Both of my sons have asthma - the oldest was severe when he was little. And asthma can greatly affect performance in school. If you're not getting enough oxygen, the brain just doesn't function as well.
Albuterol and steroids are good to stop an ongoing flare, but what you may want to ask your doctor about is adding a medication to prevent an attack. Every attack leaves scar tissue on the lungs, so prevention should be the goal. The oldest did well on Advair while the youngest has responded better to Singulair.
The "asthma cough" is the body trying to force air out through an inflamed airway. It is an indication that the asthma flare is not under control. We fought our insurance and got a portable, ultrasonic nebulizer and found that using nebs instead of puffs helped immensely. Nebs are far more effective than puffers, but insurance will try to keep you in a puffer since they're cheaper. We also used a stethoscope and O2 Saturation meter with the youngest since his 2E coordination issues make getting accurate readings impossible any other way.
DM me if you have more questions, I've done the whole all-night ER visits and other exciting things that come with managing asthma and am happy to share what worked and didn't work for me.
