Does my daughter have Asthma?

Hi all I'm new here.

My daughter is 5 years old. She has never been the world's wellest child having suffered from severe silent reflux from 5 weeks old but this got better at about 18 months although she still suffers from it esp when she is ill.

I went to the doctors a while ago and mentioned that she gets this cough and it seems to go on forever even when she doesn't seem to have anything else wrong with her such as a cold or anything. Then it goes away for months and I forget about it, then it comes back again, this has seemed to go on for a couple of years and I put it down to her reflux as the cough was always worse at night and in the morning.

But the last time I took her to the doctor for an ear infection I mentioned she had this cough again and the dr said if it didn't go away to try an Asthma pump! The thought she had asthma never even crossed my mind. Anyway she had some anti-biotics and the cough went again.

But now its back again! She seems well in herself at the moment apart from this blasted cough! This morning she was bad again coughing but a few hours after she had been up she seems fine again, no coughing all day :/ I shall see if she starts coughing again tonight.

She seems to be ok in other respects, I don't notice that she gets out of breath altho she does complain if we walk for long periods of time that she is worn out and wants to be carried but I assumed most children do this so I'm not sure what to think.

Is it possible that the only symptom of Asthma could be a cough? I have no idea as I have never suffered from it and neither has her dad, yet I don't want her to have to try pumps if it makes no difference, any advice would be awesome!

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i mainly had a cough for about a year was given antibiotics and told chest infections, then one dr who i worked with even sugested had i been checked for TB, because a cough shouldnt last for a year, after few xrays consultant told me i had asthma, its mainly at night but very bad through the day too as not yet settled, and just had a cold, i would ask gp and drs to investigate further, people used to comment that i always had a ""cough"" at least if you get it investigated properly it can be treated sooner x

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Hi Taya, I'm new too but felt i had to reply to your post. Based on our experience I would say it's entirely possible your daughter has asthma. Mine used to get an awful cough that went on for ages after every chest infection or cold. It didn't respond to normal medicines. Once a doctor suggested it could be asthma & that we should try an inhaler, but I panicked at the idea of steroids & we didn't go any further. When she went to high school she then got a cold (series of... actually) & had a terrible cough that drove us all mad with the barking & hacking. Also lost her voice for weeks & weeks. Finally the school nurse suggested forcibly that she go to be tested, and when she did the nebuliser breathing test, she was about 20% improved afterwards, which means that she had a positive response to the drug. Asthma confirmed. She had been complaining of feeling breathless when they did running at school, but i just thought she was unfit. Never any asthma ""attacks"", wheezing, or saying she couldn't get her breath, so I really felt terrible realising it had been there all along. However I now realise that many people only get asthma after certain ""triggers"", which in her case was mildly on exercising, but much worse after a viral infection. We just had a really bad bout at Christmas, after a cold, but now she is much improved. A spacer has made all the difference when using inhalers (something else I didn't realise). I would say get your daughter tested with the breathing/nebuliser test, & read everything on here to learn about triggers & what you need to watch out for in your case. And good luck!