V.K.
This sounds very much like what we went through with my son last year at 1 year old and again this winter (he'll be 2 next month). It was determined that it was asthma triggered by a simple cold (and we have NO history of asthma in our family). He doesn't have chronic asthma mind you, he's had one instance last year and one this year. He was put on nebulizer treatments which helped greatly. This winter it came on suddenly and strong so he had an oral steroid in addition to his breathing treatments. There is no way little ones should be coughing for that length of time. Sounds like he may be much like my little guy - otherwise fine but a cold may trigger him. We have a preventative treatment that we now do with him at the onset of a cold to prevent it going any further. I am very surprised that your Dr hasn't done more. Typically a barking cough is a sign of croup, which is what started this whole thing for my son at age 1. His cough sometimes sounds productive and others not so much, so it's hard to judge just by the sound of the cough sometimes. Just judging from my experience, I would do some reading online at aap.org, webmd, Dr Sears, etc (something reputable), and then I would approach the Dr again armed with some questions if it sounds like some of the signs/symptoms describe his cough. Best of luck to you - and just FYI... If it does turn out to be something like my son, it's really nothing to stress about (I practically made myself crazy reading and researching, etc only to find out that since his case isn't chronic, it's just a matter of prevention for him). And the treatments aren't a big deal either - they take about 5 minutes and he just sits with me and watches a cartoon. At first my ped office kept telling me it was a cold on top of another cold (like one ended and he got another). This didn't work for me because everyone else in the family had recovered, and in my opinion if this was a "new" cold, someone else in the house would have had it by now (I have a 4 year old too). I aksed for another Dr (there's 5 in the office) and they determined what I described above. He was better in a few days and I refuse to see that particular Dr anymore. If you're not comfortable, keep asking questions. Hope you find some answers...