Toddler with Asthma treatment and diagnosis

BB_1983

Hi,
Firstly apologies for the long post but there's a good bit to get in..
H
Im just hoping to get some advice or people's own experience with this cause we are a bit lost with it.
Our 2 year old has had a really bad cough for about 4-5 months now. It generally gets worse or only appears at night. It is a really persistant, dry, hacking sort of cough and on a bad night she will be struggling and coughing all night. On a good night she might have 2 - 3 bouts of it where she will get a 15 - 20 minutes of coughing before settling again after a couple of drinks. She almost always has a really runny nose too.
We had her at the doctor around 6 weeks ago who suspected asthma and prescribed the 2 inhalers (Brown and Blue) both to be given every morning and evening. After 4 weeks of this there was no improvement or if anything it had gotten worse.
We tried stopping the inhalers for a couple of nights but with a bad night on the second night we went back using them again. We have tried various essential oils, vapo rub on feet, Manuka honey, steam etc all with no improvement.
This week the doctor prescribed her a course of steroids on top of the inhalers, starting with 3 on the first day and gradually reducing. There might of been a slight improvement for 2 nights but it was followed by 2 bad nights.
Really don't like all the medication for such a young girl and especially when it is not doing anything for her.
We have been trying to figure out if anything could be causing it,.
We moved home and started her in crèche around 6 months ago so we questioned if it may be related to them or some allergy or something. We also have a dog but he's been around since she was born and this is only recent.
Has anyone seen similar before or does it sound like asthma? Does these treatment seem standard even though it has not helped? If asthma would it usually improve quickly with the treatment?
Sorry for such a long post and thanks for reading and if anyone can offer any helper advice or has experienced anything similar It would be great to hear it.

Thanks

Gatling

Sounds exactly like my 3 year old barky cough and 2 inhalers one which is a steroid,
You need to keep using the inhalers as directed seriously I wouldn't risk chopping and changing when she's using the inhalers ,
I'd look at the environment too dog and diet can pay a big part ,
If you have concerns talk to your gp and even see if they have an asthma clinic in your area to be referred to ,
Gp first