snowdrift

I wonder if I'm seeing asthma in my daughter just because I have it, or if I need to somehow get better care for her.

About a year ago, my daughter started coughing at night. Most nights she has a couple of coughing fits. They wake her up frequently. It is worse when she goes to bed agitated or upset (she a toddler--bedtime is not always something she is happy about).

Twice now, he doctor has insisted it's probably allergies, and the coughing is at night because of post-nasal drip. The coughing gets worse when she has a runny nose or obvious congestion, but is present frequently when she appears well and uncongested. It is a dry cough, sometimes hacking.

Sometimes she coughs so much that she throws up.

She has no known allergies, although she often has patches of dry skin on her extremities. That has developed over this past winter. I figured it was dry skin, but it is very patchy, and although it isn't really visible, now that the warmer, more humid weather is here, I wonder if it isn't mild eczema, because it is patchy, and regular moisturizer doesn't seem to help.

She has a another regular check up coming up soon, but I am already discouraged, as I'm pretty sure her doctor is going to send us home with more allergy meds that don't help and my poor kiddo will keep coughing almost every night.

I can't get access to a pulmonologist, much less a pediatric pulmonologist for her without a referral, even if we paid out of pocket, which would be a hardship. We could switch to a different primary doctor I guess. I've actually delayed some of her vaccines recently because with the nightly coughing I'm worried that even a common, mild reaction could make her really sick. I hate to see this happening, and I'm terrified that she'll end up having a full-blown asthma attack at daycare or something.

But maybe I'm just being nutty and assuming it must be asthma because I have asthma. It just doesn't seem like post-nasal drip makes sense considering how persistent it is, and how its mostly unaffected by obvious changes in how congested she is. The patchy dry skin could be allergies, which could make asthma or another kind of allergic reaction more likely.

I doubt it is reflux, because she has never complained of pain at all, and rarely vomits and even as an infant never spit up much--most babies and toddlers with reflux seem to have a lot of pain, fussiness and picky eating habits, or at least that seems to be the case in all the kids in our circle who have reflux problems.

Ideas?