astham cough - am scared it's something more serious?

[justgaveup]

My daughter (5)has an asthma cough. She's had it for 7 wks, it keeps her awake at night, she's off her food cos she's so exhausted and she's pale and fed up cos every time she tries to run around she has a massive coughing fit.

She's due to go to asthma clinic at end of Jan but I was so worried about her yesterday (she looks so thin and pale and exhausted) that I took her to see emergency doctor today.

He said to just increase her brown inhaler and that all the other stuff (exhaustion, paleness, not eating) is nothing to do with asthma and needs to be investigated.

I'm panicking now that she's got lukemia or something (I am a MAJOR worrier!).

Has anyone experienced this kind of asthma cough and did it affect your child in any of the ways I've just described?

caffeine is a great help.

try giving her a cup of coffee and see if it helps.

remember that doctors don't know everything and to trust your instincts.

trying to breathe - is an exhausting business - hence her exhaustion!

make sure she is sat up - and forward - with her hands on her knees - to stratcht he lungs - you may find she is doing this instinctively.

of course she is pale - she is having trouble breathing.

its hard to eat and breath.

trust yourself. if she is ill, take her to a&E

try the coffee - its a miracle i swear to god

I could have wrote your post my DD (8) is the same.
She has flu about 7 weeks ago and is now off her food and very thin she also has a nighttime cough.
The doctor said the same to me about increasing brown inhaler.
Hope she gets better soon and if you can get hold of any medised it has given dd a couple of peaceful nights she still coughed a little but went into a deep sleep and seemed more with it the next day thanks to a decent nights sleep.

DS has had this every winter (usually starts about October) for the past 3 years, he is 4.

What i have found helps.
Keep heating off in his room.
He seems to have excess salivation/nasal drip so i give him otrivine nose drops before bed.
Sometimes give calpol night which has an antihistamine in it and dries everything up.(have to lie about his age to get it of course)

I give his blue inhaler a lot more often, for some strange reason the brown one seems to make cough worse.
Sometimes he needs a short course of steroid tablets or an antibiotic.

He looks desperate as well, dark under his eyes and very tired when we having a bad week. So the GP is talking shite as it has everything to do with it, hello if you are not sleeping of course you will feel awful.

DS can sometmes not settle till around 3/4am and we have to sit him up holding him.
Misses a lot of nursery etc as just so exhausted with it.

Most GP's do not seem to have a clue about childhood Asthma or the seriousness of it, not fun to have your child gasping for breath half the night.

I also think the brown inhaler makes dd cough more whenever she has it she seems to have a coughing episode.