Childhood asthma... Humidifiers and other qns.

Hey guys,

DS has asthma...well, we don't have an 'official' diagnosis, but the Resp specalist we are seeing says she can't give us one until he is 5 and she can do more testing, and he hasn't had an asthma attack as yet.

He is on flixotide 2 puffs twice daily, which has changed him from waking up every single night for 8 months coughing, to being able to sleep through, and he doesn't has such a wet cough all the time anymore. When we gets a cough he apparently has a wheeze, but i can hear it?

Anyway, when we had a sleep study done it was very warm in the hospital (he was off the flixotide for a few days to see what happen (which i know found out he has to be off it for a while to get it all out of the system), and he still slept through perfectly - but here if i miss a night giving it to him, he is back to coughing.

So i'm wondering what i can do to help his breathing at home? I hate putting on the heater (its not cold in their room, probably around 18deg on an average night), because i know if i sleep with the heater on all night i wake up with a headache and being so dehydrated.

What about humidifiers? What do they do? Do they work?

Anything else i can do, both in his room and general?

Thanks guys!

On coolish nights here (which is 18 degrees for us) I have used the vapouriser in Emily's room to act as a heater.
Does he sleep on a pillow? Keeping his head slightly raised is a good idea. And always keep his chest warm.
HTH.