DD who is 6 has asthma -- its reasonably well controlled most of the time with the brown ICS inhaler and salbutamol if needed, but she tends to have two or three bad spells a year, almost always triggered by a viral infection (not all viral infections trigger but when they do it can take two weeks or so for her to fully recover).
She doesn't tend to wheeze or get breathless unless things are really bad and generally at that point she's on her way to the GP/A&E. The problem is the chronic cough which can literally be constant - every 10 or so seconds almost around the clock -- for anything from a week up to two weeks after a bad attack. Cystic fibrosis and other potentially scarier things have been ruled out.
Sometimes salbutamol works for the cough, sometimes it doesn't. I have tried literally every other conceivable suggestion in the book: steam, Vicks, raised pillows at night, warm water to sip, cough medicine, honey, you name it. There is nothing that makes any impact on the cough. Its horrific, mainly for DD, for obvious reasons, but also for me because it means I get horrendous levels of sleep deprivation and get to the point where its hard to function at work etc. Apart from this I also worry about the impact on her lungs and respiratory system of the spells of constant coughing. Doctors are monitoring the asthma and its a fairly rare occurrence but when it happens its just appalling.
Does anyone know of anything which can be administered in an acute situation which will deal with the cough? I am not talking about a general day to day cough but the kind of constant asthma-related cough which goes on for weeks? Is there anything - and I'm talking pharmaceuticals here, as natural remedies etc don't touch the sides - other than oral steroids and nebulisers, which can be given to alleviate this?