Here's my story and what worked for us:
When my son Ben was 4, he was experiencing all kinds or respiratory symptoms that were keeping him awake every single night for months..we tried this and that...thinking it would just go away..his vocal chords were being strained and his voice becoming hoarse..not one to run to the MD, we tried several over the counter things and different possible remedies..with no success. Finally, we did go to the MD who was perplexed. He ruled out asthma, croup etc....but did agree there was definite inflammation. He handed me a script for steroids...and we left. Instead of giving him a steroid, I was determined to find out the CAUSE. I took him to a Naturopath who determined he was sensitive to chemicals in the home. I said, "What chemicals." She said, "I don't know exactly which ones or which combinations but things from bath, body, laundry, cleaning products etc..."
If we were able to remove the 'toxic' products from our home, he would be breathing just fine. Skeptical but determined to keep him off steroids if possible, we became customers with an ecofriendly manufacturer and we were able to replace all kinds of bath, body, laundry, cleaning etc..products in one shot. To my great surprise...it worked. Within 3 days of switching out our products to these new ecofriendly ones, he finally was sleeping thorough the night, not coughing, no sniffles etc.... If I hadn't seen it myself, I might not believe. But, it's my story and I'm sticking to it! (Ben will tell you himself!) If you'd like to learn more about the products we used and how simple it was to try out....let me know and I'll fill you in. Meds are great if we truly need them, but if we can avoid them for a much simpler solution, that's the route I like to choose. Doesn't always work that way, but this time it did... by the way, the MD who gave me the steroid script was upset that I didn't follow his orders (even though he admitted that Ben seemed much improved...so we changed docs..and fortunately haven't had to visit them very often!)
He's 11 and never has had a problem since.