is this really asthma?

My Daughter(6) has been diaognosed with asthma after having a cough since last october, this cough is more like throat clearing does'nt happen when she is asleep, but does get worse in the car, or if she goes outside in the cold. She has been taking brown and blue inhalers 2 puffs 4 times a day for the last week and I can see no improvement. The doc can't hear any wheeziness, she does'nt complain about her chest. She only says that she has spit in her throat which makes her cough. I originally said to the doctor that I thought it was a habit but he said asthma straight away. If it was asthma then surely the medication would have had some effect by now would'nt it, does anyone have any ideas? She was really getting quite distressed in the car today becasue she was coughing so much.

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Hello, sorry to hear your having a bad time of it at the moment. Have you tried ringing the Asthma Helpline? you get to speak to a Nurse and they are brilliant they have helped me a real lot. The brown inhaler takes 2 weeks to take full effect. One of the symptoms of asthma is coughing and bringing up phlemg, i know its not very nice but i get lots of white phlemg and cough my hat off if i go outside and its cold , or in the car if someone puts the heater on i cough a lot and bring up lots of phlemg.

Hope someone comes along soon with more 'medical' knowledge than me and hope your daughter and you are okay and if it is asthma hope you both come to terms with it, take good care, Lois

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Hi Billy1,

I've an idea that it could be something called post nasal drip. It varies slightly from person to person, and I certainly have a version of it. Does your daughter cough or notice the feeling of 'spit' in the back of her throat when tries to fall asleep at night or when she wakes up in the morning? Does her nose run when she eats? Does she sniff?

Mine tends to affect my nose more than my throat (but then I have allergic rhinitis too), but my mum coughs quite a lot whithout an apparent cause and we think its down to PND. If your daughter isn't responding to the asthma medications after about 2 weeks, then its probably not her airway, and so asthma is less likely.