parent of 3year old with nocturnal asthma

[Jodavies]

my little girl has suffered for the past 12 months with a persistamt cough at night my GP is now finally thinking along the asthma lines and has staretd her on Clenil and montelukast however she still coughs all night and some nights its that bad that she says her chest hurts the priblem is as the GP only open during the day when they see her chest is clear and there is no wheeze etc. im tired worried and stressed as i hate to see her struggling like this but dont feel listened to

[Hidden]

Hi Jodavies

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you are feeling so tired and worried. It can take a while for kids under 5 to get diagnosed with asthma as it's difficult to measure how well their lungs are working because the tests that can do this aren’t suitable for small children. This means your GP may say your child has ‘suspected asthma’ for several months, or even a few years, before they can confirm or rule out a diagnosis of asthma. If this is the case your GP will decide to monitor your child, using either a ‘watch and wait’ approach or a trial of treatment. There's a few things we recommend to help you along the process:

- track her symptoms, as it sounds like you are already doing

- make sure you are using the right inhaler technique for the Clenil

There's more information here: bit.ly/2uhgAjQ and specifically about coughs and wheeze here: bit.ly/2wkDVBX

It can often take time for a child to get a definite diagnosis of asthma, so your daughter may be in the ‘suspected asthma’ phase for a long while.

Can I suggest you give our Asthma nurse team a call and talk through how you're feeling and your daughter's symptoms, they'll be able to provide advice and support. They can be reached on 0300 222 5800 (M-F, 9-5)

Take care,

Dita

[Weeannie]

Nothing worse than watching our kids suffer. My youngest was exactly the same and would cough at night until he was actually sick. I’d video it if it was nowadays (he’s 34 now so it wasn’t an option then) and take the vid in to let the doc see how bad it is x

[Krcz]

My daughter used clenil for a long time with montelukast, it didnt work. Changed it to symbicort and she is fine. Never needs to use ventolin

[ChrissieMons]

My daughter coughed for a year, then it just faded away. No idea why. Dr said 'Just one of those things' !

[123cat]

My son was the same but clenil really helped him. Maybe ask for a referral to a consultant. Have you tried raising the bed. We have blankets under the mattress on the head of the bed.

[diana-stoyanova]

I am seeing this a little bit late as it seems but given that I've had asthma since I was 2 yro (am 26 now), I think I can offer some tips to help ease your kid's struggle.

First of all, since the poor thing will most probably get worse when you put her to sleep, don't put her to sleep laying down. It sounds terrible, but I've slept in a sitting position half my childhood. It is tiring and makes the parents feel awful but it will help your little girl get at least a semblance of good sleep.

Second, make sure there are no triggers in her bedding (i.e. duck feathers - I was pretty bad with those, could definitely not sleep on them, even though I am perfectly fine with them now).

Third, which is probably obvious to all moms but I still feel I should say it - make sure there have been at least a few hours between eating and going to bed. In my humble experience, full tummy can aggravate your asthma (hell if I know why).

So far so good. Then there is also the little thing that I don't know if you can take a 3yo to a pulmonary specialist but when I was little I was consulted and even as a lot had to be synced between the pediatrician and the pulmo, they still figured out a way to treat me until I was 13 and was officially signed with the pulmo (yes, 13).

Good luck even if my advice is somewhat weird. It's from experience only and it is things that most grown ups didn't understand and had no way of knowing about.

-D