Another night cough - asthma?

I've been reading the past few messages about night coughs and it certainly reminds me of my 3 year old too. He was diagnosed a couple of months ago after having a persistent cough (night and day) since before Christmas. He had a really bad weekend in January before the inhalers kicked in I think. We then got some steroid tablets and his cough and wheezing were much better. His asthma hasn't been bad since then and seems to have been controlled, but over the past few nights he's sometimes been coughing all night. I kept thinking he was getting a cold and he has a bit of a runny nose, but nothing to speak of. I find it very hard to understand whether his cough is asthma or not as he doesn't always wheeze. Today and yesterday he's been coughing during the day too. His blue inhaler doesn't seem to be making much difference and it seems the same sort of cough he had before he had his inhalers. How can you tell if it's asthma or not?

[yaf_user681_25874]

Hi

Best thing is probably to see your GP or nurse and get him checked out... it can be difficult to know with little ones just what the problem is, and better to be safe rather than sorry...

Coughing all night will mean his sleep and yours are disturbed too which won't help either of you, especially if he is under the weather.

Kids very often cough when asthma is not under control - its my daughter's main symptom - and they may not wheeze at all... not all asthmatics wheeze even though it is a classic symptom.

Kat

[Hidden]

hi my 3 year old dont have no wheezing with his asthma he just has a dry bad night cough also after exercise such as running around doing normal every day life things, he not long had a cough every night for a month and his blue pump also werent reliving him, so i took him back to doctors and he is now on singuair started it yesterday, so far so good but still coughing as soon as he wakes up and still coughin during playing and running around,

hope he gets better , x x x

[Hidden]

kat try telling drs that one. i don't wheeze at all therefore am sure half of docs think am putting it on!

[yaf_user681_25874]

Hi Katharine

I don't wheeze either, and neither does my daughter!!

I keep reading everywhere that asthma symptoms may include one or more of.... wheeze, cough, tightness, SOB..... so WHY do so many people assume no wheeze = no asthma

in my case it is tightness, cough, SOB and may be any or all depending on how good/bad I am my daughter is typical of many kids - she coughs all night when things get bad, and now she's getting older she can tell me things like her chest hurts (tight)

The other thing is so many people assume that a cough is contagious or hat you are a heavy smoker.... I am not, but when asthma is bad, I can sound like a sea lion that smoke 60 a day.....

Sorry if we've hijacked this Suzie, but te over riding message is really that the cough could be asthma - go get it checked out!

Kat