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Children's health

At what wheezy point do you keep an asthmatic child off school?

4 replies

colditz · 14/10/2009 11:16

Ds1 has been off yesterday and today. He is cheerful and bouncy but has been very wheezy all night. He is need a fair amount of extra inhaler, and TBH I always am in two minds whether to send him in and let them deal with it.

WHat puts me off is that he is expected, in year 2, to ask for his inhalers if he needs them. He often doesn't do this, and I feel the chances of him needing them today are fairly high.

But he's not particularly ill.

What do I do?

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JodieO · 14/10/2009 11:21

I'd keep him off tbh. My dd was off for a week last month with her asthma but she was very bad by then. She was rattling when she breathed in and out and was using her inhaler every 2 hours or so, 4-6 puffs each time, plus 4 brown in the morning and night. She ended up on oral steroids and then anti-biotics as she wasn't getting better and they thought it may be an underlying infection. This cleared her up but the wheezing was very bad all week long. Kept her up coughing at night so she was tired too.

Her school also expect them to ask for medication too, she's year 3 (aged 7) and does need reminding. She's getting wheezy again now and I'm reminding her all the time to take her asthma pump at school. It is difficult but I think the wheezing makes them tired as well at times (I have mild asthma, worse as a child and I remember this).

Sorry for long post! I think you'd be right keeping him off though. Hope he improves soon.

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Pyrocanthus · 14/10/2009 11:25

Keep him off and see if you can get a doc's appointment before he gets worse. He might need extra medication.

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labyrinthine · 15/10/2009 01:16

Agree to see the dr or resp nurse to see what you should do at the start of a wheezy phase to get optimum control and minimise absences.
ds was often wheezy over days and I felt I had to keep him off as it's difficult to know if he would think to take his puffer and if it would get much worse after exercise.

Also do you find he keeps running around despite being wheezy,ds does~ in fact can be a bit hyper when wheezy sometimes.