Does this sound like it could be asthma in ds2 - age 3.11?

[RoseMortmain]

Ds2 has chronic eczema and I suspect is now developing asthma.

He coughs constantly at night, even when he doesn't have a cold. It's markedly worse when he does have a cold and he sounds very wheezy when he's lying down.

With this cold snap he has suddenly started coughing very very badly as soon as he goes outside - often hacking so badly he can't catch his breath very well. Once he gets back into the warm it eases off after a few minutes.

Does that sound like asthma to those of you in the know? Should I be going to the Drs with him first thing on Monday (ie, going through the 'emergency' triage shenanigans) or just getting a regular GP's appointment for later in the week?

It does sound like asthma to me, DS has it, he's just 4 and was diagnosed almost two years ago after an episode that landed him in hospital, but I had been fighting to get him diagnosed for almost a year before! It's that night cough!! I'd just make an ordinary GP appointment, if yours are like mine they don't like to add the asthmatic label!!

Thanks Sasha, I have it and was also diagnosed after an A&E dash - I'd rather avoid that scenario for the sake of my blood pressure .

Interesting that your docs don't like giving the asthma label - did you get inhalers before the A&E trip or did it take the emergency for them to do something?

We had to abandon a walk with the dog today as he'd barely got to the end of the drive before he was coughing fit to burst. Poor mite.

Sounds like asthma to me, too. Docs were extremely quick (overly quick, I dare say) to diagnose it where we used to live, actually.
You have to weigh up very carefully the different treatment options (benefits and drawbacks).

Wow, don't different areas have different policies!! We were given no medication until after the hospital dash, but my cousin's DS is severe asthmatic so I knew what I was looking for. I absolutely hate it, DS has two inhalers, a preventative one which is two puffs morning and night and another for flare ups. Unfortunately looks like DD has it too! Your poor DS seems to be struggling at the moment, bless him hope you get it under control soon

I'm 99% sure it is asthma and at some point in the not too distant future he'll have a proper attack. This cold weather coughing is concerning me a lot.

The older 2 seem to have escaped it but poor ds2 has inherited my ropey genes.

I think I'll get him to the GPs this week and see what they say - it's interesting how different PCTs seem to have different policies wrt diagnosis and treatment .

It does sound like it - coughing is a significant symptom, especially at night. In conjunction with eczema it's possible he has asthma.

It's hard to diagnose asthma properly in under 6s but if he responds to inhaler therapies then it's likely. HCPs rarely like to give a child a label of asthma when they're little as it's so hard to diagnose without doing lung function tests, not always asthma and misdiagnosis can affect future employment/insurance prospects.

Do you have an asthma nurse at your practice? S/he could initiate inhaler therapy and monitor effectiveness.

Strictly speaking assessment and treatment shouldn't vary between areas as all practitioners should be following the BTS guidelines but as we all know, not all HCPs are as up to date as others

Where we used to live (Loughborough) had the highest diagnosis rate in the UK; DH got a diagnosis once (from one of the local expert GPs). Funny how it cleared up and went away forever when it was relabeled Pneumonia and got treated with 3 or 4 different types of antibiotics.