Seasonal Respiratory distress

[lprae]

I have a son who is now 5 years old.  When we moved into our present house it was the summer he turned 1.  That winter he developed in the evenings a heavy wet sounding cough.  Trips to the doctor's office did not produce much except a perscription for Albuterol Liquid.  In the spring about 2 months after the onset of the cough it disappeared.
The next two winter (2 & 3 yrs old) the cough returned directly after coming down with a cold in January/February.  It persisted for many months and again cleared once spring/summer came.  Going to the doctor she insisted it was viral and nothing could be done as far as anti-biotics.  As the months progressed the cough worsened, although it would not wake him up, it still interupted his sleep horribly and began to affect his personality during the days.  He would get very tired in the afternoons and a little bit moody (he stopped napping when he turned 2, but was now laying on the floor in the afternoons).  I began to give him over the counter allergy medications which would relieve him of some of the heavier wet sounding chesty coughs for a few hours at night.  Some coughing would happen during the day and quite often after running around.  On one occasion he was runnning around the house and began having a coughing attack and then threw up from the force of the coughing.  
Last winter (4 yrs old) he again began his battle with evening coughing in December after catching a cold (which may or may not be a cause).  This lasted well into April.  The worst part is the mornings would be a fit of coughs to clear himself.  I began to notice how exhausted he was by afternoon (especially after pre-school) and that he would get flush in the cheeks after physical activity.  I then scheduled an appointment with a different pediatrician to get another opinion, she said she heard slight wheezing in his chest but did not sound too bad.  She prescribed Q-var and albuterol pumps (with a mouth peice and tube).  She said to give doses in the am and pm.  I began this routine and found not long after that my son was affected by this medication and made him very jittery and changed his personality (he began biting, getting aggrevated and hitting - which he did not do prior).   So after a few weeks I reduced it to the evenings and after month and a half I took him off.   I talked to my regular pediactrician and asked her if bringing him to an allergist would help find a reason for this, and she mentioned that doing tests at this age is not quite accurate and advised that putting him through a battery of test for not an accurate result was not deemed logical at this time.     By this time - Spring had come and the cough dissappeared.
So here we are - my son is now 5 and his cough has already begun this season.  A week and a half ago (Oct 5th) he began clearing his throat (like he has post nasal drip).  I began to give him Claritin for children in an attempt to stave off anything.  And 4 nights ago his evening cough reared it's ugly head!  He has his morning cough clearing session already too!  When he giggles to hard during the day - his wheezing is pretty heavy and eventually he has a coughing fit.  And again he gets very flush after physical activity.  
I continued Claritin until this evening - for his cough is very heavy and wet even with it.   So this evening I gave him Robitussin Allergy and Cough formula along with two puffs of his Albuterol directly before going to sleep - so far he has only had two serperate coughs this evening and I have been listening since 7:30pm and it is now 11:45.  This is great news to my ears especially because the incidents of coughing where after 11 pm (and I know he has gotten atleast a few hours of uninterupted sleep.
My question is, do you think this is allergy related, illness related or asthma related respiratory distress?

[ahmays]

when i came across your post, it seemed as if i could have wrote this myself.  my daughter has the same thing.  it started when she was 2 wks. old.  she developed this cough.  first sounded kind-of croupy.  My daughter is four now.  We live in Wisconsin - every time the weather changes for the winter season it starts.  first it's the sneezing, & then the clearing of the throat for a couple of days, it then turns to the running nose for about 4 days, & then the cough for the next 1 1/2 - 2 months.  my daughter has been to the allergist (negative), ear, nose, throat doctor (where they stuck a camera down her to see if anything was abnormal (no), all kinds of x-rays (chest & mri) - negative, gi clinic (did the berrium juice test - not sure if i spelled it right) - negative, & finally the pulmonary doctor that took a camera down to her lungs & did a lung wash to test for disease (negative).  Her primary doctor gave us albulteral & pulmicort.  the allergist suggested we use the pulmicort twice a day when the seasons begin to change even before she shows symptoms.  neither really works. everyonce in awhile it doesn't go full blown.  everyone treats is like asthma but doesn't want to call it asthma.  pulmonary doctor says she doesn't have asthma.  ear, nose,  throat doctor wanted to do an adnoidectomy - we go for an office visit where she's telling us she's gonna discharge us - then we get a call from the same office the following week talking about setting up a time to do this surgery.  i figured the office got my daughter's file mixed up with someone else because we were just in there.  she insisted she didn't.  i went online and read about this procedure and after discussing it with her father - decided against it.  the reasons stated for doing this procedure didn't match my daughter's circustance.  i don't want to think they were gonna cut on my daughter just for the money knowing it wasn't the right treatment for her.  i hate the thought of doctor's using my daughter for a test subject.  All in all - they don't know what causes her cough every winter.  sometimes when her cough gets real bad and includes alot of mucus build up, her doctor will give her prednisolone.  this usually gives a noticable improvement by the 3rd day.  the cough will usually go away about 1 1/2 months after it started.  she gets a break for a few weeks, and then we start all over again starting with the sneezing and so forth.  it's so frustrating that they don't know the cause of this.  i get tired of explaining to people that she's not sick - she gets this cough every year.  As you said, when the season changes again & the warm weather comes in - the cough disappears again.  I know my comment wasn't helpful, but i wanted you to know that you are not the only person with a child that has this condition.  Talking to professionals & other parents - makes you think your child is the only one with this.  I'm going to put your post in my favorites - hopefully you will check back from time to time.