Asthma or LPR

Starting in Feb 2005 my 2.5 year old son delevoped a chough which was treated with ventolin and inhaled steriods. He does not wheeze is allways full on enery and growing normally. This helped until OCT 2005. For 1.5 months he did not respond to any asthma medication oral or inhaled. He had a constant runny nose congestion etc. In Nov we took him to an emergancy ward because the choughing was so bad. He had a completly clear chest and was not having an asthma attack. He was started on Zantac and after 3 days we noticed that his choughing had reduced considerally. We were sent to an ENT specialist who dianosoged him with LPR using a scope to look down his throat. He started him on Orgastro. After some weeks we notcied improvement just as I started beliving we had made a break through. He got a runny nose and cogestion and started choughing again. this lasted some weeks and then he settled down for a week or to then he start choughing again. All this time he was on reflux medication We took him to Venezula were he was allery tested and found to be allergic to many enviromental stuff. He also had a serious sinus infection which they treated with antibotics for 21 days. They flelt he had no asthma and no reflux.
Anyway he came home and within 1 week he was choughing again this time the only thing that helped was ventolin.His nose has cleared up.We restarted him on Zantac which helped and he settled down again. About one week ago he had a late dinner of fried food and from that night to now he seems to start choughing after meals and in the night. I am confused what do I do??

[National Jewish]

Chronic cough is a young child is always frustrating for parents.  It often takes some effort to make the diagnosis and control.  Determining if the cause of the problem is the upper or lower airways or a combination of both is the first step.  Once this is determined, directed therapy can be approached.  I would suggest seeing either a pediatric pulmonologist or pediatric allergist to start working on this process.  While it is possible that you may have to see both, one should be able to make the diagnosis after some testing.

[poolnoni]

Perhaps you should seek another opinion and also keep a journal of what your child eats, what environmental allergens trigger his coughing both inside and outside, even air conditioning. Good luck!!

[AngelMcCarthy]

Finging those type of doctors in this part of the world is difficult. To me it is so clear that he has a reflux problem. If some thing is irrating his throat would that cause it to become infamed. If ventolin is given would that not cause his airways to open. Therefore he may respond to Asthma medication

[Fritzkid]

Reflux and asthma go together.  Reflux makes asthma worse and you cough a lot and all that coughing pushes your belly up and makes you reflux more.  Treat both problems aggressively and don't worry too much about which one is bothering the other.  After your child has been "clear" for a couple of months, back off the asthma medicines a bit and see how it goes.

[AngelMcCarthy]

Good news my doctor finally convinced herself that my son had a reflux problem and decided to treat it aggressivly with Orgastro, and Domperidone. Well guess what folks he has stopped choughing