Croup asthma or something else?

[Tiddlesem]

My daughter who is nearly 4 has been sick for weeks now. She was initially checked out by the GP who prescribed a blue inhaler as we noticed her cough was being triggered when she was outside in the cold, running around and at nighttime. It has been a massive struggle to get her to take the inhaler involving having to hold her down as she just refuses. I haven't really noticed a difference since she started it.

Now over the past 3 days it has become more persistent. She has been coughing more throughout the day. She had a temp of 40.1 yesterday which came down with nurofen But was fluctuating up and down yesterday and today. Went back to GP they said it was viral and to keep up the nurofen. They said not pneumonia which I was concerned about.

The coughing is the worst at night time. Within an hour or less of falling asleep she will wake with an a extremely bad coughing fit that can last for a while. This will happen on and off for hours. Then she will eventually settle and sleep for a strectch through the night. We have been using vicks plug in, a humidifer, hoovering and damp dusting to make sure it's nothing triggering her cough.

I think she should be seen in hospital but my partner disagrees. In general she is lethargic, not eating as much but still eating bits here and there, drinking and pooing fine. What do others think? Any ideas what it could be?

Call 111 and seek their advice, it's a very high temperature and an illness that long is probably worth investigating. They'll be better to advise and put your mind at rest than anyone on here (unless you are lucky enough to have a health worker respond!)

So it could be that she was having problems already but in the last few days has come down with something as well.

DS has cough variant asthma and is always worse when ill.

It is really hard to get them to take an inhaler at this age. We had to hold him down to start with, the blue inhaler to start with didn't much it wasn't until he went onto a preventative inhaler that it was really recognised as asthma as that helped.

I would go back to the GP.

"coughing is the worst at night time. Within an hour or less of falling asleep she will wake with an a extremely bad coughing fit that can last for a while. This will happen on and off for hours. Then she will eventually settle and sleep for a strectch through the night. We have been using vicks plug in, a humidifer, hoovering and damp dusting to make sure it's nothing triggering her cough."

Has this just been the last few days or the whole 3 weeks?

A blue is a reliever, it is meant to help in the moment, she should be on a red/brown steroid to treat the coughing if they expect asthma.

My son has cough variant asthma, it took a long time to be diagnosed and it was MN that identified it.

I could of course be wrong , so give 111 a call but push for a steroid inhaler if nothing else is offered- the risks in the short term of using is minimal.

Cross posted but agree with @MigGirl

My son has croup and asthma. The sound of the croup cough is quite distinct; you can probably find a video online. The asthma cough is more about the timing than the sound. Definitely keep calling 111 until you get an answer. We got a pulse oximeter after the first time we needed an ambulance and that’s been really useful as often lethargy or irritability lead me to test and find it’s too low.

Yes a pulse oximeter is very helpful. DS doesn't get weasy (which is what regular asthma sounds like) until he already needs extra steroids. His cough just gets worse and worse.

But knowing his blood oxygen level is really helpful as I then know if he needs to see the doctor.

@MigGirl Did his doctor advise you use the monitor? We were told not to as asthmatics can have good saturation until they very suddenly don't, so can have good levels even when they need a&e.
I'm curious if this isn't the universal advice?

Yes I actually have a pulse oximeter but of course I couldn't find it today so have ordered another one. @Quickredfox can I ask what you mean about the timing of the asthma? @MigGirl the cough has been going on for weeks now. Night time coughing that sounded like a croup cough initially, very barky but that went away very quickly and then became more of a dry cough. No wheeze either. but I believe you could be right that maybe she has just picked something else up that has exacerbated it.

We only have a blue inhaler currently. Would she need the brown inhaler also? I'm really unsure of what to do next. She is asleep with DH right now. She has coughed so badly that she has vomited.

Should her room be heated during the night? We usually have it on for a few hours but her room gets very hot and not sure if that's making it worse.

I have a feeling something in her room is triggering her cough more as when I was hoovering and dusting her room today she came in and had a complete coughing fit. She was so sad and said "I don't know what's going on". Horrible seeing her struggle so much

Yes brown is what stops it, they call it a preventer. My child coughed all night and constantly during things like swimming lessons and was lethargic. Brown inhaler changed all that.

Asthma and allergies are bed fellows. Try damp dusting as well.

Should her room be heated during the night? We usually have it on for a few hours but her room gets very hot and not sure if that's making it worse.

I find heated air makes me worse. I really struggle going into some shops in winter due to their heating. Make her room cool but give her extra blankets or a covered hot water bottle instead.

Edit. When you dusted and hoovered her room did you have her windows wide open? Again, I find it helps me a lot.

my 7 yo has had a cough for over a month now. A cold triggered it than it died down to just on waking but she has another cold now so it’s worse 😞
I wondered if asthma as she suffered a lot from viral wheeze and a few bouts of pneumonia and broncilitis when a toddler but the dr said chest clear and just use blue inhaler. She has that already for food allergies. Such a worry.

She could be reating to the dust. DS also has a dust mite allergy the biggest thing that helped him was removing as much soft furnishings from his room. He has no carpet a blind no curtains, we limited him to 3 teddies and rotated them so they go in the freezer ever few weeks. But I stopped doing his teddies a while ago now as he's a lot more stable now he's older.

I also got him a hepa filter originally for his room. Cold air makes him worse, as long as it's not chilly in the room it should be fine.

DS is always more prone to vomiting then the rest of us and when a bit younger would cough so much he would vomit. Oddly enough DH had similar symptoms as a Child but his mother refused to put him on steroids, luckily northing bad happened to him. I don't think they new much about cough variant asthma then as they never suggested asthma.

@LittleGreenDragons we initially had issue with heating, but I think it's because of dust. When ever I took DS somewhere more sterile, doctors/hospital than his coughing always got better. Even in the summer anywhere with aircone really helped.