I’m exhausted and at wits end with dds coughing fits

[Realitea]

Dd is nearly 7. She’s always had a cough, I can’t remember her not having one.
But this has got notably worse since November. At night is the worst. Last night she was crying which was unusual so I ran to her room to find her panicking. She’d coughed just once but it just went on and on like a huge exhale then she struggled to breathe. It happened again then she just cried and had more normal chesty coughing throughout the rest of the night.
She coughs in the day too and has had viral symptoms for a long time.
She has had a brown inhaler since three weeks ago. Haven’t noticed any difference. The blue one doesn’t help either.
The spiro test had bad results and they said they won’t look into it until she’s better so a bit of a catch 22 situation!
The doctors keep saying she’ll be ok in a week but every week is worse than the last.
What more can I do? Where do I go from here?

Have you seen videos of whooping cough? Do you think she might have that?

I'd video any future episodes and take her back to GP. Obviously in the meantime if she is struggling to breathe you need immediate help. Asthma sounds a reasonable diagnosis to exclude so trying inhalers is sensible I think.

You poor things, it sounds exhausting. Hope she gets better soon.

I had whooping cough two years ago which my whole family caught apart from dd. I know immunity starts to wane from the age of 10 so I thought there’s no way she’d catch it. It’s oossible I suppose but this cough doesn’t seem like ours was. It’s hard to describe but the sound of the cough is different. Some signs are there though like the chest sounding clear and the almost normal energy between coughing fits.
I’ll definitely record tonight’s coughing fit (I assume there’ll be one!) as thats was the only way I got it diagnosed last time.

I’ve just bought a vick’s humidifier, I wonder if that’ll help tonight. It better had, it was £43!

Have any doctors ever investigated if it could be silent reflux/excess stomach acid issues op?
When you said that she’s always had a cough that was the first thing that sprung to mind.
Have a google and see if the symptoms fit and it might be worth mentioning to the GP

Find a medical herbalist or homeopath

Presumably the gp has considered asthma, allergies and asked about pets, whether anyone in the house smokes and what kind of bedding/ washing powder etc?
I had terrible coughing and wheezing as a child. Once my feather pillow was chucked out I was fine.
Definitely go back to the gp.
If you dont go back they assume the problem is resolved.

How often are you using the inhalers and are you using a spacer?

Dd ended up going to the out of hours gp at the weekend. She had an ear infection and very sensitive airways due to an upper respiratory tract infection. She’s on antibiotics now. I got a humidifier which has also helped a lot.
I do wonder about stomach acid though as she does have a permanent cough which is different to the one she has now.
She has a spacer and has her inhalers every day.
Anyway things started to improve and then this morning the school phoned to say she needed to get home as she was very pale and mottled and shaking/shivering.
She got home and I warmed her up and gave calpol. She went to sleep straight away. Now I’m worried sick about what’s going on!

Did you get any guidance on how to use the inhalers? Can you ask if you can see the asthma nurse to go over everything?

Yes we were shown how to use the spacer and she’s very good at using it. Maybe the brown inhaler has taken the edge off things, it’s hard to know. The blue one seemed to help one of yesterday’s coughing fits after she had four puffs rather than her usual 2.

She now has a temperature and the doctor can’t see her until 7 tonight. If she’s already on antibiotics I don’t know what else they can do but they want to see her because of her extreme coldness then temperature developing
This is such a worry

If its an ear infection then the antibiotics take a while to kick in. And both my sons have got worse before getting better. Tbh I wouldn't have sent her in to school but I am assuming she was better on Monday.
My asthmatic son has the same cough. I use a nasal spray, Vicks on his chest, a humidifier and his inhaler and even then it sometimes takes him a while to stop coughing.

Thank you, I feel a bit less worried now you’ve said that. She has only had the antibiotics a few days so it must still need time. She shouldn’t have gone to school really but she seemed ok yesterday. She needs a decent rest so I’m keeping an eye on her today. What worried me was the school said she was mottled, shivering and very cold. I thought she must have a serious infection and raced over there to get her but then after a sleep she is eating and drinking and watching tv!

Listen with DS1 he had this low level temp for ages and it was winter. Would go away with Calpol. On Day 4 he was shivering. Mottled. And looking funny. Straight to a&E where we got a bollocking because he had a terrible ear and throat infection. (One of the worst I have seen, said the consultant). DH was hiding behind me as he’s a doctor in the same hospital. 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

But honestly he had no signs that he was ill other than the odd temperature. And then he got v poorly despite the antibiotics and then some 72 hours later woke up as right as rain and then proceeded to eat vast quantities of food. Children are weird.

Oh dear your poor DH! If the signs aren’t all there though, then how do you know! Same with dd, she didn’t have ear pain, I was there just for the cough and temperature.
Did they increase the antibiotic dosage when he got worse or did you just carry on with the normal dose until it kicked in? Only my gp prescribed an adult dose and then a doctor friend disagreed and said to do 5ml less.. I’m thinking I should’ve just given her what the 1st gp prescribed.

I'm sure you have checked it out but does she have feather pillows or duvet? I was extremely intolerant to them when I was younger. In fact the allergy came back when I was pregnant and I ended up having a massive reaction at a friend's house.
The other thing I say with caution but my son had lots of coughs and ear infections when he was younger and I am sure that dairy made them much worse. He isn't diagnosed but naturally avoids dairy. I am sure he is lactose intolerant. Does she have a lot of dairy in her diet? Is it something you think affects her?

She doesn’t have feather bedding and we cut out dairy exactly one week ago and that could also be the reason her cough is slowly getting better. Or it could be the antibiotics or inhalers etc. She did drink about a pint of milk every day before, she absolutely loved it! Now she has orange juice and apple juice.

Aw fingers crossed she's on the mend. My son is actually off today with a cold/ stomach upset and I think it has been made worse by the hot chocolate he had at Starbucks yesterday with a friend (I told him not to). The same thing happened last time he had one there!

Strange question but have you tried a dose of pirotin?

Ah yes. Our Gp also suggested a dose of piriton. To be used for brief periods and it REALLY helps.

If ds has an infection or virus it can go to his chest and he’d need increased brown and blue inhalers, I would give him as many puffs as he needed. But this is quite short lived and he doesn’t need this once the cause clears up.
He also gets a daily dose of antihistamine as allergies set him off too. Try her on antihistamine like pp’s gave suggested it may help.

The antibiotics and humidifier seem to have helped, she’s not as bad as she was last week. There’s still something else going on though - probably the ear infection, as her temperature was 40 last night and I was up all night with her. She’s seeing the gp again in half an hour.