7 year old with 'barking cough'

[xcurlyluciex]

My 7 year old over the past week has developed a barking sounding cough. He was ill the previous week with a sickness bug and it seems to have developed after that.
He also had a similar cough back at the end of last year which went on for about 8 weeks. I took him to the doctors then and they checked him over but couldn't find anything wrong and said it should clear up when winter was over.
Now the cough is back I'm worried it's something more - going to make a gp appointment Monday but has anyone got experience of dealing with something similar?

Could it be croup, OP? It usually affects much younger children but I think it is possible to get it later in life. Here's a page we have on croup if that helps. Sounds like a GP appointment is a good idea though.

This is exactly my 5yo - recurring long duration barking coughs worse at night. We too were told croup, viral etc etc.

Yesterday we were told it's asthma. She's got a brown inhaler two puffs twice a day, montelukast once a day and a blue reliever.