Does my 3 year old have Asthma ?

My 3 year old daughter has been coughing at night time and complaining that she has a bloked nose, this has been going on since September when she started Pre-School.

She has had numerous colds as well during this time which was originally put down to having a low immune system and she was probably picking up these virus from Pre-School. I was asked to keep a diary of these episodes and in February we were given Amoxocillin after taking this for 7 days we had 7 days with no coughing and no cold, she then woke up with cold and the coughing started again.

Last week our GP said that she thinks it may be asthma as her dad had childhood asthma. We were given a Salamol Easi Breathe Inhaler with a spacer and was told to speak to the nurse to show us how to use it. I have queried this with our GP as she only seems to cough at night and doesn't wheeze at all and doesn't cough when exercising I was told to give the inhaler a try and continue keeping a diary, if the coughing doesn't stop she will reasses her and there is no point in sending her for a chest x-ray as this will not show anything. We do not have an asthma nurse at our practice and i'm still waiting for a call to find out which nurse is the best one to speak to !!

I've read through posts on this site and I'm thinking that it may not be asthma as other children's symtoms seem to be more than just a night time cough also the fact that she has a blocked nose at night doesn't seem to be a symtom I've asked our GP about this and she doen't seem to know either. We have used the inhaler but that doesn't stop the cough. Can anyone help ?

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Hi, I don't know if this will help or not! But I have asthma and so does my son. Both our symptoms are different but there are some that are the same. Confusing I know! This might sound yucky, I tend to get alot of mucas, I have to 'cough' it up every so often, well all day,but I dont wheeze during the day unless I have an attack, I'm more likely to wheeze at night-but be aware you dont always hear tightness in the chest. i get a blocked nose all the time - now this is because my asthma is mainly 'allergic' asthma which means certain things can trigger it off. It might be worth asking your doctor to refer you to the hospital ent for an allergy test. I had one done, and it found I'm allergic to grass and tree pollen alot! Dustmite, Cats hair-badly! And dog hair. Other things they test for is Black mould (like stuff that can appear around window frames, or damp on walls) feathers, other pollen types etc. I also have a problem with my eustacion tube in my inner ear- your nose ear and throat are all connected- my eustacion tube doesn't open and close properly which means i get noise and excess fluid in the ear- of which the hospital said could be contibuting to my cough and blocked nose. My son has allergies-hayfever and dustmite but his asthma is severe when he has colds. he used inhalers from the age of 3 when he had colds. He was only diagnosed with asthma aged 7 after a spell in hospital.

But I think the best advice i could give, on experience, (unless you have done it already!) is to ask for a referral to the ENT (Ear,nose,throat) department at the hospital- get an allergy test AND they are doctors that specialise in this area best. If she has an allergy-then there are medicines that can control it and reduce symptoms.

Good Luck hun, hope its not asthma and something that can be resolved for your little girl xx

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Hello Freya's Mum, my lad doesn't wheeze (only rarely i.e. usually when he's having an asthma attack), there was a blog on Asthma UK recently about the no-wheeze issue that you might find useful

blog.asthma.org.uk/wheezing....

And night time coughing is in fact a clue that it could indeed be asthma, especially in children (especially as she's not wheezing). At night time in the small hours, the airways in all of us narrow, and it's this that can contribute towards the night time cough.

Re the constant colds - I said the same thing to our asthma nurse and she said that it wasn't colds (as he wasn't particularly ill and didn't have temps etc) but that it was rhinitis. We knew that he had dust mite allergy and this is what's causing the rhinitis, which in turn was triggering his asthma. She prescribed an anti-histamine and it's made a massive difference.

Hope the info's useful!

Lx

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Thank You

Hi,

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, they are very useful as I still cannot get an answer from our surgery as to which nurse is going to be the best one to speak to regarding Freya's asthma and as it is something that I have never had experience of before I felt a bit lost. I think the next step is an allergy test.

Thanks again

Kelly x