Newly diagnosed toddler- I don't know what to think...

Hello,

I have a 2 year old son, who has had a constant cough now for about 8 months. During the winter months, I pretty well ignored it, as he had cold after cold at the same time, and despite being wheezy at times, I didn't take him to the gp due to past experience of being told ""oh, its viral, give calpol"" etc etc

Fast forward to March of this year. All cold symptoms had vanished, and stayed away for 6 weeks by this point. The cough was still with us, but had developed a pattern of only being at night and during exertion. At this point, we went to gp who said it sounded like classic asthma, but at just 2, its too hard to diagnose. He gave us ventolin to use at night and the sudden improvement was dramatic. Still coughing during exertion though. We went back and saw asthma nurse a week later who also said she thought it was asthma, and introduced the steroid inhaler - clenil. We used that along with ventolin for a week, then on her direction, withdrew the ventolin. We went straight back to square one, so ventolin was reintroduced, morning and night, and several times during the day as well. After a couple of weeks things seemed to settle, so ventolin was slowly removed again. Hooray, no coughing at all, thought we'd cracked it, asthma nurse said we could wean off clenil in 3 months, all seemed well in the world - until 4 days later.

The cough was back, but worse than ever, when he wasn't coughing, his whole chest vibrated, we were up every 4 hours at night giving ventolin only to get a couple of hours relief in return. After 7 days of no improvement, I got an emergency appt with nurse, who doubled the dose of clenil. 5 days on, no real improvement, so been back today to see same nurse who said she didn't know what to do now and sent us down to see the duty doctor.

Duty doctor hadn't read any of his notes, so had to start right at the beginning. I probably missed bits out, and got the impression that she wasnt convinced as his chest was clear and he hardly coughed in the surgery. She did however prescribe montelucast to start tonight as well as sticking with clenil and ventolin.

That is a very long summary of an even longer story - and I just don't know what to think now. My little one doesn't look ill at all, he is like any other active toddler, but this cough hinders him so much, he can't walk up the high street, bounce on the bed, be tickled, run round, cry or sleep through without coughing- sometimes til he's sick. And it seems to be getting worse, despite what they try.

Would be so grateful to hear from anyone else with a similar thing going on. Our surgery have been fantastic, but I'm not sure if they think its asthma or something else.....

Thanks for reading, sorry it's so long.

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If he is worse at night and nothing would settle him, have you thought of taking him to the nearest A & E and get them to see him at his worst and see what they think, as coughing is an inconsistancy with breathing anyway its the body's natural defence.

Failing that go back to your GP and ask to be referred to a specialist its been 8 months now with no real positive answer and i know asthma is hard to diagnose but the hospital can run even more tests which GP surgery is limited on what it can offer.

Good luck

[midgie82]

Hi Katie sorry to hear your little one is poorly, we had very similar situation with our eldest. She has always been wheezy and has a horrible cough that wakes her up at night and makes her sick. Ive always been told it was a virus despite it disappearing with piriton. She was finally diagnosed with asthma at 4 a couple of months ago and given clenil and ventolin along with loratadine for her allergies & hay fever. It worked instantly and the cough went along with her nightmares & the sleepwalking until we were told to try her off it again... It has taken a few months but we have got on top of it again. Hope things improve soon hugs xxx

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Well, we added the montelukast last night, and we had a much more settled night. Woke up coughing as usual this morning, sounding as though he has been smoking 40 a day, but this settled after an hour or so.

Still coughing on exertion, and chest still sounding rattly, but I'm hoping things will improve.

Haven't considered A&E, as I don't think they would do much. The surgery have seen him a couple of times in full cough mode, but don't seem overly concerned about it. He always has a clear chest, good sats and generally looks the picture of health!

The only time he wheezes is when he has a cold.

We've also tried piriton incase the pollen was aggravating things, but this made no difference.

Hopeful things do improve soon, we go away next week, so perhaps the sea air and sunshine will clear things up....

Thanks for replies x