Five year old non stop dry cough

[Bettynano]

I'm at the end of my tether. Our five year old has had 7 asthma "flares" since starting school in September. The asthma nurse tells us we have to manage these with ventolin. They last three to four days, he coughs absolutely non stop, gets out of breath talking and doesn't sleep. They refuse to prescribe oral steroids as they don't hear a wheeze. His preventer medication is flixotide,sorry, it's seretide two puffs daily. We honestly feel like home schooling is the only way to stop him suffering so much. Please, anyone any advice? Experience???

[Bevvy]

Suggesting you speak to helpline team here. They are asthma nurses and will be able to give medical advice. Personally I would have thought (but am not a medic) that taking him out of school would be one of the worse things you could do. Even young children without asthma pick up all the bugs going around. It’s vital for their immune system to develop unless they are immunocompromised for some reason. Whilst I’m sure it is extremely distressing hopefully with the right management he and you will get some relief.

[Poobah]

Definitely talk with one of the Asthma UK nurses about this in order to arm yourself with with how to deal with your GP surgery to get some targeted treatment for your son. Ideally, you should have an asthma plan for your son, agreed with your asthma nurse or doctor. This then gives agreed step up treatment for flare ups that you can start quickly at home and when to seek intervention from the GP if the step up treatment isn't enough to get things under control.

Ventolin is very short term (up to 4 hours) and is really only a stop gap. Not every asthmatic wheezes during a flare up or an attack, so I can feel your frustration with your asthma nurse who appears to be taking a less than urgent attitude to your son's health and well-being. Things are definitely not under control and prevention treatment should be achieving this without so much dependence on Ventolin.

My mum used to do a little physiotherapy with me when I was ill and I found this really helpful as a kid. The paediatric team I saw included a physio and they shared some useful tips with my mum. Specialist respiratory physiotherapists are definitely part of the armoury when it comes to asthma care.

This is a great tool in knowing what you should be expecting from your GP team; asthma.org.uk/advice/child/...

Edit: ask Asthma UK about cough variant asthma.

All the best.

[Bettynano in reply to Poobah]

Hi, yes, Asthma UK are amazing, phoned them today.

[Bettynano in reply to Poobah]

Thanks for your reply.

[Bettynano in reply to Poobah]

Thanks for your detailed and helpful reply.

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

Hi, I would agree with others that calling the helpline is a good first step: 0300 2225800 or WhatsApp [phone] Monday-Friday 0915-5pm. They should be able to advise on what you can do and how to aproach it with the asthma nurse - perhaps seeing a GP instead might be better, if she's not budging? Or is the GP also refusing because no wheeze?

Whether or not he needs oral steroids, it does sound like his preventer at the moment is just not up to the task. So if nothing else, they should be sorting that out, but they seem to be just stuck on no wheeze.

This myth about asthma always has a wheeze/no need to do anything if no wheeze really needs to go yesterday - it is ridiculous and still causes too many problems! I believe children also are especially prone to coughing more with their asthma - I know I did, and thankfully the GP knew that when I was diagnosed.

I hope you find something to help him soon.

[Bettynano in reply to Lysistrata]

Thank you, I appreciate your reply.

[Mandevilla]

I would second (third? fourth?!) the advice to call the helpline. Not only because they are great at giving helpful advice to you personally, but also because they can also suggest what you should be getting from your GP. My GP is useless, but I find that if I ring the surgery and say "I was talking to the helpline and they suggested..." then he tends to listen!

[madamestephens]

Quick reply as am at work. My son is 8 now but was similar age 4. Didn't settle until he got twice daily Clenil. Then came back 18mths later and needed Montelukast tablets adding. Agree about phoning Asthma UK line, making notes with their help to plan what to say to doc. Also, I spent one sleepless night countng gaps between coughs to show doc what I meant by "constant coughing" e.g "2am five coughs, 90 secs quiet, 30 secs coughing, 1 minute quiet, etc"

[Bettynano in reply to madamestephens]

Many thanks for your reply. Yes, I agree that until you've listened to constant coughing you don't really understand it or realise just HOW constant we're talking.

[Gareth57]

I am not recommending not using inhalers or medications and this is not a recognised therapy, but when I was that age we did not have inhalers and somehow my father learnt how to make me not over react, and to distract my attention from the asthma preventing it from escalating, it didn't always work as I have vague memories of some horrendous attacks but it did work quite often.

Asthma is still something I try to mentally play down and treat as an inconvenience as much as possible.

I hope you can get your boy sorted soon.

[Bettynano in reply to Gareth57]

Thanks Gareth. I'm sure that could be a useful method. Just want him to have a more "normal" childhood and to not be affected by what for most children would just be a runny nose.

[ReedB]

All brilliant advice above but just wanted to add that my son (now 6 yrs) is very similar in that he doesn't wheeze just coughs and coughs. I've often wished he didn't have to go to school because he'd get every cold going and always had more time off because he'd be chesty with it. I'm asthmatic too and don't wheeze so thankfully our gp knew what he was dealing with and gave prednisolone to calm the flare and started clenil which is really helping. I hope you can get the help he needs. It's very hard existing with no sleep!

X

[Bettynano in reply to ReedB]

Thank you and i assume these flare ups don't happen as frequently now?

[ReedB in reply to Bettynano]

We've noticed a huge improvement. If he does happen to catch a cold it doesn't seem to cause days/weeks of chesty symptoms and I'm more reassured to see him run around outside and not get out of breath.

[Bettynano in reply to ReedB]

Oh that's good for him and your family also gives me hope, thanks so much.

[mylungshateme]

I absolutely understand your frustration we are going through similar 😞. Been in hospital twice and called paramedics once since sept starting school, had croup again, and had viruses back to back. It's no joke. We too have questioned home schooling, and we have the same "no wheeze must be viral" he's been on montelukast twice an taken of twice due to side affects, which outweighed the good it did. Due to him being small can't have the next inhalers not licenced for his size we're stuck on clenil 100 bd, an ventolin most of the time 4-6 puffs 4hrly as per respiratory advice for him (when start of virus vent 4 hrly to keep on top of it) he's barely been of ventolin since sept. I wash curtains etc monthly and teddies to get rid house dust mites but on skin prick test was negative. There's positive cases of scarlet fever in school, and so worried were thinking of taking him out until after Xmas. Good luck.

[Bettynano in reply to mylungshateme]

Ah I read this and really felt for you. It's horrible and worrying, as well as frustrating as nothing really seems to do the trick. My son was put on flixotide before he turned 4 I think? Can't remember, but I would say keep asking for more, asking what else can be done. I really hope your little one has been well over Christmas. Thanks again for replying.

[Patk1]

Is he using a spacer with inhalers& is he inhaling as deeply as poss x