite a while.

You're definitely right to get him checked by a doctor, although it may be too young to diagnose asthma.

My DS had quite severe viral wheezing as a toddler, requiring steroids on more than one occasion, but he's mostly grown out of it. He occasionally will get exercise-induced wheezing after a cold, and will use an inhaler if this happens, but he's not really asthmatic.

His sister, who had no wheezing as a child, is mildly asthmatic (runs in the family, I was severely asthmatic as a child and young adult).

He doesn't really wheeze but sometimes seems a little bit out of breath, or is that wheezing? He does have eczama though.
Think I'll speak to my gp gp about it and see what he says hes really good usually.