Dds cough

[ledkr]

Dd has had a chesty sounding cough for weeks now maybe 6. I have twice taken her to the drs who said her chest is clear muttered something about upper respiratory and gave her inhalers brown and blue. I have to go back in a month.
Ion the meantime she now has a cold so it's hard to tell if its a new cough or the existing one but she's coughing more and it sounds horrible really thick.
She is a little unwell but probably from the cold but it's affecting her appetite and poor baby coughs al night too then wakes early and coughs ages to clear chest.
I'm confused. Has she got asthma? Why the inhalers which she hates.
I just want to see her well again it's so sad.
She is 21 months.

Maybe a chest infection? I would take her back especially if she has a temperature.

Asthma and a chest infection wheeze is very similar apparently and can be misdiagnosed

Ds has asthma but he's nearly 6 but it took lots of anti biotics and a trip to a private comsultant to get to this stage. the docs are generally loathe to diagnose asthma at such a young age but I have noticed more are prescribing blue inhalers for reliving upper resp viral infections.

I would take her to gp again tomorrow given the cold developing

As I understand it, asthma is no longer diagnosed for under 2's these days as it is very common for children to have sensitive airways resulting in asthma like symptoms.

The inhalers will help the symptoms, especially useful when DC have a cold as the cold can go to their chest and get quite nasty.

After a month or so the dr will ask if the inhalers have helped, if they have they may suggest continuing on them for a while, at least until they have been symptom free for a period of time. They might then come off the inhaler to see the symptoms come back without them.

Thanks. For some reason I imagined asthma symptoms to be dry and not mucousy like hers cough is. Another early morning where she can hardly breath for coughing. Going to raise the cot tonight to see if that helps

I think generally you are right however it also will make people more vulnerable to chesty colds and the blue inhaler helps open up the airways in a normal cold as well. Have you experienced frequently recurring chest colds with DD?

Your descripton sounds very similar to my 2 year old son. He is currently on the brown inhaler I worry about this one as it is steroids. Our doctor wont diagnose asthma and says although asthma could develop he is too young to say and using the inhalers may help prevent it.She also says best way to avoid asthma is lots of activity and signing.

For our son we have make the inhalars a big game about "space breathing" huge smiles singing zoom zoom zoom we are flying to the moon and lots of high fives fater he has done it. Now he likes it and looks forward to space breathing each morning and night reminding me if we havent done it yet...sweet.

My youngest son has asthma, which presents as coughing. He started on brown and blue inhalers at 2 and a half, after two bad winters of coughing until he was sick.

In our case, he was a changed child after he started on the inhalers. His colour improved, he put on weight, slept better, ate better.

We currently find he needs the brown throughout the year, with a double dose in the winter months.

As regards the dose, the asthma nurse, who visited from the local NHS trust team, told me that even with good technique, a child only takes in 15% of the actual dose, and the levels are very safe.

Oh, ds's asthma cough is dry, and different from his more chesty cough when he gets a cold, but the inhaler shortens the length of time he takes to recover from a cold.

What is ur normal dose and double dose? My son has 2 puffs on the born twice a day. He has always been the same getting over colds coughing till sick.

Brown one even.

Hi all. Her cough is worse and she couldn't sleep at a last night due to constant coughing. Inhalers not helped at all so I've got another appointment at 11. She's not eaten much for weeks is existing on porridge. No temperature tho which is confusing.
She had pneumonia at 6 days old and one mild chest infection since. Not sure if that makes her more susceptible. She's finally sleeping now but I can't move as she cries

Two puffs of brown and blue one when needed I don't know what this means when she's coughing all the time

Our normal dose is 2 puffs of brown, twice a day. At the moment he's on 4 puffs of brown twice a day. The aim is to avoid using the blue - if I cut back on brown to 2 puffs, then after about 3 days, he's off again and needs the blue.

He's 5 years now, and I can distinguish between his asthma cough, and a cough with a cold. They sound very different.

How did you get on at doctors?

What colour brown? (pale or dark?) either way she may benefit from an increased dose even if just when poorly.

Well her chest is clear but her ears were pink and she has had a cleft palate repair so they have started anti biotics as she is prone to ear infections.
She looks exhausted from coughing though and her cold is getting her down too.
I bought some simple linctus and some vapour rub and im sure she is coughing a bit less. She is just having a steamy bath before bed and she managed a small dinner.
The inhaler is a light brown and I have to give 2 puffs am and pm plus the blue in between.
I just want my happy baby back.
Dreading tonight too. Last night she woke at 3 and hardly went back to sleep.
I have work tomorrow so dh and I are going to do shifts.
Thanks for all your replies.

Hope you have a better night. It does sound as though she's poorly, rather than just asthma. X

I have the same with DD and was prescribed with the light blue ventolin. I now only use it when she starts a cold and her asthma is a cough, sometimes it's a chesty one sometimes it's a dry one, depends on when I catch it.

Have found that I keep her matress elevated with a pillow under the mattress and a dose of vicks on chest, back and her pillow helps enormously. Lots of steam and swimming when we can.

It's really difficult with the GPs as I don't want to be wasting anyones time but have found that my DD suffers from chest infections at least twice a year, but they gave me some great advice to check whether it was an infection or not as it usually starts with a fever. (Although not all of them do, so don't take my word for it 100%!)

Hope your DD is getting a bit better

Been up twice since 7