Coughing children - any advice please

[McDutch]

I have a 6yo DD and since October she has been coughing. Its worse at night and in the morning. We have has Sambutanol and now Flixotide from the doctor (last week Monday), but it is not helping. I live in the Netherlands and apparently she is too young for an asthma test, but since DH spent months in hospital as a child with asthma, and DD has had 3 bouts of pneumonia and a lot of tests and is IgA deficient, it is probable that she will also have asthma.

Any advice on how to get DD to have a good night's sleep? Poor DD is now so tired that she cries at almost everthing (very not normal). I dont really know who to ask about this.

Poor dd and poor you, sounds hard. And does sound very asthma-ish.

Our GP happily gave dd2 an inhaler and a preventor when she was 2, on grounds that if it helped it was asta - even though she was officially 'too young'.

Do you have a humidifier? Ours helped a lot, along with raising end of bed etc....but the dd's cough probably wasn't asthmatic.

Failing that, I would push for a second opinion - can you do that?

I agree with Elibean. It sounds rather asthma like. Does your GP have an asthma clinic? Many GPs do and they go over what doses of each medication you take and explain how to increase the dose when your child gets sick. Humidifiers are great, but there are often things that you can do before you need them. For example, using a spacer, but you need to be shown how to use them.
My advice would be to go back to your GP and ask them. They should be able to give you education on asthma and the options available. If she's 6 and your GP has already given her salbutamol and flixotide they are already treating her for asthma.
Hope that helps.
Orlena (paediatric doctor)