RATIONALE: Pooling data from multiple cohorts and extending the time-frame across childhood should minimize study-specific effects, enabling better characterization of the childhood wheezing. OBJECTIVE: To analyze wheezing patterns from early childhood to adolescence using combined data from five birth cohorts. METHODS: We used latent class analysis to derive wheeze phenotypes among 7719 participants from five birth cohorts with complete report of wheeze at five time-periods. We tested the association of derived phenotypes with late asthma outcomes and lung function, and investigated the uncertainty in phenotype assignment. RESULTS: We identified five phenotypes: Never/Infrequent wheeze (52.1%), Early-onset pre-school remitting (23.9%), Early-onset mid-childhood remitting (9%), Persistent (7.9%) and Late-onset wheeze (7.1%). Compared to the Never/infrequent wheeze, all phenotypes had higher odds of asthma and lower FEV1 and FEV1/FVC in adolescence. The association with asthma was strongest for Persistent wheeze (adjusted odds ratio 56.54, 95%CI 43.75-73.06). We observed considerable within-class heterogeneity at individual level, with 913 (12%) children having low membership probability (<0.60) of any phenotype. Class membership certainty was highest in Persistent and Never/infrequent, and lowest in Late-onset wheeze (with 51% of participants having membership probabilities<0.80). Individual wheezing patterns were particularly heterogeneous in Late-onset wheeze, while many children assigned to Early-onset pre-school remitting class reported wheezing at later time points. CONCLUSIONS: All wheeze phenotypes had significantly diminished lung function in school-age, suggesting that the notion that early-life episodic wheeze has a benign prognosis may not be true for a proportion of transient wheezers. We observed considerable within-phenotype heterogeneity in individual wheezing patterns.