Any asthma knowledge/experience please?

[carefullycourageous]

Hi, I have just started to wonder if my youngest DC could have asthma and wondered what other parents thought. Whenever DC (13) gets a cold they are noticeably more coughy than the rest of us and this is clearly uncomfortable.

Will a GP be able to check for asthma if it is only a problem when they have a cold? They are not audibly wheezy and I have not noticed anything at any other time.

I am going to call the GP tomorrow, but it is Sunday so no medical advice today, my question was really going to be whether an inhaler would be an option to try.

It could be that their only trigger is a viral infection, so worth discussing with the GP.
Asthma UK are a good resource, can’t link at the moment but I used them a lot when DS had uncontrolled asthma, for info and reassurance. Asthma nurse at GP also recommended them.

Thank you for replying. I am going to ring the GP tomorrow. I wondered if they might prescribe a reliever inhaler to try when it occurs.

Yeah I’ve dealt with asthma my whole life and both dd’s have viral asthma.
So this is when it literally is triggered by a viral infection or a cold. They will probably prescribe a reliever inhaler but also a mild steroid inhaler to use when he has the viral asthma (brown - clenil modulite usually)

This should help!

If your GP has a vitalagraph machine they can diagnose it, if not they can send your DS to the hospital for a check. The actual shape when you blow in to the machine shows whether you have asthma even when symptom free.

The Dr will certainly be able to do a peak flow.

Does your DS have a morning cough? It's quite common with asthmatics, it's my only symptom unless I have an infection which is when I take Ventolin (salbutamol).

If the picture has downloaded correctly the blue lower line is that of an asthmatic, the higher black line is normal.

It's quite common to do the recording, then give salbutamol, wait 30 mins and do the recording again, if the salbutamol is working then the shape should be nearer the black line.

our gopwon't use peak flow in under 16s as say they don't tell them anything useful as the technique is too tricky to do them properly.

One of my DCs was diagnosed with viral induced asthma at two, we were told they diagnosed by giving a trial with the inhaler, if it helps they then look at adding in the steroid inhaler and writing an asthma plan.

He is now 13 and has viral and exercise asthma that tends to be pretty well controlled by both

Thank you very much, very helpful.

Interesting that the GP may be able to check even when they do not have a cold, I did not know that.

DC only has a morning cough when they have a cold, but the cough when they have it is noticeably before they fall asleep and on waking, and then no coughing when asleep and during the main part of the day. Whereas when I have a cough as part of a cold, which is not with every cold, my coughing seems more evenly spread across the whole 24 hours if that makes sense.

Why do asthmatics cough in the morning?

Ah - but now I see some GPs don't check!

For us it was coughing at night and throat clearing in the day that indicated asthma.

I work in primary care. Peak flows and spirometry are currently contraindicated in practice due to risk of induced coughing (COVID). They may give him a meter and salbutamol inhaler to record pre and post inhaler variation at home.

I hadn't considered covid @cptartapp

OP

The morning cough is a mixture of things but in layman's terms, when you go to sleep your body relaxes so the tubes in your lungs can constrict.

Any mucous in the nose or mouth can get into the lungs so when you wake up your lungs need to, sort of open up so you cough to get rid of any mucous and open the airways.

Does sound as though it might be virus induced asthma exacerbation. Definitely speak to your GP. The inhaled drugs have a really good safety record and asthma can be tricky to diagnose in young people so they may having taken a history offer some inhalers to try.