Cough and Ceiling Fan

[Lew in Georgia]

My five year old daughter was diagnosed by her pediatrician as being "borderline" asthmatic. When she gets a "cold" or has respiratory episodes causing a cough, it gets pretty bad. Sometimes  coughing every two or three breaths and eventually vomitting. She is treated with pulmicort respules and xopenex in "breathing treatment" form and also a phenylhistine/delsam cocktail at night. These treatments seem to have about a 35% success rate.
My daughter sleeps in the bed with my wife and I which I know is a whole other topic. My wife insists on having our ceiling fan on high-speed, year-round, due to what she describes as the air being stuffy and her (my wife's) "inability to breathe" otherwise. My question is can or does a high output fan or other source of blowing air affect a cough? I say yes and my wife says no. We've been married seven years and I'm hoping this is going to be the first time I've been right :-). It's one of our biggest arguments, for which I am thankful, but sometimes the arguments are not very pleasant, such as the one we had at 4:02 this morning. Please help.

[National Jewish]

Maybe year eight of your marriage will be the one in which you will finally be right.  The fan probably has little to do with creating the cough or making it worse.  Asthma often occurs in young children with a respiratory infection.  However it is not absolute that if cough is the only symptom, that this is asthma.  This is particularly true if the medication only works 1/3 of the time.  Asthma should respond much better than this.  I would discuss the diagnosis more with your daughter’s doctor.  Also work with her doctor on both preventative and treatment options.  One possible test might also include a CT of the sinuses, as this is the most common cause of this type of cough in 5-year-old children.

[myproblem]

Having the fan on high all the time could be drying out your daughter's throat. This is especially true if she tends to sleep with her mouth open a lot. If she has a cold, or is stuffed up, this is pretty likely. Has your daughter been to a pediatric pulmonologist? It doesn't sound like her meds are helping enough (with or without the fan) Try convincing your wife to sleep with the fann off for 3-4 nights. If it is too stuffy for her, she might want to sleep in another room for a few nights. Just get her to give it a try, and see if it helps. This could be a good reason for your daughter to move up to her own room. In any case, a humidifier might help.

[Canyon711]

It could also be blowing pollen, dust,etc around and insighting allegies to kick up. I cannot sleep with a fan on in my room unless it is an airpurifier type. Maybe you should try one of the Honeywells that has a fan but purifies the air. I think your wife should do as suggested and turn if off a few nights or sleep in another room. Maybe it is just too crowded in the bed and not enough O2 around you all.

[Duchess47]

I agree that the ceiling fan definitely stirs up dust not to mention how utterly full of dust the fan blades themselves have on them.